The Greatest Golfer in the World
The foundation of great golf, as in great anything, is a sense of self-confidence. Without confidence, there is no realistic way to expect yourself to think in a positive manner. The only thoughts which lead to effective golf shots are ones connected to a specific target, built on your visualization of effectively accomplishing that shot. This is goal-directed, positive thinking at its best.
Remember the famous adage: "What the mind can conceive, you can achieve!"
The foundation of confidence is believing in yourself, and I would like to suggest that you create your own foundation of being the greatest golfer in the world. What I am suggesting here is that you say to yourself and declare:
"I am the greatest golfer in the world!"
You may not yet be the greatest golfer in the world, but I would like to suggest that you begin to think like one.
There is some inherent logic to thinking this way, and it goes as follows. First of all, when you tell yourself "I am the greatest golfer in the world", then in order to truly have confidence, you need some skills. What would the greatest golfer in the world say to him or herself when (s)he doesn't know a certain shot? The greatest golfer in the world would say, "I'm going to learn this shot, and then I'm going to master it."
In order to be the greatest, you must be masterful, but to be masterful you must have knowledge. And, when you don't have knowledge, you either must learn that on your own, or turn to a teacher. We would all do ourselves well to spend money on lessons from master teachers, instead of keep buying the best equipment. The best equipment in the hands of some incompetent, is useless. Therefore, to make use of the best equipment, we need to have the skills for which to use it.
Let's imagine for a moment, that you have a fairly masterful set of skills for putting, driving, stroking irons, and even for getting yourself out of a sand trap or some deep rough. Then, imagine you're playing a round of golf. You're on a green which has a tricky putt, where ordinarily you might find your mind filled with doubts about the line, the speed, and/or the length of your stroke when you putt. A single doubt will certainly make it very unlikely that you will make the putt.
Remember: Doubt is the Foundation of failure!
As you can recall earlier, when you think about the rough, the trees, the sand, or any other hazard, we unconsciously find our way into that difficult place that we really wanted to avoid! just thinking about an obstacle, tends to let us focus on it and then automatically we go to it. [Note: The opposite is true: Focus on a target and he will tend to automatically go to it.] The basis for many errant shots has to do with thoughts involving doubt. Remember what I pointed out earlier: "what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve." Variation on this concept is that what your mind imagines, your body will carry out, automatically. This obviously becomes a problem when you focus on hazards and on things which can go wrong! You will tend to carry out what you just imagine going wrong. That is how our minds usually work.
Instead of having some doubtful thoughts here with this tricky putt, I would like to suggest that you ask yourself, "what would the greatest golfer in the world to here?" Obviously, the greatest golfer in the world would find the best way to stroke that ball rolling into the cup. Therefore, you begin the thinking process for solving a problem.
In this particular situation, the greatest golfer in the world would stand about 10 feet behind the ball and squat, while appreciating the texture of the grass, the sheen of the grass, the moisture on the ground, the degree to which the wind is blowing one way or the other, and the general curvature from your ball to the cup. The greatest golfer in the world would essentially understand the lay of the land in order to decide the correct direction the ball will flow on the way to the cup.
The greatest golfer in the world may even walk past the cup from the ball, and then walk around the flag, and walk back to the ball pacing it off while appreciating whether or not this other side was higher or lower than the first side. The greatest golfer in the world would appreciate this by just a sense of balance and feeling beneath his feet. As you walk in a loop around the line of the putt, the greatest golfer would be appreciating whether he/she was walking uphill and/or downhill. As a great golfer's walking, he is getting to know the lie of the green, the softness of the green, all the while creating some visual image in his mind to understand the context of how this ball might flow to the hole.
Then, this greatest golfer would stand back behind the ball, standing back at least 10 feet in order to get a realistic visual perspective of the lay of the land, and then would visualize in his mind the ball actually rolling along the target line, rolling up to and into the cup. He might even imagine the ball striking the bottom of the cup, but while imagining the ball rolling, he would imagine the speed with which it rolls.
Drawing a line from the ball through target line to the cup, while looking at the three feet in front of the ball where the line is drawn, he would then walk around and set the blade of the putter square to that line, and then set his body around that putter head. He would check that line again, and then pull the trigger, so to speak. He wouldn't move his head, or lower body during the stroke, and would patiently await the sound of the ball falling into the hole.
Perhaps the point is obvious already, being the greatest golfer in the world, you would then be solving whatever problem faces you throughout the round of golf. If you happened to miss a fairway and were behind some obstacle, you, as the greatest golfer in the world, would more than likely wanted to preserve your score. Therefore, most the time this greatest golfer would avoid hero shots. Instead, you would usually follows the rule, "never lose more than one stroke to “old man par” on any one hole." This means, get the ball back in play immediately, and to not lose more than a stroke. It's not a big deal to lose one stroke, but it would be demoralizing to lose more than one stroke because you just "had to" make that rescue, hero shots.
Once you are demoralized, you become tense, and you are much more likely to keep making mistakes, and a negative cycle takes over. The greatest golfer in the world would not allow this to happen, and would not allow himself to be demoralized.
The greatest golfer in the world will do his or her best to be consistent, accurate, and thoughtful in planning movement around the golf course. Effective course management is at the foundation for great scores. The greatest golfer in the world would take one hole at a time, and not bother to anticipate any other holes. Our great golfer would be consistent with his preshot routine, and would take time to relax and breathe easily before walking into the shots. He would visualize each shot and the target to which the ball is going, and would visualize actually executing the shot in his mind, before ever walking up to the ball.
