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I dont know what it has been part of this season, I am able to get the round going quite nicely, and I feel comfortable but then when I hit one bad shot I seem to go into overdrive, does anyone else do this? where you are looking to just get the ball in the hole and hope you haven't lost the ball etc. It forces more errors and just makes your heart race and unsettles you.

For example this weekend, I had around 70 yards left into a par 5 into wind for my 3rd shot, perfect angle and I know 9/10, or 10/10 if I was practicing I could get the ball around the hole just with a good look at birdie but it seems when I maybe have a good score or I am looking for that birdie I just go like jelly? I have the perfect practice swing but my normal swing is flimsy and I just hit it to short and it stops up and Im like, did I just do that? I annoy myself as I am thinking why didnt my arms just put enough power into that?

Its also the same with putting, my arms just go silly and I loose my feel. This happens small amounts in a competition round but it determines me having a good score sometimes, to a bad score or just finishing a good score off. I try my hardest not to let this happen to often, but it happens one to many times and I need to cancel it out.

I'm pretty sure its my mental game, as I said mind = overdrive and forced shots = errors


Anyone else have the same experience? Thanks for reading

It sounds like you have multiple issues at the same time.

The first seems to be that you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself at times. I would recommend the Golf is not about Perfect book (title is something like that). Basically, what you have to realize is that you are going to make mistakes. The key is to forget the past shot and focus on your upcoming shot only.

The second advice I would recommend is that you should take your practice swing as if the ball is on the ground and then swing the club for real as if the ball was not even there. You must have a good swing to be a 5 handicap. You just have to trust your swing and let it go.

Just some thoughts...hope it helps.

If your handi is a 5 and you were the runner up for the English junior championship, it is on the high side and I am guessing that this season it hasn't been happening for you...easier said than done, but you need to take the pressure off yourself like andy said, remove some of the expectation from your game and allow yourself to just play, making good and bad shots...deep breathing does wonders as does stepping away from a shot where you don't feel composed...I have been working on preshot routines including waggles, alignment checks, etc...so that I can disengage the brain and just flow into a shot...seems to be working and my results are improving...

yes im the same, if i hit a bad shot i get all negative and stuff, couple of weeks back it got too much and i havent played golf since

I liked Fearles Golf by Gio Valiente quite a bit; its easy to read and will get you focused!!

What do you do for work? Do you analyze all day (left brain) or are you more creative in your work (right brain)? Think about whether your golf game mimics your daily life in some way?

With that being said, the bottom line is you need to let go of "looking good"! When you are under pressure and don't perform (yet do fine without pressure), there may be an underlying fear of failure (or success), which is pretty common as your handicap comes down.

You play with the ProV1, a ball that spins. Next time you play and have 70 yards in, visualize the ball going 10 feet past the flag and sucking back. Become more of a feel player using visualization to achieve your goal. Golf is not a perfect game, don't expect to "swing" perfectly. The concept is get the ball in the hole!

Staying away from the game isn't the answer, unless you are playing the game in your mind, which I suggest all of my students do. That is a good place for you to start. See yourself playing the game as you want to play it. If this new to you, with practice, you'll see you get better at it.

Good Luck and enjoy the process! Feel free to contact me or see my hypnosis audios on my site that might be helpful.

Once you have hit the ball its to late to do anything about it so why let it get to you. Forget it dont dwell on it and deal with the next one

I get ticked dur a bad hole eg I hit a good drive on a shortish par 4. Should be able to get on the green w/chance at birdie/easy par. I stick the PW in the ground and have to scramble for boggie or worse. Really lights me up. Saving grace is that for some reason, I put that hole behind me and focus on my next tee shot. I don't carry the negative thoughts to the next hole.

I think a lot of us when we have a bad hole think we have to make up for it by making a brilliant shot on the next hole. We set ourselves up to fail again when we don't meet those expectations and get even more annoyed. We also on an individual shot start thinking about the final score we want rather than the shot at hand. We see an up and down in our minds and marking down that par when we should only be thinking how to make this present shot.

