Each time we stand up to the ball there is potential to mentally choke or freeze or drown out the positive vibes with negative ones.

Dealing with ‘stress’ of any level is why this is such a mental and physical game. You can keep your mind focused and busy (but do not let the thought train wander) or go to an auto routine which kills the words processor between the ear, ala a Clear Key use.

Either way KNOW how you are coping and be able to listen to your inner thoughts and not wait until you are looking for the Lynx.

Sticking to the process and staying in the present is something I definately have to improve on. I get ahead of myself and worry about the outcome too easily. (Like yesterday, 1 under through 8 and then started thinking about the score!)

Any drills or routines that can be done off course to help this, something to kill a dull moment at work and help my golf game would be great!!

I may be missing your concern here, Toolish, but I have a sneaking notion that it might be that I, among others, have not been clear enough about a couple of things. If you have the automatic process going, it really isn’t going to hurt your game – between shots – if your mind wanders even to outcomes or other other thought that we all tend to mark as “harmful” to our games. We just don’t need that at shot time.

That is, unless is sucks us out of using and focusing on the automatic process and the value of the clear key, when execution time arrives. That’s the process. The discovery that you can be all over the place in your mind while walking down the fairway and still come right back to the automatic process when you get to the next shot, is the stuff that confidence is made of. That will not only work there, but slow any excessive “worry” about the game or the outcome.

The only critical times in a round of golf lie in what’s going on in pre-shot, the transition to the ball, and execution. The rest of the time you can “visit” any place you want in your mind. If you have that process working, actually, the “vacations” are relaxing.

Again, of course, using that process in the game will need to be preceded by some strong habit building practice and development.

I feel blessed to have golf in my life. Another time, another place and it might not have been so accessible. Not always do I reflect on how lucky I am to be teeing it up. But when I take time out in the warm up to admire the beauty of my surroundings and acknowledge the opportunity that this round presents, I am sure I self-consciously create a positive frame of mind. Consequently this gives me the best chance to concentrate on what I know and how I am going to execute the shot. And for me this is the process.

So comes the moment when something special is on the cards. All golfers have felt stress over the ball and have battled with the struggle to relax. This is not easy to overcome and although I’m being serious here, one of the best lines from ‘Happy Gilmore’ is when Chubbs tells Happy to “Go to a Happy place”. Now if you can get that vision of Grandma and the Dwarf prancing around the garden out of your head, you might just want to enjoy the challenge of executing the shot. You’ve done it before, you can do it again. Not life and death. What do you reckon?

That is, unless is sucks us out of using and focusing on the automatic process and the value of the clear key, when execution time arrives. That’s the process.

Yep…that is the problem. I get out of my routine, I guess I just need to spend some time re-commiting to the clear-key routine and see how I go!

That is, unless is sucks us out of using and focusing on the automatic process and the value of the clear key, when execution time arrives. That’s the process.

Yep…that is the problem. I get out of my routine, I guess I just need to spend some time re-commiting to the clear-key routine and see how I go!

I hear that, especially since it occurs fairly often even with some who have found success with using clear keys. And part of that is perhaps because our general conditioning includes images like “stay focused,” “Get in the zone,” (as though one needed to do that for 4 solid hours during the game). The inference has been that we had to grind, find a permanent state, don’t allow looking left or right, “keep to your guns,” pay attention, and so forth.

The reality is that one process will handle all that and it is applied only at the moments of necessity for a managed game.

Don’t know if you have seen it, but if not, here is a URL for one of the One Under Par Newsletters that goes back to June’02. It was my offering to put some of these things into perspective.

Link

I strongly recommend any of Dr Bob Rotellas books but particularly “The Golfers Mind”. It is the next step in shooting low numbers.

BTW he was the bloke standing next to Padraig on the practice green before the play off.