The Mind and Golf
posted in golf psychology |By James Hau
Why do you even try to play golf ? No doubt every golfer has tried to answer that question while struggling to finish a round when nothing seemed to be going right. Perhaps it was in the hotel corridor and you kept getting strange glances as you used the hallway’s mirrors to check your position at the top of your backswing. Don’t worry - there was probably a fellow golfer standing there knowing exactly how you felt.
Golfers are members of a fraternity of millions. We have our own reasons for paying all that money for a club membership or greens fees, or for the privilege of being tutored by an esteemed teaching professional or for the right to hit another bucket of range balls that look like they should have been taken out of circulation when Jack Nicklaus still wear a crew cut.
The game gets its hooks into us , all right. Before you can get your thoughts focused the right way, you need to get your minds off golf. One tour player was a particularly tough case in this regard. He seemed never to be able to get his mind off golf. It was his life. He thought about the game morning, noon and night and was grinding himself into mental and physical exhaustion. I suggested he try a hobby - to find some diversion. I had about given up hope that he would, then one day I got a call from him
His voice was as excited as I have ever heard about it. I see what you meant. I bought some watercolors the other day and I have been painting away. “That’s great” I replied. “What have you been painting?” Golf course landscapes,” he said . I was stuck for an answer.
Why do golfers get hooked on the game ? What draws people to golf so that they are unable or at the least unwilling - to let go ?
Golf is an endeavour that offers intermittent reinforcement. That is, its rewards don’t come with every shot, every hole, or even every round. And psychological research has found that behaviours that are acquired on the basis of intermittent reinforcement are the behaviours most resistant to extinction. Playing the slot machines or smoking cigarettes are other examples. The slots dont pay off after every pull of the lever, of course, and that is what keeps the customers coming back for more. It is the anticipation of “the hit”. A cigarette smoker does not enjoy every smoke , but somewhere down the line, after a meal ,or with a drink, he knows that one will taste very good. The “hit” and the good cigarette are remembered - the losses and the bad cigarettes are forgetten.
Golf is no different. You are rewarded with the feelings of pride, accomplishment and joy when you strike the solid drive or hole the snaking twenty-footer. But not every shot goes your way, so you are constantly looking , and waiting, for the intermittent reinforcement. It is a powerful concept.
For people who have achieved a high level in their everyday lives, golf can be an addictive sport. High achievers love activities that are difficult to master, and golf is certainly one of those. ” You can never own the secret of golf” says former PGA champion Dave Marr. ” You just try to borrow it for periods of time” Unlike bowling, golf’s only “perfect game” exists in a golfer’s dreams. Even after extremely successful rounds, golfers can reflect on what might have been. Al Geiberger and Chip Beck , who hold the PGA Tour scoring record with 59s - Beck’s was shot in 1991 - still probably left the scoring tent considering the shot that got away.
In other words, golf is always an unfinished task. Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, and even Nicklaus have never completed golf. There is always more to learn, more to experience, more challenges to be met. It is interesting that we speak of rounds of golf, since true rounds have no beginnings or ends. This is how avid golfers view it. Since we never complete golf, we are always anxious to return to the course for another round. Our everyday life is an interruption that intrudes on our golf games.
Golf, however , is made difficult because it consists of two very separate mental components. The first is skill acquisition, the second is playing the game. The kind of personality that makes it easier for you to succeed at the former often makes it harder for you to excel at the latter. Learning how to hit pure, technically correct 5-iron shots with the proper trajectory, for instance, is a requisite to being a good ball-striker, but playing the game well demands a different approach. The perfectionistic attitude that lets you stay on the practice tee for hours and concentrate on learning how to hit that 5-iron can often get in your way on the course. Likewise, if you live by a “let it happen ” philosophy, which can help you as you play the game, it may not be beneficial during practice sessions. You need to be aware of these factors and your own personality in this regards.
