Golf Psychology Newsletter - 28/02/05

Welcome again to the Golf Brain newsletter.

McGinley’s Moment of Destiny

One of golf’s truly magical moments was Paul McGinley’s winning Ryder Cup putt at the Belfry in 2002. Faced with a particularly tricky six footer McGinley guaranteed his place in Ryder Cup folklore by summoning incredible reserves of mental strength and by answering the ultimate golfing question of nerve the ball found the bottom of the cup and the Ryder Cup was once again in the hands of the European team.
Having worked with Paul it is fascinating to gain an insight into what was going on in his mind and just how he was able to function in such a situation. The interesting thing is that how he went about holing that putt applies just as much for the club golfer holing the winning club championship putt or even breaking 100 for the first time.

“At no time did I even consider the mechanics of the stroke, of course I knew what the putt meant and what it was for but I became ABSORBED in the line of the putt. I could see it exactly from beginning to end. My only job at that moment in time was to set the ball off on the line that I had chosen. That was the only thing that I could control”

Basically McGinley is telling us that at that ‘white heat’ moment in time he focused on what HE could do as opposed to what may or may not happen if the putt goes in. He focused on the task at hand which was to pick the line of the putt and then set the ball out on that line.

His mind filled with the image of the line of the putt was able to function as opposed to being clogged up with any thoughts of technique.

All of this backs up the research done by Dr Debbie Crews at Arizona State University who has shown the damaging effects of golfers thinking about technique under extreme pressure.

The lesson for you is that if you want to hole that vital putt focus your attention on how the ball is going to get to the hole, visualise the line clearly and then let your body take over and do the rest. Leave the technical work on the stroke for the practice green.

Effective Practice

"Sand Storm"

Most golfers are obsessed with statistics such as how many greens they have hit or how many putts they have taken out on the course. These statistics whilst very useful only tell you what you have DONE, what I would like you to start to compile is some statistics from your practice that will tell you what you are CAPABLE of doing.
To give you an idea of what I am talking about I want to introduce you to a bunker game called ‘Sand Storm’.

Basically you play this game by having 9 different bunker shots, long, medium, short, uphill, downhill, plugged etc. You play from each of nine different locations and you KEEP a SCORE.

The purpose of this game like so many others we have discussed is to put you under a degree of pressure and make your practice MORE difficult than the game itself.
A game, which played on a regular basis, will transform your level of confidence in bunkers because you will have some statistical evidence to prove that you are getting better.

Play this game once a week and keep a record of your scores.
With this record you win on two counts, if your average score comes down your belief in yourself will soar if your score don’t come down you then realise that it is time to visit your pro and work on some specific aspect of your technique.

The way of ‘Effortless Power’

In his amazing book Cheng Hsin ‘The Way of Effortless Power’ martial arts expert Peter Ralston makes the comment that ‘tense muscles are weak muscles and they forget’

What Ralston is actually saying is that when we carry too much tension in our muscles not only will we lose out in terms of distance but it is almost as though our muscles ‘forget’ how to swing the golf club, the very opposite of the concept of ‘muscle memory’

He says; “If I had ONE SINGLE principle to follow, it would be the principle of being in a state of relaxation”

Yet the problem for most people with tension is the fact that they have carried it around with themselves so long that they don’t actually know its there!
Next time you play I want you to do what I call the ‘body scan’ that is just before you play just stand still for a brief moment and notice where in your body you are carrying or holding any tension. Is it in your jaw, your arms or your shoulders? Take notice the next time you play how many golfers look to have a jaw-line the consistency of granite, especially around the first tee area!

Just take some time to actually locate the area of tightness because it will not be balanced throughout your body but held in a certain place.
Then it seems that there is a word that has a big impact on the tension once you locate its whereabouts and that is the word ‘SOFTEN’.

Simply place your attention on the area of tightness and then instruct your body to soften. Use the word each time that you feel the tightness returning. Eventually the word will become a trigger or anchor for your body to go back into a certain calm state.

You will find that not only do you feel less tired after your round of golf, you may notice the ball seems to be flying surprisingly further and even more alarming your body seems to be remembering the fluid swing that you had out on the range.


Frame Game

“The Turn”

Another commonly accepted myth within golf, that is an idea or belief that is now accepted without question, is the myth of ‘The Turn’. You play nine holes and then assess your score, where you are in relation to par and then begin again with a new nine. Very often a poor score can be turned around at ‘The Turn’ as you dust your self down and almost start all over again. Or the opposite is sometimes true when you have somebody way under their handicap at the turn only to add up their score and realise how well they are doing only to blow up completely on the last nine holes and just about scrape a score level to their handicap.

How many times have you seen or personally experienced a golfer being like Jekyll and Hide in the contrast between his front nine and back nine performance?
Yet if you come to think about it how limiting is this mindset? Why do we have to wait a full nine holes before we ‘turnaround’?

I want you to begin to think differently in so much as I would like you to imagine that instead of a front nine and a back nine that each time you play golf you have 6 separate games of three holes.

You simply allocate yourself the strokes that you are due on these holes against par and then you play six separate ‘matches’ against the course. If you lose one match then you simply turnaround and start to play another match. The aim of course in 18 holes is to win as many of these three hole matches as possible.

Time and time again I have found that players who have worked with this system have reported that their concentration levels are much better as they stay mentally fresh, they are much better able to deal with a bad hole and move on and above all it keeps their mind much more focused on the job at hand as opposed to racing into the future and predicting what score they may or may not produce.