HUNTER MAHAN, who collecting his second US PGA Tour title with a win at the Phoenix Open this week, credits a lot of his success to Australian born sports psychologist Neale Smith.

Mahan says after his second placing at the 2002 US Amateur he always knew he had the game to win on the tour but needed help with his mental approach.

He turned to NSW south coast born Smith, a former tour player who has worked with a number of top professional golfers.

Neale recommends the following pre-shot routine to help remain cool and play consistent golf.

Step 1:

Collect the appropriate information for the shot. For example, gauge the yardage, the wind, pin placement, etc.
Step 2:

Select the shot that fits the situation and is also something that you’re comfortable with at that time. If you’re not playing your best today, be more conservative.
Step 3:

Imagine or describe what you are about to do. This will help create the intention of what you are going to do.
Step 4:

Connect to the feel needed to produce the shot. Most players connect with their practice swings. Some don’t rehearse at all. Find what works for you.
Step 5:

Aim your clubface, body, eyes and mind. These four key elements must be aligned to start the ball on the line you’ve planned.
Step 6:

Make a trusting motion using the cue that best helps you hit the shot you have planned. It may be a target cue, swing thought, swing feel, rhythm cue, or nothing at all — whatever works best for you. Direct your attention to what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. Fear of the potential result may get in the way of making a smooth, trusting motion.

Comment:

This all sounds like a lot and the last thing a club golfer wants to see is a player in front taking an age with every shot, but an effective routine can be accomplished in a short period of time – many pros only take around 11 to 12 seconds on their pre shot routines. They can even start as you are walking up to the ball.

The whole point is you are approaching every shot with a positive mental attitude, rather than standing their dithering with unwanted worries, distractions or mental wanderings.

THERE has long been anecdotal advice about not focussing too much on technique during a round, particularly in competition, and now a new study has proved the point.

UK and US scientists say they have established that too much analysis make a golfer’s game worse.

The researchers, from St Andrews University and the University of Michigan, say golfers focusing too much on technique between shots could be seriously affecting their performance because the brain focuses on language skills rather than motor skills.

Maybe that’s an insight into why golfers “in the zone” aren’t thinking about things like technique at all.

For the study, 80 golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Those who discussed their putting between strokes took twice as long.

The study found that when the mix of skilled and novice golfers tried again, those who had discussed the shot took longer to get the shots right as those people who had spent a couple of minutes engaged in other, unrelated activities. 

Simply describing one’s putting skill after it has been executed can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance

Psychology Professor Michael Anderson, from St Andrews University, said: “This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did.

“Novices, by contrast, were largely unaffected, and perhaps even helped a little, by verbally describing their movements.

“It’s a fairly common wisdom in sport that thinking too much hurts performance; during a game it can be an obvious distraction.

“However, what we found surprising is that simply describing one’s putting skill after it has been executed can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance.”

He said overthinking did not seem to affect novices because “they probably haven’t developed enough skills to forget in the first place” and claimed that top professionals would be less susceptible as they were very focused in their approach.

The researchers think the loss of performance was due to an effect called verbal overshadowing, which makes the brain focus more on language centres rather than on brain systems that support the skills in question.

The study marks the first time researchers have claimed to demonstrate that verbal overshadowing can adversely affect motor skills.

Prof Anderson said the findings may have consequences for people who take part in other sports.

“This observation may have repercussions for athletes who depend on effective mental techniques to prepare for events,” he added.

“Moreover, those who teach golf, or any motor skill, might be undoing their own talent in the process.”

MANY golfers have a much bigger reaction when they hit a bad shot compared to when they hit a good one.

They’ll beat up on themselves unmercifully for fluffing a shot, and don’t mind doing it publicly.

But hit a great shot and they’ll brush it off with little actual acknowledgement.

And that, according to leading golf psychologist Dr Bob Rotella, is not the way to build confidence in your game.

Because of the way our memory and subconscious works, memories are much stronger, have more influence and remain in our minds far longer when we attach strong emotions to them.

So, many golfers are reacting exactly the wrong way around, if they actually want to improve their game, or even their enjoyment of their game, that is.

