Mental Game

[LoganCarr1]

Does any one have helpful mental game tips? If so please share. I am having trouble  with this aspect of the game.

I can shot an 82-86 when just playing for fun, but in tournaments I cant seem to break 100. Today I shot a 103 for an 18 hole tournament .

Anything will help,

Thanks, Logan

[pierce]

Where are you losing most of your shots? The tee, approach, short game or putting?

[Paradox]

without any more information...

The last shot is over and done with.  Focus on figuring out the most successful next shot.  Anytime I play golf with people who get themselves screwed in the head, I tell them that golf is not a perfect game and you're going to miss shots, hit bad shots, and its about how you recover from that that determines the quality of your game.  I have to remind myself of this, too :D

Another thing..just because its a tournament doesn't change the way you hit the ball.  You've played the shot before, replay them in your mind before you hit each time.  As always..the good ole....let the last thought be a positive thought.

[awmgolfer]

I give my students a handout each year with quotes from Bob Rotella's book Golf is not a Game of Perfect and Harvey Penick's The Little Red Book. Below is what I hand out to them at our first practice each year and just drill into them as much as I can.

• Golf is not a game of perfect.
• Take dead aim!
• Look at the target, look at the ball, and swing.
• First of all, have no swing thoughts whatsoever from 120 yards and in. Think only of the target.
• From inside your threshold distance, think about holing the shot.
• A person with great dreams can achieve great things.
• Golfing potential depends primarily on a player's attitude, on how well he plays with the wedges and the putter, and on how well he thinks.
• People by and large become what they think about themselves.
• A golfer can and must decide on how he will think.
• You cannot hit a golf ball consistently well if you think about the mechanics of your swing as you play.
• A golfer must train his swing and trust it.
• Before taking any shot, a golfer must pick out the smallest possible target.
• The foundation of consistency is a sound pre-shot routine.
• Attitude is what makes a great putter.
• It’s more important to be decisive about a read than correct.
• No matter what happens with any shot you hit, accept it. Acceptance is the last step in a sound routine.

[Makana81]

Just think about the players on the PGA tour...they too have bad days, bad shots, make bad choices/decisions for shots, what you have to do as mentioned earlier by others is to forget and continue to play within your own skill set.  Whether the tournament played is a single day, weekend, or even longer...each and every shot brings an opportunity of success.  Since, most people deal with stress differently during a round of golf you need to concentrate on your own pre-shot routine's and pace of play, ensure you're not influenced by players in your group; other players may speed-up, slow-down, others may take longer to decide on the proper shot/speed/club/etc...some players will do things like these to throw you off of your game.

I know it wasn't mentioned, but do you win when playing with your friends for fun and if so...carry this same bravado to your tourney's.  My friends and I wager on who's paying for lunch/a drink/or for the next round as a suggestion to get you in a more competitive state whenever you play.  The more you play in a competitive state the easier and more relaxed you become during any form of competition.

Good Luck.

[BrianJ]

This is a large problem for me as well.  A couple bad shots for me tend to snowball everything and all of a sudden my round is completely lost.  I need to work on this just as much or more than my putting and wedge play.  I feel like I've been doing better at it lately tho and just this weekend posted my best score yet by 1 stroke! woohoo!

[MentalGolfNut]

This is my biggest nemesis and the reason for my username (heh) it is without a doubt one of the hardest obstacles to overcome once you become smitten with a fear of not shooting a lower score in tournaments. I have struggled with it for many years now after being really good in my teens but one day it just all went downhill. For me personally I always felt alot of it was the fact that I never really had confidence in my golf swing, I would hit great shots on the range from time to time but I never knew how the swing worked. I am just now getting into the process of trying to figure out the swing for real so that when it comes to pressure situations I can at least try to have a swing that can become a "go to" shot which is really key if you want to make it through a round. Try to figure out a swing that might go shorter in distance but that is reliable and more importantly, repeatable.

[McKee]

Logan,

I too had this problem and am a recovering choker who experienced a substantial amount of tournament anxiety. Unfortunately I didn't have much guidance during my suffering so it took me a long time before I started to perform well in tournaments. I read a lot of mental game books but no amount of forced focus, positive thinking or relaxation could keep me from making a bad move. What finally began to help was when I decided to learn from my mistakes rather than reject them. Instead of trying to erase them from my memory and rush to the next shot with some hope for instant gratification, I would slow down and try to understand what just happened - physically. This was not easy to do when the rest of your group wants to get on with their game and you're hitting the ball sideways and scanning the rough for anything white. It took a lot of effort to not let the myriad of emotions keep me from understanding what I do wrong - physically - under pressure. The only thing mental about this approach was that I was coming to terms with my mistakes and giving bad shots the same positive value as good ones. Other than that I just became consumed with how my body moved differently in performance than it did in practice. I didn't trust the driving range (lying range) any more so I used tournaments to learn about my swing. Two tournaments a year gave me enough information to keep me busy and considering the cost verses what I learned it was a very reasonably priced lesson. Over time this method of analysis during performance gradually made me less result oriented and ultimately more focused and less afraid.

[jshots]

I have struggled with this. When I started high school I was shooting in the mid 80s and was fairly consistent. I made the golf team easily and should've been playing some amount of varsity golf freshman year and at the very least sophomore year. I was pretty excited to start playing but I couldn't handle tournaments.

I missed 3-4 tournaments a season because I would get so sick to my stomach because of nerves. A few times I had to drop out in the middle of tournaments because of my stomach. Because of it I kind of lost interest in golf and didn't put in much work.

Now I have found ways to handle it better. The best of them all is experience. The more you compete in tournaments the easier it gets to deal with the nerves. You hear it over and over but have you ever actually tried to take deep breaths and slow yourself down when playing badly? I've found it really helps me get my rhythm back on track. Get a routine that you use every shot that is the same. If you ever approach the ball and don't have confidence that you are going to hit it the way you want to then step away.