Guru,

I have a bit of an issue. I can’t seem to hit a bad shot without really getting the shits. The fuse is getting really short and anything less than perfection is setting me off.

I practise 6 days a week and I am not seeing the results that I was seeing this time last year.

Hell – I even took a divot out of a green on Sunday after missing a 6 foot putt.

I also seem to be getting drawn with a lot of high handicap golfers lately, and to be honest, they annoy me. I hate looking for other people’s balls all day.

Is alcohol going to be my only salvation?

mbas

Or prescription drugs:)

Heck we have all played with “Whack $uck” players and wonder why they cannot accept a bad shot or 5.

There is a term I have heard called “the unemotional spectator.” It means that you can watch something without necessarily needing to show emotion – sort of stepping outside of yourself to observe your own body doing its thing without praise or berating it.

So how do we stand a chance of getting to this point? First up learn how your brain works. Left side is the chatter box, planner, emotional dude. The right side is the doer, the built in skills dept.

Think of this. Try talk yourself to tie your shoe laces step by step. FOLLOW the verbal instructions to the letter. You will never do them up. So the right side of the brain is allowed to ‘just do it’. Now if you screw up at that point the left side of the brain goes “bugger” and you start again. But the left side still knows it has to get out of the way to let the right side do it correctly least we end up in even more bother.

So the trick is to kill or control the need to move from a single “bugger” into the area that is closely connected to Road Rage. How close to the surface that Rage is depends upon your own personality and inbuilt brain wiring. However Rage is uncontrollable once started not matter who you are. So do not start. Its OK to be mad at yourself but not to allow mad to reach even the beginnings of rage as all control is then lost for the rest of your golf round – or at least a bunch of holes.

ALLOW yourself a single “bother” if you must but recognise it leads to the Dark Side. Recognition is the key.

OK so how do we get to the unemotional observer status. Well go a search around here for Clear Keys. I showed a 78 year old how to get out of his own way yesterday with him saying Mary had a Little Lamb etc. He hit the best golf shots in ages as he let himself watch from afar rather than trying to control every aspect of his swing.

Perfection is hard if not impossible in golf. Perfectionists are amongst the hardest people to teach in golf as they set standards way above THIER still level. Not matter what THEIR level is. Give yourself a break, step back from the trees to see the forest and change the goal posts just a bit for less stress.

Looking for others balls is something that can be taken as a pain in the butt or an opportunity to think, hey at least they are not looking for my ball and see the lighter side of things.

We all have choices in life as to how we react to something that HAS happened. We deal well or not well with the past. Clear Keys will help you drop back into the present without all the emotional crap going on in your head.

I find it hard to “not care” for lack of a better term. When somebody asked me the other day why I take the game so seriously I just said “if you weren’t meant to take it seriously, they wouldn’t keep score”.

I cannot for the life of me understand how people can go out and play and just “enjoy the walk”. If that is all they care about – go and walk around a lake.

You must ‘care’. Its the level of care vs care that causes loss of control that is the underlying vein. If you take this game seriously then your game is suffering because of the wood from the trees.

It is OK to care but lets not become a stalker:)

Getting flustered can be destructive or constructive

the key is to turn around bad emotions to fire up the positive determination for a positive result
sure you mayb having a Bad day
but every shot is a new shot
and what you did you cant change that
you can best use it as a learning experience
and regroup for a new shot

walking to and searching for balls will give you a buffering period to cool down and regroup and refocus

sometimes trying too hard (the trying too hard syndrome) gets you into a viscious cycle, if you find that trying too hard is worsening the game, maybe you should learn some relaxation techniques eg deep breathing, cueing, visualization, combo of these to calm and relax a tense constitution (ie mind and body), things may turn around with these…..

At the life of the day Golf is just a Game and seldom life and death

Can’t figure out how you guys block quotes in the green shading, guess I’m as bad on computers as I am at golf. So cut and paste of swollen balls will have to do for now.

I find it hard to “not care” for lack of a better term. When somebody asked me the other day why I take the game so seriously I just said “if you weren’t meant to take it seriously, they wouldn’t keep score” cannot for the life of me understand how people can go out and play and just “enjoy the walk”. If that is all they care about – go and walk around a lake.

MBAS. It’s O.K. to get down on yourself over a bad shot or hole, but don’t let it over ride everything else. Have you ever had a round of golf without keeping score? Try it, you will then see what the enjoyment factor can be. Your there for the enjoyment of the golf, not to see how low you can shoot. Have a mate keep score for you and tell at the end of the round how you went. I think you will be surprised just how good you went because you weren’t trying to prove something to yourself or to anybody else for that matter.

It will probabl;y still be difficult for you because you will be constantly thinking about yourmate keeping score, that’s where Guru’s advice clicks in. Step outside the circle and see the entire forest, not jsut a couple fo trees. All sounds a bit philosophical and ho hum, but replace the anger by enjoying the walk around the lake and be surprised at the result.

Apart from all this, swaring would have to be the worst form of abuse on the golf course….

Have you read any of the Bob Rotella books?

I Used to get considerably angry – mainly swearing and when things got real heated giving the bag a good whack – but after reading “golf is not a game of perfect” I have calmed down considerably, and my golf has definitley improved. I now tend to laugh at those who swear and carry-on.

Cheers

Liam

Can’t figure out how you guys block quotes in the green shading, guess I’m as bad on computers as I am at golf.

