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Better focus in golf is all about having a clear process to follow and then learning how to control your attention.

We can’t simply can’t fully apply ourselves to continued improvement without being able to do this, and here’s how to do it:

Better Focus in Golf: Having a Clear Intention

Focus in golf is when your intention for your focus is currently aligned with what you are actually directing your attention to.

This is why the mental scorecard for golf is so important, as it reminds you want you want to focus on. So the first step is deciding on what you actually want to focus on i.e. what is in your Pre Shot Routine, what you will focus on after a bad shot, in between shots, etc.

Better Focus in Golf: Being Present

Being present is when your focus is 100% on what you are doing now, not what just happened, or what might happen in the future. The intention for your focus in golf is aligned with what you are actually directing your attention to. When you are doing this, your mind is quieter, you have a deeper connection with what you are doing, and it’s more likely that your physical movement will be fluid and uninhibited.

The journey to your goal is going to be full of challenges and failures along the way. In a game as difficult as golf, there will always be more failures than successes. 

Your approach to these challenges and failures is also known as your mindset for golf, and it’s a huge factor in your overall success. The good news is that your mindset for golf isn’t fixed, and we can continually work on it and develop the growth mindset of a champion. 

How do you view failure?

Do you see it as an indication that you are not good enough or that it’s a way to learn how to be better?  

Do you play with fear of making mistakes because of what failure would say about you to others? 

The studies of Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford University prove how mindset affects learning and skill development. She concludes that people who exhibit more of what she calls a “growth mindset” to learning, viewing failure as a way to learn most effectively, and seeing challenges as a positive, are more successful in the long-term. The opposite of a growth mindset is called a fixed mindset which describes a person who sees their ability as fixed and hence they are less concerned about the learning and more concerned about the result as it speaks to how good they are. In the context of golf, I call these two different mindsets and types of golfers, Mastery and Ego Golfers. 

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” – Greek philosopher Epictetus 

Golf mirrors life in so many ways, which is why the game is so great and there’s so much to it. One of those ways is having to deal with the frustrations and setbacks when things don’t go our way. In a game with such a fine line between success and failure, this is an inevitable part of our journey. How we respond to challenges and failure – in golf and in life – is a big factor in our long-term success and overall happiness. 

Immediately after hitting a poor shot is one of those times. If we are not able to choose the best response, those initial feelings of disappointment can quickly turn into a loss of confidence and affect the mental state we bring to the next moment. 

Picture the scene, you’re about to tee off on the first hole of a tournament. You’re feeling nervous and uncomfortable because this tournament means a lot to you, and you want to get off to a good start. The gathering of people around the tee box doesn’t help either. You take a deep breath and go through your pre shot routine but you make a tentative swing and the ball spins away and goes out of bounds. You’re a little frazzled by what just happened and despite your best efforts to calm yourself down, your re-load isn’t much better and finds the trees. There is a sinking feeling when you quickly realize you are staring a triple bogey or worse in the face. Not the start you wanted. I’m sure you’ve experienced something similar, we all have. How you deal with this feeling and reset yourself, can make or break your round. 

Why is a Post Shot Routine important?

On the golf course and in tournaments:

Although most golfers know this to be true, they spend very little time practicing in a way that will help them to adapt to the changing (external and internal) conditions between practice and play. Instead, they over-practice the technical and don’t train their “performance skills” such as focus, dealing with consequences and internal state management.

Although the golf course is the best place to practice (after all, that’s where we play the game), most of us have more frequent access to driving ranges and practice facilities. For this reason, it’s important to find ways to simulate what we experience on the golf course and in tournament play, so we can improve our performance skills and become better at executing our best technical skills on the course.

I should clarify that I’m not implying that a golfer shouldn’t practice technique for golf – of course we need to work on technical skill development. But if you are to become a player who performs well under pressure, you’ll need to allocate time in every practice session to develop your mental game of golf by doing Pressure Practice For Golf.

Pressure Practice For Golf, trains you to:

I have plenty of pressure practice for golf drills and ways to create a competitive environment in the Golf State of Mind Practice book. In addition to the challenges in the book, your imagination is a very helpful tool in simulating the pressure of the real thing.

