I'm going to use the same image I used in this thread about good practice being boring practice to kick off a discussion specifically about the word in the title: discipline. That image is to the right here. --->
Whether it's Scottie Scheffler using his training grip every day, or Justin Thomas learning that he needs to re-find his "home base" (X link) for his putting, or Tiger taking a year working on something before he calls Butch (or Hank, or Sean, or Chris) to say "I've got it," or even a golfer on the course aiming away from a flagstick, discipline may be the single most important skill in golf. Top three for sure (don't hold me to that! 🤣).
I don't always stay disciplined. I don't record video quite as often as I should… I don't go quite as slowly as I should. And yet… I do those things about 15-20x as often as most golfers.
Discipline is making yourself practice something at home at least 15 minutes a day (even if that's five three-minute sessions). Discipline is making yourself see no evil, hear no evil when looking at social media swing tips and just focusing on your one priority piece. Discipline is doing it with nearly constant feedback — recording videos, training aids or "stations" — at the right (almost surely slower than you most can possibly imagine at first) speeds. (Here's a search on X showing a few of my practice stations. They're often pretty similar because… I'm almost always working on similar things.) A typical golfer thinks I'm nuts. I've said on my podcast and written it here on GolfWRX that sometimes, a great practice session includes 50% shanks. Discipline is often not caring where the ball is going.
More and more society seems to be chasing instant gratification. Can't beat that game? Just buy a level-up. Want to get some "likes"? Post an (edited, quite often faked in some way) selfie or something from the beach (ignoring the screaming kids 20 feet away, the sand fleas biting your legs, the sunburn you'll get from forgetting to put sunscreen on the back of your calves, etc.) and your friends will like it by rote and you'll feel a smidgen better about yourself. Golf is not that. Golf is not instant gratification. Golf is WORK. Improvement at golf requires trust that the light will be at the end of the tunnel, because unless you're highly sensitive to seeing light in a small change (or a larger change at a slowspeed), the light at the end of the tunnel is often a LONG ways off.
(This is one of the reasons why some people — I'm not saying anyone here — love the "work on your short game and putting" approach. It's one of the closest things to instant gratification that you'll find in golf, limited as the gains may be. They can see a few more balls going in the hole and see tangible relatively quick improvement. Again, though, it's often small improvement, and it doesn't necessarily stick.)
Few things are more frustrating than giving a great lesson to a 20 handicapper, having them pause, using mirrors, recording every third swing and reviewing it with them, making them hit the ball only 50 yards or so, and leaving them with a very clear message about what and how to practice… only for them to text you the next day with "I went to the range, it went horribly, here's a video of my swing (at full speed, with no rehearsals), what am I doing wrong?" (This is particularly frustrating when you've helped someone for free and they seem to understand and believe everything, and then you see the same type of response and no evidence of them actually putting in the work.)
Even super experienced golfers and lower index players often think (subconsciously at least) that they're going to "get better" from just taking a lesson and practicing for 40 minutes during that lesson. After all, most golfers start to hit it better at the end of the lesson than they were at the beginning. But… golf doesn't work that way. Not at full speed, not quickly.
Being disciplined isn't much fun (getting better can be, but there are a lot of valleys between the small peaks). It means spending 15-60 minutes a day (or five days a week, or whatever) being focused on taking small steps. It means knowing that some days you may actually take a step back, but it won't be as far back as going two or three days without putting in the work. It means knowing that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
How disciplined are you? Could you spend ten minutes less scrolling Instagram or X and spend that on your golf game? While you're waiting for your popcorn, could you use the reflection in your patio door window to work on your golf swing? Can you go at the right speed, with a station set up, and record yourself frequently?
Can you?
Or, more importantly…
Will you?
Great! Up to ten for both days.
