I have developed a self-assessment of golfing mistakes.

No, it is not just for masochists! Here are the most common patterns of mental and playing mistakes.

Which fit for you? Please take three minutes and answer the following questions. Write down a number after each question of how many times per round you typically commit this type of error. Now, they may not occur in every single round, but they are definite patterns.

Go ahead…you very well may be surprised at what you discover.

HOW MANY TIMES PER ROUND DO YOU…

Expect things to be perfect or smooth? _____

Make dumb or poorly thought-out decisions? _____

Cut short or eliminate preshot and postshot routines? _____

Fall prey to temptations and greed? _____

Allow your concentration to slip and/or become distracted? _____

Try too hard? _____

Lose your patience? _____

Not feel really ready to hit a shot? _____

Attempt “wishes and hopes” shots? ____

Allow your emotions (both positive and negative) to bubble up? _____

Not feel totally committed to a shot? _____

Make errors due to looseness (that is; quick, mindless, and no-brainer mistakes)? _____

Make errors due to tightness (that is; too tense and/or the mind too jumbled up)? _____

Allow subtle fears to influence? _____

Have too aggressive of a mindset? _____

Have too timid and cautious of a mindset? _____

Attempt swings that are too fast or too hard? _____

Try to force or make things happen? _____

Make wrong club selections? _____

Make wrong shot selections? _____

Try things that are too complicated? _____

Attempt shots that are not targeted precisely enough? _____

Attempt shots that are too cute or have too fine a margin for error? _____

Attempt shots which haven’t been practiced nor refined? _____

Stay stuck in the low ebb of a couple of bad holes? _____

Space out and go off on mental “walkabouts?” _____

Think outcome numbers and results (instead of here-and-now qualities and processes)? _____

Allow self-imposed pressures and stresses to choke you? _____

Get down on yourself, become negative, and/or give up? _____

Stop enjoying the process of playing the game? _____

ANALYZING YOUR GOLF MISTAKE PATTERNS

Okay, now please add up the grand total of how many typical mistakes you make.

You will probably be surprised–or even shocked–at how many mistake patterns you have.

In finalizing this article, I had seven women on a university golf team with whom I have been working answer the above questions. Their results may surprise you. Their totals ranged from a low of 26 to three of them admitting to well over 200! And these are all fine elite golfers.

As you become more aware of your mistake patterns you will realize that one pattern opens up others.

This is why the above number can grow so high. You may commit multiple mistakes on the same shot. I call these “situational mistake patterns.” For example, when I have lost my patience, I may rush my preshot routine so I do not acquire a specific target nor am really ready to hit the shot. I then allow my frustrations to take hold and try to force a cute shot. I will typically swing too hard, become even more angry, and “mail in” the rest of the round.

Whew…no wonder I go nuts with this game!

Upon reflection of these questions you might be left with the feeling of how you can possibly execute any good shots at all!

Your specific answers to these questions can be quite revealing. You see, it has been my experience that if you can accurately define the problem, you are halfway there to resolving it.

Here is how to make sense from your responses.

In each of the above 30 mistake patterns if you admitted to more than three per round, you have indirectly identified a factor you need to address. Look back at your answers and give a priority to the three most frequently reported categories. Then with each of these, detail a specific plan of how to overcome them.

So for example, if I discovered I committed too many errors due to looseness, I would plan to concentrate more on layup shots and better feel my rehearsal swings.

Or if I admitted that I tended to swing too hard, I would better tune into key rhythm cues and keep using my centering techniques.

Or if I became aware I had little fears inhibiting me, I would ask myself “What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen?” and then throw myself into the shot.

Awareness of mistake patterns is good, but implementing a game plan to overcome them is better. Resolving, or just minimizing, your unique mistake patterns can be quite liberating. In order to allow good efforts emerge and flow, you first have to eliminate the mistake “dams and bottlenecks.” Once controlled, you can then rechannel these patterns into more fluid performances.

RECOVERIES

Even though we plan to consistently hit fairways and greens, we are not robots. We have variations and we make mistakes. However, mistakes can actually be seen as methods to spice up the game.

One of my mantras I continually verbalize to my golfers is that, “there are many ways to score.”

Recovering from mistakes–tactically, emotionally, mentally, and shotmaking–actually provide opportunities to expand your game. You see, making a mistake may not be the sin. Repeating it and not quickly recovering from it ARE the sins. When you have made a playing mistake, your first response is to remain calm. That shot is gone. There is nothing you can do about it. Then positively and purposefully devise a solution to your situation. Seen in these lights, recoveries can be one of the most satisfying elements of playing golf. Recovering is as much as an mental process as it is a mechanical one.

Forgive yourself, accept your situation, and concentrate on creating the appropriate response. Reflect now on some of your best performances. I would bet that somewhere in these rounds you recovered wonderfully from mistakes. These recoveries not only salvaged the round, they were springboards to heightened efforts. Recovery is redemption. And this has its own rewards.

So here is the bottom line.

1. Accept you will make mistakes. When you make one, be like Walter Hagen who passively chalked it up to one of his allotted ones. And then play on.

2. The best way to minimize errors is to miss shots in the right places. Granted, always be positive and committed in decision making, but also factor in that if you miss the shot, where that might be.

3. When in a tough situation, learn to “take your medicine.” Pitch back to the fairway or chip beyond the tucked pin to the fat part of the green. In these ways you can cut your losses. The golf gods frequently reward such discipline…sometimes during the same hole.

4. Recovering is as much of a matter of attitude as it is shotmaking. After a mistake be positive and even eager with the prospects of the next shot.

5. Listen and honor your intuitions. A big part of minimizing mistake patterns is awareness. Resist your greedy temptations. Even if do no know why, immediately do the opposite of what is tempted.

