There’s a kind of golf you could be playing right now that is much better than the kind you are playing. It doesn’t require any improvement in your physical technique. Just by improving your mental approach to each shot, you will get the most out of the skills you have and shoot lower scores.
When you stand behind the ball and look at where you want to hit it, you can think in one of two ways. You can be afraid of all the bad things that can happen–the mis-hits, the bunkers, the water, and all that. Or, you can think about the spot where you really want to hit the ball, and see it on its way and coming to rest right there, without those other things even entering your mind.
I don’t have to tell you that the second thought is what you want your mind to be on. But how do you get your mind on that and only that? You have to practice. You practice your short irons over and over, for example, to get them target-ready on the golf course, so when you pull one out you know you have the skill to put the ball on the green.
In the same way, you have to practice focusing your mind on the shot to come so that when you look at the shot you’re preparing to hit, you have the mental strength not to become distracted or disturbed by the places where the ball shouldn’t go.
When you’re at the driving range with a bucket of 100 balls, warm up, and then take out one ball. Step behind it and look downrange. Pick a target. Do more than say, “I’ll aim for there.” Keep looking until you know, really know, that’s where the ball will go. Accept that believing the ball will go there and hitting the ball there are the same thing. To do the first is to do the second. Then hit the ball with that belief in mind.
Prepare your mind that way before every ball you hit. Every ball. Not just when you remember to. You’re building up a mental habit, one that requires tremendous discipline. That will only happen if you promise yourself that you will practice this as much as you practice swing techniques.
At first it might seem difficult, tiring, boring, maybe even pointless, because it doesn’t always work. You still hit a few clinkers. That’s OK. You’re creating a mind-body link that takes time to get established. Keep at it. With steady practice you will be both amazed and pleased at how well your shots start mirroring the mental belief that guided your swing.
You will be similarly amazed at the deep concentration you can summon in an instant on the golf course. In the thirty seconds you have to prepare your shot and hit it, you will be drawing on tremendous mental strength. Your physical skills will come to the fore, and you will play the best golf you can play.