I'd Be Scratch with a Better Mental Game

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, pumaAttack said:

I guess.  But not sure why knocking somebody for saying they need to work on their mental game is supposed to help them.

So when somebody says "I would be scratch if I could just hit the ball better" are we supposed to mock them too?

I see your point, but the example you stated would make me say "Yeah, too bad we can't all hit the ball a lot better, or we might all be scratch."

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, saevel25 said:

 

There should be a Golfer's Anonymous group. The first step is to accept they suck and to accept their current way of thinking about what they need to do to improve is wrong. 

Hello. My name is Scott and I stink at golf. 

[Yukari]

One of my ex-playing partner had a similar view of his game. But his attitude was that when he hit a bad shot and lost a ball in the trees, he would never take a lost ball penalty and re-hit. He simply says if he played like those pros did, he would not lose a ball because the gallery would have known where it was. So he simply drops the where he thinks it should be and plays without penalty.

And when his ball lands in a dirt patch, he rolls the to a nice grassy area and says pros never play in dirt tracks so he shouldn't either. 

Now you know why I don't play with him anymore. 

Some people. Sheesh. 

[pumaAttack]

23 minutes ago, Yukari said:

One of my ex-playing partner had a similar view of his game. But his attitude was that when he hit a bad shot and lost a ball in the trees, he would never take a lost ball penalty and re-hit. He simply says if he played like those pros did, he would not lose a ball because the gallery would have known where it was. So he simply drops the where he thinks it should be and plays without penalty.

And when his ball lands in a dirt patch, he rolls the to a nice grassy area and says pros never play in dirt tracks so he shouldn't either. 

Now you know why I don't play with him anymore. 

Some people. Sheesh. 

 

He is just trying to have more fun out there, what is the big deal?  

11 hours ago, Lihu said:

I see your point, but the example you stated would make me say "Yeah, too bad we can't all hit the ball a lot better, or we might all be scratch."

 

So if you hit the ball better but had a terrible mental game you would be scratch?

[saevel25]

30 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

So if you hit the ball better but had a terrible mental game you would be scratch?

You have a significantly! higher chance of being a scratch golfer with scratch golfer level ball striking than not and saying mental game is all you need.

By higher chance I mean like astronomical.

[pumaAttack]

38 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

You have a significantly! higher chance of being a scratch golfer with scratch golfer level ball striking than not and saying mental game is all you need.

By higher chance I mean like astronomical.

 

Thats not my point.   I am saying you need both to be scratch.  But only one claim sounds ridiculous.  

[Golfingdad]

10 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I am saying you need both to be scratch.

Not necessarily.  You need the right amount of mental game to make up for your physical game shortcomings.  If you never make a mental mistake, then perhaps you can be scratch with a "2 handicap physical game" but by contract if you make all of the worst decisions in the world, you can still be scratch if you have a better physical game.  Think "Tin Cup" or Dustin Johnson sometimes, or Phil at Winged Foot. ;)

[Yukari]

1 hour ago, pumaAttack said:

 

He is just trying to have more fun out there, what is the big deal?  

 

So if you hit the ball better but had a terrible mental game you would be scratch?

Sure, if we have nothing on the line that is fine.  But that was not the case.  After a round or two of that, I've stopped playing with him.

[pumaAttack]

8 minutes ago, Yukari said:

Sure, if we have nothing on the line that is fine.  But that was not the case.  After a round or two of that, I've stopped playing with him.

 

Gotcha, didn't realize it was a money game.   I never play those so its not the default in my mind.

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, saevel25 said:

You have a significantly! higher chance of being a scratch golfer with scratch golfer level ball striking than not and saying mental game is all you need.

By higher chance I mean like astronomical.

 

1 hour ago, pumaAttack said:

Thats not my point.   I am saying you need both to be scratch.  But only one claim sounds ridiculous.  

Good ball striking is a lot more important to your mental game than you seem to giving credit.

Scratch ball striking is really good, and I think their confidence stems from that good ball striking.

[mvmac]

On 3/15/2016 at 1:03 PM, pumaAttack said:

 

Thats not my point.   I am saying you need both to be scratch.  But only one claim sounds ridiculous.  

Not really IMO, a guy on my college team was a complete head case and his scoring average was around 71.

[Vinsk]

The mental game may separate you from another at any level of the game. That being said, it's hardly the most important. Certainly not in the original scenario presented by Erik. My cousin had absolutely no mental strength when it came to his golf game. He turned pro back in the early '80's played on the PGA tour for a few tournaments but simply couldn't make it work. However he was certainly a scratch player. Had his mental game been better then maybe he would've been able to at least earn enough money to allow him to continue playing..maybe, maybe not. But it certainly wasn't his mental game that got him his tour card nor his scratch game.

[Pretzel]

On 3/15/2016 at 2:03 PM, pumaAttack said:

Thats not my point.   I am saying you need both to be scratch.  But only one claim sounds ridiculous.  

Not really. All you have to do to be scratch is to be able to go out there and whack a golf ball. The "mental game" aspect of it comes from knowing that you can hit the ball well enough to score as a scratch golfer, not from a double digit handicapper willing themselves into making their best swings all the time.