Thanks for the great advice everyone, this relates to me very much
With that being said, the bottom line is you need to let go of "looking good"! When you are under pressure and don't perform (yet do fine without pressure), there may be an underlying fear of failure (or success), which is pretty common as your handicap comes down.

I try to be as creative as I can in my my practice but I do analyze. I have lessons reguarly, I usually hit some balls on the range, play 18, do alot of work on my short game, and then I hit some more balls, concentrating on what im learning, maybe not getting alot of balls but taking my time on a small amount. The underlying fear of failure or success is a big part of things that run through my head and I think its what makes me sometimes when Im right there.

Thank you very much :)

yes i go through it all the time.. its completely normal i think.. ill have a good round a lot of times.. i need to star out good and get into a real good rythnm and get a good feel of everything.. but if i start out bad or have one bad habbit.. you can say good bye to my round LOL yeahh i do that sometimes.. a good bit actually.. so i can feel where you are comin from.. it sucks big time.. that was actually my problem mostly this season..

There are two parts to our minds, the conscience mind, and the sub conscience mind. The sub conscience mind is a lot better at performing athletic endeavors than our conscience mind is. In fact, when we are experiencing the "zone", that is our sub conscience mind at work.Our sub conscience actually doesn't see any thing negative. It ignores anything that is negative. But our conscience mind is not like this at all. In fact it prefers to dwell upon negative things. So as you get into a rhythm, your conscience mind searches for negative stuff to focus on. It sabotages a player. If you get where you may have a career score, it tells you that this isn't like you, and you start to fall back. When your day is off, it reaffirms that with thoughts like this is me I deserve this. So the trick is to get your sub conscience to take over. When and how is the issue.

The when part is easy. Our conscience mind is very good at analyzing. We use it to take the yardages, and adjust for all the various conditions we're faced with. We take wind, and moisture into consideration. We look for elevational changes. We look at the lie itself. How cold is it? We look at all we can and adjust and choose a shot and our club. We make a plan. That is what the conscience mind is good for. It's the best at that part, the making of the plan.

The conscience mind likes being in charge. It wants it. It will fight to stay in charge. Not the sub conscience. It couldn't care less. The reason is, though the conscience mind sucks at the athletic part, it doesn't see negative stuff, so it literally doesn't know that. It will allow the conscience mind to run stuff, because it couldn't care less who's in charge. So getting the sub conscience mind to take over is the hard part.

A quiet mind is the trick. If you can learn to shut down the thinking part ( the conscience mind at work) then and only then will the sub conscience take over. That little trick takes training, just like having a pre shot routine takes training. If you don't ingrain that pre shot routine during your practice session, you will only be sporadic with it at best. And then when you do need that routine, you'll likely forget, and it will fail you when you need it. Training to quiet your mind is the same. It must be ingrained.

I myself use a swing trigger, so my mind can not fill up with conscience thoughts. The swing is over and I have swung with out using my conscience mind. No thoughts at all. No swing thoughts, nothing. And because my mind is not full of stuff, my sub conscience takes over. It swings the club. And guess what? It is very very fast. It can redirect the club halfway down on a swing that is moving at 100 MPH and traveling only about 12 feet at that rate of speed. That is fast my friend. A fraction of a second. And still the sub conscience can make changes halfway through that swing. That is part of why you want it doing the work.

Now there are books that help you to understand this part of golf. Players today hire sports psychologist. But some of these professionals have written books for your use. I came to understand this issue by reading a book titled " The 30 Second Swing" It teaches how to use the sub conscience, and other issues such as strategy and how to make correct choices based upon your own actual abilities. This book allowed me to make the next step in my scoring . I too used to jack up my scores right when I was at a point where I could go low. There is a lot of reading material out there for you to choose from. So take a few minutes sometime to look into this area. With some work, you can put those days of folding like a lawn chair behind you. Good luck, and it can be learned.

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