Hit the “quote” button rather than reply and have a tinker:)

I had the same experiance as wrxdriver after reading “golf is not a game of perfect”

worth every penny

I had the same experiance as wrxdriver after reading “golf is not a game of perfect”

worth every penny

“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.”

agree

I cannot for the life of me understand how people can go out and play and just “enjoy the walk”.

It’s pretty simple. I don’t play or practice much so I don’t expect to score well. And the fact that I actually get a day to play makes me enjoy it even more.

By the sounds of it, maybe you’re playing too much and the expectations are not living up to the reality. Time to reconsider what you enjoy about the game or take a break.

By the sounds of it, maybe you’re playing too much and the expectations are not living up to the reality. Time to reconsider what you enjoy about the game or take a break.

Former Top 10 on the PGA Tour ISG Money List.

All good in theory – except I have just come back after having a good break. Been back for 6 weeks and playing shitty.

Frustrated in a way that is difficult for me to express (but I guess you get the general feeling).

I used to be a pretty good golfer (go me :)) but I cracked it if I didn’t shoot par on every hole, I was one of the top golfers in my club but no-one wanted to play with me because of this…thankfully I had an injury enforced layoff for about 8 years and have been playing now for about 18 months..I am not the greatest golfer on earth now, on 7 at the moment, but I enjoy the game much more, I still get shitty if I have a real bad shot but I have a sook and get over it in time to enjoy the walk to my ball with my mates…you have about 15 to 20 seconds of thought and action for each shot, multiply that by every shot you take in a round and even if you shoot 120 it is a small chunk of the 4 to 5 hour round.

I put it down to unrealistic expectations, simple fact is golf is a tough game, both with skills and on the mind. You have to keep a balance between trying to better yourself and beating yourself up because you don’t reach the dizzying heights you expect to play at every time.

I have read somewhere that Tiger thinks of nothing between shots and Ernie Els sings songs in his head, not sure if you can do this..I can’t, I take my mind off my crap shots by having a sneaky dummy spit directly after the bad shot to get it out of my system and talking footy or cricket with my mates and .

You could always do what a mate of mine does, he has 13 real clubs and 1 throwing club…funniest thing you will ever see, hits a bad drive, carefully puts his driver back in the bag and grabs his old 7 iron and throws it down the fairway, makes him feel better….he is such an expert he even advises to ‘throw the club where you are going so you don’t waste energy getting it’

Sorry this is so long… but the other thing to think about is if you are practicing all the time then maybe you are trying so hard to change something that really is not all that broke? – maybe have a week or two off the practice and see how it goes?

That’ll do Pig, That’ll do.

live4golf
great stuff
like that 13 clubs and 1 throwing club idea…good one

jus curios how low an handicap did ya go (when you used to b a pretty good player & and one of the top in yur club) ?

Guru,

I have a bit of an issue. I can’t seem to hit a bad shot without really getting the shits. The fuse is getting really short and anything less than perfection is setting me off.

I practise 6 days a week and I am not seeing the results that I was seeing this time last year.

Hell – I even took a divot out of a green on Sunday after missing a 6 foot putt.

I also seem to be getting drawn with a lot of high handicap golfers lately, and to be honest, they annoy me. I hate looking for other people’s balls all day.

Is alcohol going to be my only salvation?

mbas

Gary Glenday has boobs like the chick in my avatar.

It’s alcohol or religion or grow up. That can take years. I’m not looking down – I am still working on it after 63 years.

Wait till you feel good and decide.

Decide what sort of golfer you would like to be, not what you think you have to be.

Before that, decide what kind of character you would like to be, not what you think you have to be.

Then when you fail, try again and again until you are and play the way you like.

Everyone will want to play with you then.

I think I’d better retire.

Been back for 6 weeks and playing shitty.

Frustrated in a way that is difficult for me to express (but I guess you get the general feeling).

well then give it time. Take a lesson or two…..and reassess the situation.

Nothing worse than a club thrower that’s for sure :-/

throw a club = throw a racket in tennis

if that racket becomes unplayable during a pro tourney = a hefty fine

MBAS

I’m pretty pissed taht you took a divot out of a green, surprised no-one else picked you up on this – its unacceptable!

In saying that, as a former fuse blower myself, I do sympathise with your predicament.

So tips and places to go for help:

Buy “Every shot must have a purpose” by Pia Nilsson. There are very good exercises there to teach you the ‘art’ (and it is an art) of neutral reaction.

Consider buying “Train your golf brain” CD by Karl Morris – available on the net or at “Trained Brain dot com”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, realise that you as a person and you as a golfer are seperate entities. If you play poorly it does not make you a bad person. Once you realise this you gain control over your self esteem.

Hope it helps – and don’t go cutting up any more greens!

Made a concerted effort to keep inner calm today and did okay in trying circumstances.

Had 75 on a windy day.

The main problem was that I played with an Asian who was the worst golfer I have ever seen. Played off 20 and would have had close to 130. I normally don’t like playing with Asian golfers and this hasn’t changed my point of view.

Big Ball Guy….you need to try harder, there are still a few ethnic groups left for you to offend :)

I’m being honest. What’s the issue?

No issue, put the big angry dog away….just injecting a bit of humour…maybe 2 smilie faces will show this? :) :)

Fair ‘nuf