"I knew that if I could shoot 68 today, I would probably win, but it just wasn't to be." "Everytime I have a good front nine, I blow it on the back nine." "Breaking 80 is my goal, but everytime I get close my game falls apart." "There were a lot of college coaches watching, but I couldn't get anything going." "The first day I shot 74 and put myself in contention. After that it was all down hill."
Do any of these sound familiar? We hear them all the time. They are typical comments from good golfers that are too focused on their results.
In the golf world everything is determined by your score. Whether it is winning the tournament, winning a scholarship or winning the bet, your score determines your success. Your scores may determine your income and where you get to play and for how much if you are a pro. Your score also may determine your immediate happiness and self-esteem.
Many of us set outcome and score goals for our golf. These make what we are trying to accomplish very clear and are helpful if used in the right way. Unfortunately few seem to understand how to use them effectively. Too often your thoughts of the score and the ramifications of your score directly interfere with reaching those goals.
Outcome and score goals must never go on the golf course!As I discussed before, your thoughts can raise your arousal and trigger your emotions. When your thoughts center on outcome goals and your score, you will almost certainly become too aroused to play well and think well.
Of course every Tour player says he wants to win this tournament. Of course you want to lower your personal best score. Of course you want to win the bet or break 80, etc. But by focusing on those outcome goals you make them less likely to happen.
Not only does this make it harder to manage yourself but there are also a lot of things in golf beyond your control. You can play your very best and still not win because another player simply played better or got lucky. You can hit great shots and putts with perfect technique and still not score well. You can hit all the fairways and greens and the putts don't fall.
You will experience bad breaks, even in the best rounds. If you are focused on score and outcome then these bad breaks will be hard to take and you will be likely to react emotionally and raise arousal. This makes the next shot harder to play.
There's the conundrum. You want to play well for lots of reasons. You are motivated to play well and work hard to do that. You measure your success by your score and outcome. Therefore you want to think about your score and outcomes, but doing that ruins your golf ability. It happens after a good hole or good string of holes. It happens at the turn. It happens at the end of the tournament.
Here is the solution. Don't think about score or outcome while you are playing.
Hah! Hah!
How do you do that? First of all don't think about something doesn't work. You cannot command yourself not to think about anything because that anything immediately comes to mind. Don't think about a pink elephant. What came to mind?
In order to stop thinking about the score, outcome and what it all means, you must think about something else. You must make that other thing very important to you and you must pick something that will help you play.
The thing must be within your control. It must be something that does not raise arousal or trigger emotions.
We ask our clients to set mental goals for their rounds and make them more important than their score. While on the course they are working hard to meet those mental goals. For example: My mental goal for this round is to do really good
mental routines for at least 80% of my shots and putts. At the end of the round I will see if I met this goal or exceeded it. I will judge my performance today on this outcome not on my score. During the round I will note every good routine so I can add them up later.
By focusing on this goal which is within my control, I help myself play and separate myself from the results of the shot or putt which are outside of my control. If I did a good quality routine, then I did everything I could to play that shot well. I must accept the outcome, whatever it is.
Some of you may have reacted to the 80% goal. Why isn't it 100%? Of course you want to do good routines on all of your shots, but this is not realistic. If you fail to do it on one shot, then you cannot reach your goal and the motivation from this goal is lost. We usually start new clients at 50% and then raise the bar as they get better and better.
Try it the next time you play. Set a mental goal like getting really committed to at least 50% of your shots and putts. If you play a shot where you change the target or shot while over the ball, you were not effectively committed. If you swing with anxiety or worry about where the ball is going, then you were not fully committed. Full commitment means trusting your choices and not reconsidering, all the way through the shot. Track them during the round and add them up after the round. Make this score more important than how many shots you took.
You will be amazed how well this works when you do it well. Getting fully committed is harder than you might think.
You also need goals for your thoughts between shots, or your mind will gravitate to score and outcome.
For more mental goals read our book and visit with one of our GolfPsych Instructors.
