So I've been studying the mental game a bit over the past couple of weeks. I mean, when a person can go to the range every night and hit the ball perfectly...when it all goes well on the putting green...when the chipping practice is flawless...when the practice bunker shows no sign of error...something else needs to be addressed when these skills are not translating out onto the course, right?

The book I've been reading is called "Why Bad Golf Happens to Good People" by Glenn Kessler. It's available on the Amazon Kindle for $0.99. I recommend it.

I'm about halfway through, and here are some things I've discovered:

1) I need to have spent enough time on the range and the practice greens to trust my swing. When I'm standing over the ball trying to execute a shot, that is not the time to be wondering about my swing flaws.

2) When I'm standing over the ball, I need to completely clear my mind of all negative thoughts. This needs to happen on every shot. If the slightest doubt pops into my mind, I need to back away and go through my routine again.

3) I need to be aware. This starts with being aware of other things on the course. But it then proceeds of being aware of what is happening inside of my body.

My round on Saturday was the first regulation round I've played with all of these things being attempted. I spent a lot of time on the range last week working on it. My first shot on the course didn't exactly go great, but I was proud of a couple of things. First of all, I took a 10 on the fourth hole due to just a series of unfortunate circumstances. But I recovered nicely. More importantly, though, is that I made nice contact nearly all round long which exposed two minor flaws that were causing me to miss greens all round long. And the few times I did make poor contact, I could point to a single mental lapse that caused it to happen. For example, one time I swung too hard. Why? Because a negative swing thought crept into my head in the middle of my swing. Why did that happen? Because I wasn't aware of everything before I made my swing.

I think most importantly, though, is that I've gained my confidence back around the greens.

Interesting stuff Bryan K. I don't really struggle with confidence myself but this quest for better mental golf is somewhat fascinating. To me, what some people call "the mental game" is just "the game". I mean the feeling of pounding golf balls into the air is nice and everything but it is just a perk, not the main objective. Golf is essentially a game of scoring. But if you are out there on the course and not thinking about scoring then I can see the need for some kind of mental correction.

Surely man may never fully understand the dynamics of the mind and body but suffice to say they work as one unit. Same with golf, in truth there is no "mental game" and "physical game", these are just constructs created by man in a clumsy attempt to understand or intellectualize what makes golf hard. In my opinion as long as a person can stand over each shot and swing at the ball with a clear objective of moving it towards a specific target, then they very likely have good "mental game".

idk beef. i think mental has alot to do with how you swing the club. simple example, last thursday i shot a 110 and was wondering how it was that low considering how horrible i was hitting the ball. Then sat i was in a 4 man scramble and i'd say we used my ball about 60 percent of the time. the difference in the the two rounds thurs i was trying to score for myself and was trying more, sat i always figured if i messed up my shot i had three others to do better.

i believe for me being relaxed and not careing as much (not talking about haveing a bunch of beers and getting sloppy and not caring) helps me a ton. thats all mental for me.


ps. i hope what i typed made sense i'm kinda drunk right now trying to get my thoughts typed out.

Beef:

A couple of things to point out. First of all, you and I seem to have similar personality styles in that we use logic to dictate our actions. However, we are on different levels as far as how we approach and deal with our emotions. I know that my emotional upbringing wasn't very positive or healthy at all, and I have spent a great deal of time as an adult learning how to logically understand emotions. The one emotion I really struggle with is frustration, and that's because I don't understand how it affects me.

The other aspect of the mental game that obviously doesn't affect you has to do with confidence. I see this with putts all the friggin' time. When I'm standing over a three foot putt knowing that I can make it, I make it almost every time. If the slightest element of doubt pops into my head, it's going to miss almost every time. That is confidence at work. Another aspect of confidence that has become painfully obvious to me is that I tend to play much better when I’m paired with poor golfers. I also play extremely well when paired with kids. When I am with good golfers, I play horribly. This is more about confidence at work. When I’m with bad golfers or kids, I feel like I can play better than them. And I do. When I’m with good golfers, I’m self conscious about my game. And my game shows it.