I have absolutely no "mental game" as you would describe it, in terms of being able to get out of your own way and focus yourself to let yourself score. That's perfectly fine by me, because I know how to work around this. I write down my score as soon as the hole is over and talk with my playing partners between shots and holes to allow me to forget how I'm playing at all times. If I don't know whether or not I'm playing well, I can't have issues with choking or trying to force shots that I wouldn't otherwise. I just follow the set strategy I have formulated in advance and do everything I can to distract myself from how the execution of said strategy is proceeding until the round is finished. When I think about how I'm scoring well I fall to pieces, which is pretty much the definition of an awful "mental game", but I can still play at or near a scratch level (4 of my last 5 rounds of golf have been at or below par, unfortunately Colorado has limits as to when scores may be posted though).

I hit the ball pretty well, so I have that. I have no mental game, so I just avoid that portion of the golf game altogether. The "mental game" is superfluous icing on the cake, so to speak, which can help you when you're in pressure situations and are completely aware of your performance and are unable to forget. I haven't played in any tournaments large enough yet that I've been unable to forget about my golf game, so I'll keep doing what works for me until I reach that point if I get there.

The main point is this: Unless you are having issues with playing up to your potential, or having trouble with focusing on the golf course, the problem is your swing, not your mental game. You don't hit the ball inconsistently because of your mental game. You hit the ball inconsistently because of your golf swing. The mental game is what happens when you're under pressure and you know exactly what is at stake, and even that can be avoided entirely if you prevent yourself from getting into that situation in the first place with prior preparations (strategy planning makes it easy to stay calm in a tournament) and just plain forgetting about how you're playing. The thing is, even with a terrible mental game you can still fall back on solid fundamental mechanics and the near-infallible muscle memory to play good golf so long as you have enough presence of mind to make the correct decisions.

Beyond decision making, it's all on the golf swing itself. Decision making also becomes much less important the more you plan ahead what you want to do during the round.

[allenc]

Which of these two situations would you attribute to a poor mental game?

A.  You hit a shot somewhere in your 25th percentile nearly every time on the first tee.

B.  You quite obviously hit the ball better on the range than on the course.

My opinion:

Spoiler

I would think B might be your swing and not your mental game.  You can get in a grove at the range and make a poor swing work better than it should if you remember how you did it just 30 seconds ago.  "A" seems like it is probably poor mental game.

 

[Golfingdad]

19 minutes ago, allenc said:

Which of these two situations would you attribute to a poor mental game?

A.  You hit a shot somewhere in your 25th percentile nearly every time on the first tee.

B.  You quite obviously hit the ball better on the range than on the course.

My opinion:

  Reveal hidden contents

I would think B might be your swing and not your mental game.  You can get in a grove at the range and make a poor swing work better than it should if you remember how you did it just 30 seconds ago.  "A" seems like it is probably poor mental game.

 

Pretty much agree with you 100%.  I was about to only partially agree with "A," but you worded it perfectly.  As you improve, you may very well still hit shots in that 25th percentile, but that 25th percentile will improve with you. :)

[Rainmaker]

I'm such a choker, I choke at the range, too.  I consider myself an extra-special golf head-case.  I usually play ok once my group gets going . . but I literally can't stand the pressure of teeing off with, for example, a couple disinterested old ladies nearby and not even watching, lol. 

At the range, I get all caught up in trying to hit every ball well.  I have no idea why.  It's like I'm trying to put on an imaginary ball-striking clinic . .except I suck at ball-striking . .at least compared to anybody you'd want to watch.  And then I crumble from the pressure put on me by the imaginary crowd watching me.

Only usually, though. 

 

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, Rainmaker said:

I'm such a choker, I choke at the range, too.  I consider myself an extra-special golf head-case.  I usually play ok once my group gets going . . but I literally can't stand the pressure of teeing off with, for example, a couple disinterested old ladies nearby and not even watching, lol. 

At the range, I get all caught up in trying to hit every ball well.  I have no idea why.  It's like I'm trying to put on an imaginary ball-striking clinic . .except I suck at ball-striking . .at least compared to anybody you'd want to watch.  And then I crumble from the pressure put on me by the imaginary crowd watching me.

Only usually, though. 

 

Maybe you just need a different way to practice. Try this and don't worry about perfect shots. Focus on improving your swing so it is consistently good. When I am working on something at slower speeds, sometimes I shank a few.

 

[Big Lex]

On March 15, 2016 at 0:08 AM, pumaAttack said:

I guess.  But not sure why knocking somebody for saying they need to work on their mental game is supposed to help them.

So when somebody says "I would be scratch if I could just hit the ball better" are we supposed to mock them too?

Great point. I think one issue here is that nobody defines the mental game. And I definitely agree that you can't think or visualize or pre-shot-routine your way to a par round. But there is absolutely no chance, zero, that you can accomplish what must be done physically to become a scratch golfer if you have the wrong mental approach. There are many facets to it, but I think something all good athletes have in common is the will to practice and the patience to practice enough to see improvement. The sheer amount of work it takes, hours-wise, to become an expert is more than most of us think. We make a big deal about Tiger's or Jason's athletic "gift," but even with that gift it requires tremendous work to become an expert at golf.