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.

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Yesterday morning I was at the range. The assistant pro and I were on the putting green. We got to talking about this and that, and the conversation got into the time when he was an aspiring tournament player. In comparing the difference between his game now, and what it was at that time (he was +4), and he is still a young man, he said it came down to two things: desire and focus.

There was a time when he was practicing and playing every day, because he had the desire, and all that time with a club in his hand gave him the focus to play his best every time he hit a golf ball. That’s what it took to be good on professional terms.

It seems to me, that’s what it takes to be good no matter what your goals are. Probably none of are going to become +4 handicap golfers, much less scratch or even single-digit. Talent aside, we don’t have the time. But to become the good golfer we wish to be, we must have the desire and the focus it takes to get there. If you have that, no matter how much, or how little, time you have to practice and play, you can get the most out of it. Quantity of practice counts, but the quality of your practice is just as important.

You could start with practicing at home. There are always spare moments you can devote to the part of the game that is troubling you, and just a little practice, frequently done, goes a long way. A two-hour trip to the range once a week is enough time to practice everything – putting, chipping, pitching, and your swing. If you can practice more than that, even better.

The important thing, though, is to apply desire and focus to your practice throughout the session. That means you practice because you want to get better at golf, not because practice is an enjoyable way to spend some time, or some such reason as that. Your motivation for even picking up a club is that you want to get better.

Being focused means that every time you hit a golf ball your mind is fully engaged on what you’re doing. If you have ten golf balls, hitting every one is a unique event. There’s no hitting the first one and doing that again nine times. Every time you address a new ball you start over, with your grip, your setup, and especially with your mind.

In order to play your best golf, your mind must be in the right place as you hit the ball. Practicing that is every bit as important as practicing your technique. If you’re practicing technique, by all means, take as many practice swings as you need to be satisfied that you’re doing it right. But when you step up to the ball, your mental task is to let go of any thought of technique and let your habits take over. A major part of any practice session it to practice having total confidence in what you have trained yourself to do, from address to follow-through.

That’s focus. It’s hard to come by unless you practice it. If you do, you will get the most out of what you have learned, every time you play. To learn that focus, well, it’s hard work. You have to want to. That’s desire. Put those two together and you’ll be a good golfer — one who gets everything out of his or her talent and technique, regardless of the score that gets made.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com.