Don't Think Too Much!

[mdl]

I play in a league that plays 9 holes every Wednesday night, May-August.  I've been feeling like I'm putting some things together and feel more in control of my swing, but I've had a bad habit of falling apart towards the end of my round. It's almost surely mental.  I'm in excellent shape.

I had kind of an amazing experience last week that I think might change my game significantly.  Other than summer Wednesdays, I pick up my daughter from preschool after work.  So I have to leave by 4:30.  I used that excuse to say I needed to be on the phone for a meeting with my boss 4:30-5.  Then the coordinators of my golf league put my tee time at 4:48, earlier than I'd asked for. So I put my phone on mute when I can, put on my earbuds, string them under my shirt, and tee off while trying to make sure I don't miss anything important.  I hit this shot!  Flat ground, maybe 1/2 clud downwind.

Then while still on the phone, I pitched to 3 feet and made an almost gimme birdie.  The call ended and I thought maybe forced distraction (so not overthinking) might've helped.  The rest of the round I alternated between trying to imagine a phone call happening in my head and singing a song to myself while hitting.  I shot a 39 with one double bogey that came on a par 3 where I exactly the shot I was trying to but misestimated the wind and came up short and ended up with a super unlucky lie, and two 3 putts that I don't feel too bad about because this is one of my home courses but I hadn't played in 2 weeks and the summer bake had really set in and the greens had become WAY faster than I was used to, so in the first 4 holes I pushed two putts way past the hole and 3 putted.

I finished with this drive!  This was more like a 1.5 club helping wind, with a nice big first bounce on the fairway.  But still!

Point is, being "on the phone" or singing to myself had me hitting full swings at a 35 quality!  Anyone else ever found ways to quiet the overthinking and had great results?

[Patch]

90%-95% of my golf swing thinking (focus) is done during my various practice routines. 

When I am playing for a score, I just hit the ball, go find it and hit it again. I probably focus for only about 5-10 seconds on each shot. My biggest thought is probably about club selection for the shot at hand. 

In between shots I am thinking about other non important things. I play what I call "relaxed golf". You can't have fun, if you are not relaxed.