The Game of Golf

Posted by Garret Beal on Nov 30, 2010 in Telegram Past News

In addition to golf clubs, you have to use your head to play golf.  Primarily, golf is a game that requires mental focus and patience. If you get angry and lose your focus in this game, you can forget about shooting a low score. The object of the game is to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as you can. The challenge is that there are about a million factors that can work against you every time that you swing the club.  Therefore, the first lesson of the mental poise is to acknowledge that things will go wrong.  Next, develop a strategy to help you release anger and frustration as quickly as possible to allow you to focus on the next shot.

The pros are experts at staying calm when something goes wrong. If you get angry or frustrated over one little thing you’re whole round could be shot. There are methods of getting over your anger. For instance, you can preset a number to count to in your head and give yourself that amount of time to be mad after a bad shot. Pace during the count and promise yourself that when you have counted off that number, you have to be over your anger.

Golf is also a game where you have to play under pressure. There are many amateurs that could not make it on tour because every time they were in a stressful situation, they made bad mistakes. If they don’t have a strategy to release the anger and frustration, it just builds and accumulates with each bad shot.  Eventually, they find themselves several strokes off and don’t make the cut.

In Golf, you have to be able to bounce back from your mistakes. Releasing anger is one method, but you also must have fun. A bad shot, or even a bad round, does not define you as a golfer.  So when you slice it off the tee, or over shoot the green; suck it up. Remind yourself that you are out there because you love the game and step up to that crappy lie with confidence that the very next shot could be a chip in to save par. You can become a hero as quickly as you can choke, so never weaken, just keep concentrating on the next shot.