Keep on learning about your playing patterns. Good play is smart play, not only with pure shots, but also with poor shots. Accept that mistakes are an integral part of The Game. These are not only tests of your game, they are also tests of your character.

I GUARANTEE that if you reduce your golfer mistakes by just twenty percent you can lower you typical scores by at least five shots per round.

Sceptical?

Good! Read on.

Without changing a single thing with your swing, you can significantly improve your scoring. How?

Simple…by becoming aware of, preventing, and recovering quicker from typical golfer mistakes.

One cornerstone to good playing is minimizing mistakes. It has been said by many golf pundits that those who play well are those who make the least number of mistakes, least severity of them, at the least crucial times, and recover most quickly from them.

Years ago, I created the “cake” metaphor for good scoring. Great shots and pure hits are merely the frosting on the cake. However, consistency is the cake itself. And one way to improve consistency is by controlling those golfer mistake patterns.

In any round of golf, there is a plethora of possible pitfalls. On any given shot, there are so many things that can go wrong–mechanically, physically, rhythmically, mentally, emotionally, and tactically.

In fact, there seems to be a least ten times as many things that can go wrong than can go right. No wonder so many of us are basket cases!

When we become aware of what can possibly go wrong, we tend to become more tentative and even defensive in both thinking and executing. It is, indeed, a self-fulfilling prophecy that the more we attempt to prevent errors the more we actually ensure them occurring. (Remember your “Don’t hit it right OB” admonition? And where did that shot go?!)

However, we can’t ignore their reality either.

Inconsistent play, blowup holes, and even giving up are grounded in such ignorance.

Clearly, in order to play smart golf we have to better understand and channel our personal error patterns.

Think about it, what is the first thing you remember about the most current round? Mistakes. You think about the number of “shots left out on the course,” the big blunders, the missed opportunities, the dumb choices, and even the outright chokes. The more you reflect on your mistakes the more aware you become that you have made similar ones before.

Just as there are patterns to your optimal play, there are also patterns to your golfer mistakes.

Now, think about this: no golfer mistake is ever made in isolation. Mistake patterns have components that are mental, emotional, and/or tactical. Even a blatant mishit is grounded in your mindset as you set up over the shot.

From twenty-plus years of playing sessions with golfers, it has been my experience that in every double bogey there was at least one shot that was a dumb play. Realize that there has NEVER been a perfectly played round. Even at the height of his powers, the great Ben Hogan admitted that in any given round he only hit about seven shots purely or, as he said, “as I intended.” If the great Hogan said he only hit seven pure shots per round, how come you expect to hit every shot perfectly?

Also, in the early days of the golf handicapping system, Walter Hagen equated players’ numbers to about the amount of major swing errors they typically committed per round.

There is a lot of wisdom in his concept.

In fact, I have expanded Hagen’s theory to include mental, emotional, shotmaking, and course management golfer mistakes as well. Here is my ratio: ALL GOLFERS MAKE MISTAKES AT LEAST TWO TIMES THEIR INDEX NUMBER. Hence if your current index is 12, you will make over two dozen little mistakes per round.

Think about your playing patterns before you accept my ratio. It is nothing about which to become discouraged. You see, only after we fully accept something can we then do something about it. Golf is just a darned difficult game. And golfer mistakes are an inherent part of the game. Accept the fact that you will make mistakes. Give yourself a break and be easier on yourself.

This is the first mindset to establish in playing better and more enjoyable golf.

“Golf mental game” what’s that? Sounds like something someone not of a sound mind might play. Mmm, sometimes I thinks that’s me with golf! But seriously unless you can focus on your game it doesn’t matter whether you have grooved a perfect swing you will not achieve the consistency you need to play golf to a high standard.  Do you think today’s professional golfers differ dramatically in their ability, the level of practice or quality of golf equipment? No the real difference is in their approach to the golf mental game.

The golf mental game seems to affect some players more than others. Take Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie for example. He has been outstanding in Ryder Cup competition but has fallen short of winning individually at the highest level on a number of occasions. Why is that? It is certainly not his  swing or ability with a golf club. A study of his game will reveal he excels in a number of areas. No, I believe there is a very small issue that creeps in at a crucial moment – it could be self-doubt, it could be pressure, concentration, or it could be simply a lack of belief. Whatever it is, and it certainly affects amateur golfers and sportsman to a greater degree, it can be categorised as part of the golf mental game.

Some fantastic studies into the mental game within golf have been undertaken including Nuero Linguistic Programming (NLP), concentration studies and the ability to focus and the results are quite incredible. I believe that with a good basic understanding of the golf swing it is in the area of golf mental game that most improvement can be made.

For example, have you ever been about to play a shot over water and found yourself thinking what you must not do (hit into the drink!) rather than concentrating on the flight of the ball and where you want to pitch?

Or about to take a short chip onto the green and the thought of the duff short to the previous green comes back to haunt you?

The human brain works in a stange way sometimes – seemingly to sabotage us but in reality it is simply a question of programming it it correctly. Tell it what to do and it generally will behave. Feed it negative instructions and it cannot cope as it does not respond to the “don’t” part of “don’t hit it in the water” and acts to ensure your body responds to the “hit it in the water” part!!

So you can see getting the golf mental game sorted will be of real benefit.

Tiger Woods, clearly a master at the golf mental game, is reported to say that he only concentrates on golf for part of the round because it is not feasible to focus as clearly as necessary for upwards of 3 hours. He focuses ONLY on the shot when he is within an imaginary box of I think a yard square around the ball. Watch him, he is then totally focused and in complete control of the golf mental game.

Through studying as much as I can on the subject of the “mind and golf” I have seen great improvements in my own game and I highly recommend anyone to pay equal attention to the important aspect of the golf mental game.