Inside the Golfer's Mind

• I will trust myself and my swing on every shot. I don't have absolute control of where the ball goes. I do have absolute control of whether I trust myself.
• I will execute my preshot routine on every shot.
• I will stay in the present. I won't speculate in the middle of the round about what my score will be, or where I'll stand in the tournament. I'll stop worrying about breaking 90, 80 or 70. I will not critique or analyze the shots I've taken. I will focus on each shot as it comes, and that will be the only shot I'll care about. When it's over, I'll see how I did.
• I will refuse to allow anything that happens on the golf course today to bother me or upset me. I will accept bad breaks and mistakes and be tough in adversity. I am going to be in a good mood and a great state of mind for the entire round today. I'll enjoy playing.
• I will trust my instincts and be decisive and committed.
• I will get looser freer and more confident as the round goes on, resisting the urge to get tighter, more careful and doubtful.
• I will love my wedge and putter today.
• I will let it go to my target on every shot.
• I will maintain a constant, ideal level of intensity on every shot.
• I will play to play great.

In setting goals, you need to take an honest inventory of your game. Maybe your ball-striking needs improvement. Maybe it's chipping and pitching or bunker play. Maybe it's something in your mental game. You might need to have a better attitude toward putting, or you might need to be better at staying in the present. Obviously, no one is perfect in any of these areas. But most players are better in some than in others. Give your inventory the form of a report card. If you're giving yourself B's and A's in most aspects of the game and D's in one, you know how to allot your time and energy. Your inventory will guide you in setting the process goals that are correct for you.

4. Know that nothing will bother or upset you on the golf course, and you will be in a great state of mind for every shot. When I see a golfer showing anger or irritation over a mis-hit shot, I know one thing immediately--the player is not staying in the present. The player's mind is in the past, focused on a shot that's already been played.

I view anger and frustration as impediments to playing the game as well as you can. For starters, if you're angry, you're not focused on the only shot that matters, your next one. On top of that, anger introduces tension into the body. Tension damages rhythm and grace. It hinders your effort to get your mind and body into the state where you play your best golf.

I prefer my clients to practice a virtue that's not fashionable at the moment. I want them to accept whatever happens to a shot and move on. Most people have been brought up in a culture that views acceptance as a weakness rather than a strength. It's viewed as giving in, giving up, not caring. It's definitely not very macho. We live in a society that talks proudly about "zero defects" and "zero tolerance." To an ambitious golfer, the natural tendency becomes refusal to accept mistakes. But in golf, because humans are flawed and the game is so difficult, mistakes are going to happen. Accepting them is not a weakness. It's an important part of getting stronger and mentally tougher, a part of resilience, of being able to hang in there during a round, of recovering from errors and finishing with a good score.

Padraig Harrington tells me that he's performed better since he made acceptance part of his preshot routine. As he prepares to hit a shot, Padraig reminds himself that whatever happens to it, he will accept it and go from there. This allows him to focus narrowly on his target and swing freely.

Acceptance, of course, is to be practiced on the course, during a round of golf. After it's over, it's fine to make a quick assessment of where you made your mistakes. It's fine to lay out a plan to improve your weaknesses. I'm not advocating accepting mediocrity and poor results. Acceptance doesn't preclude thorough preparation and practice to improve our skills.

5. Playing with a feeling that the outcome doesn't matter is always preferable to caring too much.
The biggest mistake most people make is to let how they play dictate their attitude. If the ball is going where they want it to go, they have a good attitude. If it isn't, their attitude is bad. They start thinking badly. When you're playing well, it's fine to go with the flow. But when you're playing badly, you need the discipline to control your thoughts and think only about the way you want to play.

Mastering this concept goes a long way in determining two critical outcomes. One is how good a player is going to get at golf. The second is how much fun the player will have along the way.

Of all the concepts I teach, staying in the present is perhaps the simplest. Yet it's one of the most difficult to practice.

I have clients who tell me staying in the present is no problem for them. But then they say something like, "I came to the 16th, and I'm thinking, this is a birdie hole ..."