The Mental Side of Golf

Trust your swing-An experiment in post-hypnotic
suggestion-Don't worry-Shrug off the bad shot-
The competitive test-Keep attacking

  Here and there in the course of my analysis of the technique reference has been made to the mental side of golf, a game which will always attack your nerves and exploit your imagination if you allow it to.

  Various estimates of the extent to which golf is mental as distinct from the purely physical have been expounded in locker-room and in print.  Some pundits, amateur and professional, have even maintained that golf is as much as seventy-five per cent mental.

  I do not propose to venture an opinion on a matter which must vary according to the make-up and the outlook of the individual.  But of this I am convinced.  No game throws out a stronger challenge to the temperament of the player.  Some face this challenge and beat it, but others never quite come to master their emotions and in consequence never achieve all of which they are capable.

  X may have a fine method but a suspect temperament. Y may be ideally equipped temperamentally but his technique will show obvious flaws.  Both X and Y will meet with a certain degree of success, but neither will attain the standard which could have been his if he had overcome his weaknesses, of temperament in the case of X, of technique in the case of Y.

  The instructor, like the doctor, can only prescribe so far.  Just as the doctor must have the co-operation and the will to get well of his patient, so the golf instructor requires perseverance and determined effort on the part of his pupil.

  The teacher of golf can do best for his pupil by helping him to acquire a sound and lasting method, making sure that he understands what he is trying to do, and why, and warning him against allowing other considerations, temptations and fears to encroach upon the overall objective of reproducing the shaped swing and the timed delivery which, unaided, will do all that can possibly be done in dispatching the ball from point A to point B.

  That is why I set out to equip a pupil with a shaped swing and a good delivery, a technique which will give him full confidence as soon as he steps up to the ball, if only he will realize it.

  The top players put their trust in their swing, particularly the great ones.  It is true that when that swing is not working at its best they have to buckle down to "scrambling" their figures, but no one knows better than they themselves that they cannot "scramble" indefinitely.  Maybe they will get by for one round or part of a round in a 72 hole tournament but they must get it working smoothly again without delay if they are to stay in the race.

  The immortal Bobby Jones, the Emperor as he was known, fought a tremendous battle with his temperament for some years.  That he eventually mastered it was due as much as any other factor to the confidence he placed in his own ability to swing the golf club.

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