Its all too easy to get distracted on the golf course. Hands up if you’ve ever had these kinds of thoughts:
- The way I have hit it today I should be at LEAST four under!
- How can that have missed – it should have gone in!
- This is straightforward, I should birdie this hole!
- There is no way this guy deserves to be level with me. I should be at least four up
Whenever you allow these kinds of thoughts – which are JUDGEMENTS about what you THINK the world should be like around you – you take yourself out of neutral and stop focussing on what really matters…
Your very next shot.
Worse still, these kinds of thoughts create frustration and tension, which not only ruins your enjoyment of your golf, but also impacts your performance.
Golf Mind Factor member, Matt Cooper, who has been writing up his experiences for Golf365.com gave a great example of this in his latest edition of ‘The Guinea Pig‘.
A regulation par on the 10th followed by three more successful up and downs (all for par) suggested I was pulling things around.
Cue two double bogies and the round disintegrating as I lost patience with a four-ball in front who, despite me repeatedly finishing my hole and reaching the next tee before three of them had teed off, refused to say “Hello” never mind allow me to play through them.
I know single players have no rights on the course, but, on an otherwise empty course, most people do the decent thing. This lot must have been MPs or something.
How many shots could Matt have saved on those last 5 holes by simply eliminating that ONE judgement – ‘they should let me play through‘ and staying focussed on his game?
3? 5? 8…?
What difference would saving that many shots make to your game?
It’s not easy to stay in neutral, but becoming aware of when you are not is a first step in the right direction.
See how many shots YOU can save in your next few rounds by spotting when you are making judgements and eliminating them, and please leave your comments and feedback below.
Regards,
Karl
Ps – Just published in the members area: two more tools to help you stay in neutral. Members can login here (non-members can signup for my MIND FACTOR Players Coaching programme here).
What do you think? Please comment below to tell me.
on May 13th, 2009 at 7:54 PM
An excellent message and it’s well worth devoting the enormous self-discipline required to keep in neutral. I’ll be trying!
on May 14th, 2009 at 12:53 PM
A good message.
There is no point worring about things that you have no control over.
If you do you will lose focus on the objective of playing well as you can.
It is an old cliche but you have to keep thinking of all the positives you have done and take 1 shot at a time giving each shot 100%.
It still does not mean that everything will turn out brilliant we are only human after all.
However if you can plan and commit to each shot you have a good chance of achieving better results.