By going over the top and getting really upset at bad shots they are ingraining that feeling in their minds and making it more likely to happen again.

When you hit a great shot, you don’t have to carry on like a public lair, but you can take a moment to inwardly savour it, and help to store away that feeling for future use.

In his book, The Golfer’s Mind: Play to Play Great, Rotella expands on the importance of building, and playing with, confidence in golf.

Given two players of equal skill, the more confident one will nearly always win, he says.

Confidence about a shot is no more than thinking only about the ball going to the target

Rotella recounts talking to Fred Couples the night before he won the 1992 Masters.

Couples told him that in his pre-shot routine he was thinking about the best shot he had ever hit with that club in his hands. Rotella wasn’t surprised when Couples won.

Rotella suggests keeping a note or record of your best ever shots.

If, unlike many of his clients such as Padraig Harrington, you can’t put a video together drawn from your television coverage, a notebook will do.

Rotella wrote The Golfer’s Mind as an easily digested, ready reference guide players can carry with them and refer to when they need it.

Each chapter features a list of the main thoughts or ideas to work with on each topic.

10 Thoughts on Golf Confidence

1. Confidence is knowing that if you play the golf you’re capable of, you will win or have a chance to win.

2. Confidence is being more comfortable as your score gets lower and you get in a position to win.

3. Confidence is feeling like a winner even if you are not the winner.

4. You should be more confident at the end of a round than at the beginning.

5. If you don’t grow in confidence with every year you play golf, your thinking needs adjustment.

6. Thinking confidently about your game should be no different than thinking honestly about your game.

7. A confident player thinks about what he wants to happen on the course. A player who lacks confidence thinks about what he doesn’t want to happen.

8. Given two players of equal skills, the more confident one will win nearly every time.

9. Confidence about a shot is no more than thinking only about the ball going to the target.

10. Confidence doesn’t come from a full trophy cabinet, it comes from within. 

The Golfer’s Mind and Rotella’s other books, including Golf is Not a  Game of Perfect and Putting Out of Your Mind are usually available at great value prices from the Australian Senior Golfer Bookshop.

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The Golfer’s Mind Part 1

When you walk onto a golf course you are only allowed to have 14 clubs, but you can carry around as many demons as you want.

Top golf psychologist Dr Bob Rotella has worked with the likes of recent major winners Padraig Harrington and Trevor Immelman and says it is impossible to overestimate the importance of the mind in golf.

Rotella believes golf is as much about self confidence and trust as it is about physical competence.

Rotella believes golf is as much about self confidence and trust as it is about physical competence

Rotella has written a number of best selling golf books and has distilled much of his teaching into a new book, The Golfer’s Mind, which is intended as an easy reference guide golfers can return to again and again when they need to refresh themselves with advice on the mental game.

ASG will be publishing a series of articles based on The Golfer’s Mind: Play to Play Great.

Firstly, here is a list of ten principles, or what Rotella calls “process goals” to take with you on your next round of golf.

As Rotella says: “If you follow them, you’ll give yourself the best chance to find out how well you can play in that particular round.

The Golfer’s Mind 10 Mental Game Goals

1. 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.
2. I will execute my pre-shot routine on every shot.
3. I will stay in the present moment. 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 not breaking 90, or 70. I will refrain from critiquing or analysing the shots I’ve taken. I will focus on each shot as it comes, and that will be the only shot I care about. When it’s over, I’ll see how I did.
4. 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.
5. I will trust my instincts and be decisive and committed.
6. I will get looser and freer and more confident as the round progresses, resisting the urge to get tighter, more careful, and doubtful.
7. I will love my wedge and my putter today.
8. I will let the ball go to my target on every shot. (And in other words firstly have a specific target to aim at)
9. I will maintain a constant ideal level of intensity on every shot.
10. I will play to play great, not play not to play poorly.

The Golfer’s Mind, Play to Play Great, by Dr Rob Rotella with Bob Cullen, is available in the Australian Senior Golfer Bookshop. Also check out Rotella’s other books including Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, Putting Out of Your Mind and Your 15th Club: The Inner Secret to Great Golf.

See The Golfer’s Mind here for US $16.29 (Hardcover) plus postage or less for used.