The greatest golfer in the world is very clever, creative and thoughtful. If it means that he must execute a shot by hitting the ball backwards away from the direction of the hole in order to set up a more effective shot into the green, then so be it. He would shoot backwards, to get in position to play the most effective shots. There is no ego when playing like this, there is only carrying out a realistic plan within the scope of what you know how to do.
The greatest golfer in the world would be playing the golf course, and would not need to compare himself to the other players in the foursome. It would not matter to the greatest golfer in the world, whether the other three golfers in the foursome are using drivers, and/or other clubs, because the greatest golfer only plays within himself and only according to his plan. That means, he would weigh and measure each shot within his mind, comparing what faces him with what he knows how to do. If it means using two clubs longer than the others in the foursome, then that is just fine. The greatest golfer plays within himself, and never with others, and never with comparison. Instead, the greatest golfer focuses on the target, and will select the club which would let him get there, playing his own game.
The greatest golfer in the world is also very logical. He sets a plan for the round and for each hole, and then a plan for each shot, realizing that one depends upon the other. The greatest golfer will choose the best club to get the job done, not because of any desired to hit the longest drive, or even the straight shot, but only to hit the target. When you hit your first target, then you are in good shape to have a shot at hitting your second target, and then the third and so on. Masterful golf is about hitting your target, and accomplishing your goals. The greatest golfer in the world will use his best skills, as best he can for that particular day.
On a day when the greatest golfer goes out without being fully rested, he be intelligent enough to make his swing even slower and more rhythmical, and he will take one extra club to make the shots. He does not struggle with his fatigue, but works with it! Golf is not about struggle and is not about overpowering a situation, but is an opportunity to go with the flow of how you're feeling, of how strong you are that day, and how relaxed and/or tense you are. Sam Sneed used to talk about "dancing with the partner" that you have brought with you to the course, so to speak, thereby working with your slight changes in your swing for that day. If you're fading the ball that day, work with your fade, just as if you're looking the ball that day, you work with your hook, and do not struggle with it.
The greatest golfer in the world spends time before a round breathing easily, relaxing his muscles, and just as important, stretching out the muscles. Being lose and stretched out is actually more important than practicing your drives before a round. There is a synergy between your physical state and your emotional state, and therefore, the more relaxed you are, the better your decisionmaking, the freer you swing, and the more likely you are to achieve your goals.
If there is anything to strive for within the game of golf, becoming the greatest golfer in the world may be your objective, at least in the sense of attempting to acquire some of the attitudes, mental processes and behaviors of the greatest golfer. With each improvement of attitude, style of approaching the game, and behavior, your game will naturally improve. Let's look at the list of qualities which described the greatest golfer in the world.
The greatest golfer:
· Plays with self-confidence.
· Uses positive thinking before and throughout and after the round.
· Plays with mastery and uses his best shots.
· Becomes highly focused but only when focus is needed.
· Focuses on solution finding, not on what's wrong with the day or round.
· Plays target golf throughout the round. The focus remains landing on the target.
· Works a round with a plan in mind.
· Plays each hole according to the plan, and adapts when things go wrong.
· Remains patient, even when there are variations on what happens as compared to what you expected.
· Plays the course and not the opponent.
· Remains within himself, and does not try to keep up with the opponent in terms of distance.
· Spends time relaxing before the round starts.
· Takes some time during the round to stretch and remain lose.
· Stops thinking about a mistake quickly and refocuses on the plan.
· Let's go of thinking about both the great and not so great shot.
· Keeps a focus on the now.
· Walks away from each hole affirming something that he did correctly.
· Plays with a sense of trust in his swing, equipment and judgment.
· Make a commitment to carry out the plan.
· Never gives up, even when something discouraging happens.
· Always uses a pre-shot routine, for driving, iron play, sand play, chipping, pitching and putting.
· Goes with the flow of the swing for the day.
· Does his best with every single shot.
· Walks away from the errant shot and starts all over again with the pre-shot routine completely.
· Reviews only his best shots of the day. Mental practice is only for what is done well.
· Realizes that golfing still is a game, and the purpose is to enjoy while winning.
This is the package describing the most important attributes of our greatest golfer in the world. What you can do immediately is to begin to think like the greatest golfer in the world, keeping in mind the above attributes.
You can review them before the round and afterwards, but perhaps the best time to review them is at night before going to sleep.
During the course of a round, what you can ask yourself,
"What would the greatest golfer in the world do right here, now?"
When you're putting for example, and you ask this question, you then may imagine how the greatest golfer would go about making a commitment to get the putt in the hole. The greatest golfer in the world is very much like a child, because a child usually just thinks about getting the ball into the cup, without prejudice, predilection, and self-doubt. Life is really quite simple for the greatest golfer in the world, because the focus is keeping the plan, hitting the ball to the target spot, and getting the ball into the cup.
So during your next round, remind yourself to ask this question with every single shot. Just observe afterwards what your decision-making was in terms of the outcome of that round.
Then, after that round, change the question just very slightly:
"As the greatest golfer in the world, what did I learn from what went well?”
Rehearse what went well and nothing more.
Try this out for three months, and just notice what happens to how you think and how you feel when you're at the course, and afterwards. Remember: review the list of attributes of the greatest golfer in the world every night, until you play a round. In only takes about 30 seconds.
You may be pleasantly surprised.