Why The Golf Mental Game Is Everything

“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.