But the most important aspect of the mental game has to do with a scientific article my sister forwarded to me about a year ago. It was a study that involved a group of six golfers of varying ability on the golf course with their brain waves being measured as they played. I wish I could offer a cite, but I just don’t have the article handy anymore. However, it was amazing to me to actually see what was happening inside of these people’s heads when they failed to execute shots. The low single digit handicapper in the study maintained a relatively stable level of mental acuity no matter what except for when he missed a short putt. Everyone, in fact, had their brains go completely haywire after missing a short putt. But the mid-level handicappers, the players about where I am at, had the most drastically inconsistent brain activity. Every time they mishit a shot, their brain scans lit up with all kinds of red waves indicating that their brain activity was definitely not under their control. The high handicappers didn’t experience this, probably because they didn’t expect to hit the ball perfectly every time. And the low handicappers experienced it less probably because they had learned to overcome that aspect of the game in order to become a low handicapper.

All of this study has really opened my eyes. If I’m out there screaming obscenities and throwing clubs, I’m definitely not in a state where I need to be in order to score. Now, if I could only get back onto the course to put these practices into play.

Bryan, I would like to recommend a book related to this subject. It is []Extraordinary Golf, The Art of the Possible []by Fred Shoemaker.
A friend gave me this book a few years ago and I find myself going back to it when things are not going well in my golf game. It is kind of an instruction book for how to enjoy golf, not so much how to improve your swing. The book spends a lot of time talking about being aware of yourself and your swing. One of the topics talks about how most golfers are always in "fix it" mode, always trying to fix what is broken. The time on the range is spent working on mechanical things and swing thoughts. When we get to the course and have a couple of bad shots we panic because we have "lost it" or it is now broken and we need to somehow fix it. He suggests just spending some time on the range trying all kinds of shots and focusing on how they feel, to learn what it feels like when you hit a hook or a slice. To find out what happens when you swing really fast or really slow. Just to be more aware of your swing and how it feels so when you do hit a bad shot it is easier to recognize what has happened and not go into panic mode that your last swing thought just failed. I believe the analogy he used was when we are walking down the sidewalk and we trip on something we don't panic and think "oh no, I forgot how to walk. I need to get to the range and practice walking". We just get up, look to see what we tripped over and continue on. Just because I just fell down I don't panic because I might fall again when I take my next step.
Another topic is about how golfers focus on trying to look good (hitting a good shot) and not being embarrassed. I can relate to your comments about playing with bad golfers or kids. I play a lot of golf with my wife and some of my best rounds are when I am the only male in the group. I don't try ot compare what irons they are hitting into the green from 150 yards and I am no longer trying to make sure I out drive everyone in the group (or at least not be the worst drive of the group). They don't try the crazy shots over or around trees and they don't try to talk you into hitting them. I just don't feel like I need to prove anything to them like I do when I get paired with a bunch of guys. The thing is, we get to choose our emotions and how we feel. I think the book has helped me look at things on the course a little differently and not get so wrapped up on how I think others are viewing me.
(It has helped a little but I can't lie, I still get very nervous on the first tee thinking everyone is going to judge me based on how well I hit this next shot)

Thanks for the tip, Keith. I'll put it next on my reading list.

The funny thing is, I don't get nervous, per se, when I play with bad golfers. I mean, when I step up to the ball to hit it, I don't have any second thoughts whatsoever about who is watching me. However, when I am playing a round with a bunch of good golfers, the bad shots affect me a heck of a lot more. It just takes longer to recover from a bad shot. It shouldn't be that way. I should be able to put each and every shot behind me, whether it was good or bad, and concentrate fully on the next one.

That is essentially what I'm working to achieve. And the interesting thing is, I have found that when I play with kids, no matter how good they are, they all have that exact same flaw in their game.

Just ordered a used copy of Extraordinary Golf from Amazon for $0.01 pluss $3.99 shipping!

I tried to give you my two cents in a book review and you can buy the whole book for a $0.01. Too funny.

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KeithH wrote:

]I tried to give you my two cents in a book review and you can buy the whole book for a $0.01. Too funny.[

]

Plus $3.99 shipping.

And I know it doesn't cost $3.99 to ship.

Hi Bryan

I can relate to your frustration, I couldnt handle mine either after hitting bad shots...the negatives just stayed in my head and ruined more rounds than i can remember...Thus far i have just given it up, since I have no solution for it...its too bad that the mental aspect of the game makes so many people give it up...