So much is said about the mental game these days, but I have read all the books and none of them get to the real point. The real point is to calm your mind and not let outside influences disturb it. That’s it. It is the only mental skill you need. If you can do that, everything else is an application of that simple principle.
Remember the time when you were looking into the green with a 7-iron in your hand and you knew, just knew, that the shot would be sweet and the ball would land close to the hole, and it did? You didn’t think about swing technique, or what could go wrong, or what you wanted to happen, you just hit the shot. Nothing else. That is what I mean by having a calm mind.
There are techniques that teach you to calm your mind at will, but they require personal instruction and steady practice on your part over time. This is not something easily gained. By knowing what a calm mind is, though, and you do, you can practice attaining it in every phase of your life so that whenever you need it, on the golf course, or on the job, at home, conducting personal business, it’s there for you.
But this blog is about golf, so let me give you a few ways you can apply the calm mind on the course.
First, look at the shot you have to hit. Unless you face a shot with forced carry over a hazard of some kind, you can hit the ball any place you choose, right or left, short or long, or dead center. It’s your choice. You’ve played long enough to know that some choices are better than others. Looking at the shot with a calm mind will help you pick the right one — the one with the greatest chance of success in taking the next step in getting the ball in the hole as quickly as you can.
Second, you have to hit the shot without thinking of all the things I mentioned before. Take a practice swing, but let’s call it a rehearsal swing instead. Then step up to the ball and concentrate only on repeating the feeling of what that rehearsal was like. Nothing else. Just repeat what you did a few seconds ago. When you’re at the practice range, work on this with every shot you hit.
Third, after you hit the shot and see where it ended up, let it go. Forget about the result, good or bad. Do not judge it, especially a shot that was less than you were hoping for. Put your mind immediately on the next shot. There’s a time to get upset by your bad shots and to congratulate yourself on your good ones, but that time is not when you’re out there playing.
The mental game is simple, because there isn’t much to it. It’s hard, because you can easily be pulled away from the right frame of mind. Work on getting the feeling of a calm mind at will, and it can be done. It is worth at least four strokes, and I mean it.