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

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.