“DON’T HIT IT IN THE POND ON THE LEFT”! “DON’T HIT IT IN THAT BUNKER ON THE RIGHT”! These are very familiar thoughts during the course of a round. I have thought them; you have thought them; everybody that plays has thought something similar at some point on the course. The problem with these thoughts, as innocent as they seem, they even seem encouraging when thinking them, is that the mind does not recognize the “DON’T” part of the thought. Even though you are trying to encourage a good shot the attention is directed to the hazard whether it be water, sand, trees, out of bounds or what have you. The focus of the mind is the hazard not that you don’t want to hit it there, just the fact that the focus is there. The mind then executes the thought, absent the “DON’T”, so in translation the driving thought of the swing you perform becomes, “HIT IT IN THE POND ON THE LEFT”! And that is what happens over and over again.
What is necessary is a mindset that does not recognize the hazards but puts the focus on the truly desired result. A thought similar to, “I want that ball in the middle of the fairway, I don’t care how it gets there”! A thought like this allows the performance mind to create and perform a swing that will produce the result. Now sometimes the ball will end up where you want with a shot that is not considered “good”, this is the hard part. When you achieve the result you desire, the way it happens needs not to matter. If you allow yourself to concern yourself with “how” it happened more than you concern yourself on the result, the mind will loose focus on the results you desired and focus more on the technique you “think” you should have used to create a “better” shot.
When you are trying to break 100, 90, 80 even 70 results are what are going to take you to the next level. There is an old saying that goes similar to this, we are not drawing pictures on the scorecard, just writing down numbers. No one cares how you shoot a score that is lower then usual, they just wish they could have done the same. I promise there are very few times one is happy with the way they played, regardless of the score and when one is, it does not last long. This holds true at every level, when you break 100 you are going to want to break 90, when you shoot even par you going to say, “I could have easily been under par”. This is evident in most interviews after a tour event, many tour players say. “They left some out there,” they could have gone lower. We are all in the same boat!
On the golf course, and in life, results are first scripted in the mind. If you can learn to see what you want to happen in the mind first, the desired result follows. I ask you to change your mind to see or at least think that what you want to happen will.
Learn to experience the power of the mind!
There is no real reason that you can’t play better golf! If you want to, than you will! We will start providing videos and products, here at LGL that will give you the tools to get as good as you want. Keep visiting and participate in upcoming surveys.
Good Golfing,
JB
On August 6, 2008, the USGA announced a rule change on golf club grooves. This rule was established or should I say re-established, because of the effect the rough was having on the tour players. The guys on tour were finding the rough not to be of any significance in the approach shot to the green. They were able to hit the ball on the green and get it to “sit down” or stay on the green. This meant that there wasn’t any fear of missing the fairway, unless in a major tournament. In a major tournament, such as the Masters, U. S. Open, PGA Championship and British Open, the rough is maintained at around four inches, if not more. At other tour events the rough is usually around two inches, if not less. In the British Open other factors such as wind, weather and basically tough venues do not warrant the necessity for a high rough. There is also a lot of unmanaged native grasses that can grow to one to two feet high, unplayable unless the ball ends up in an open spot. For most amateur players, the rough demands shots that most can’t play and presents an aspect to the game that is lost on tour, until now, hopefully.