Before you go to your session, think about different situations which would change your internal state to be ready to use them in practice. Create vivid representations of them in your mind i.e. who you are playing with, the tournament, the golf course, the colors, the weather, etc.

“I used to write down that I want to win five times, I want to win a major, I want to win The Race to Dubai, I want to win the FedEx Cup…but I can’t control it. There’s so many other variables in there. I’d rather set goals that are objective and measurable, that I’m in control of.” – Rory McIlroy

As I go through the goal setting process for the students I work with, we start with their dream goals (and motivation for achieving them), then we shift focus to goals that the player has more control over.

Trying to win doesn’t work

Why not set goals for tournament wins? After all, isn’t that what we want?

Of course we all want successful outcomes, but aiming our sights on that form of success can hold us back from it.

Making our measure of success about where we finish in a tournament or the score we shoot (the final outcome), adds pressure to it which can interfere with doing the things we need to do (in the moment) to continually progress. Think about a round of golf, if hitting each shot as best you can and following your pre shot routine is the goal (among other things that are on your mental game scorecard), there’s going to be less trying and pressure compared to “the success of this round is all about where I finish”.

The short game is the area of the game that requires the most use of fine motor skills, which is why some players can struggle. Because precision is required (touch, contact, face control, etc.), a player’s mental state is a huge factor.

If you don’t have confidence, focus and commitment to your short game shots, you won’t be able to access your best physical skills, no matter how good they are.

Understanding How Fear Affects Short Game Confidence

Players who are struggling with short game confidence feel more pressure and fear around it, so the first step to getting better is understanding how this affects the execution of a short game shot.
I hear all the time how a player has a “great short game in practice”, but on the course it disappears. The reason: fear.

Fear makes you focus more on what could go wrong, rather than the outcome you desire. Focusing on the possible negative outcomes such as poor contact (hitting thin or fat shots), what the reaction will be from your playing partners, not making a fluid swing and throwing away strokes takes focus and energy away from what is most important. This fear can also cause physical changes as heart rate and muscle tension rises.

These changes in mental and physical state mean that the intention for the shot is lost, the mind and body are not relaxed, and the messages being sent to the muscles are unclear. Let’s take a look at how you can reduce fear and build short game confidence.

As you set your goals for the new year, I’d like you to think less about what you want to achieve and more about the person/player that you want to become. 

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t set outcome goals. I think you should know what you are working towards, why and how you are going to achieve it. Time is precious and we need a plan to allocate our time most effectively. Goal setting for golfers can be inspiring and motivate us to put in the effort each day. 

However, if the only goals we have are results based goals, there are drawbacks to the approach, such as:

1. It takes us away from the present

If we focus too much on what we want to achieve, we can miss out on the journey. If you are always doing something now to achieve something in the future, you are not fully experiencing the moment you are living in. If we focus too much on our future selves, we take valuable energy away from being our best selves in the present. 

 It was fantastic to see Tiger Woods making birdies again last weekend at the PNC Father Son Championship. Let’s hope it was a sign of things to come and he can make it back to his best again and compete in the majors in 2022. 

It was interesting to hear some insights from Tiger about how he is being a parent to a junior golfer, his son Charlie. He said in a recent interview with Golf Digest that:

“His temper carries over into another shot, another shot, another shot and compounds itself. [I said to him] Son, I don’t care how mad you get, just as long as you’re 100 percent committed to the next shot. That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing. Once you understand that concept, then I think you’ll get better.”

At his peak, Tiger had the strongest mental game in golf and it was undoubtedly why he was able to dominate for so long. But what few of us realize is that he worked on it. Hearing nuggets like this give us a look into the work he did, such as how he responded to bad shots and got himself ready to hit the next one. Like Tiger is sharing with his son Charlie, these are great lessons to instill in youngsters if you are a coach or parent to a junior golfer. 

Responding To Feelings

After hitting a shot, any number of different feelings can arise – it could be joy and excitement from hitting a good one, or disappointment or frustration from a poor one. Whatever feelings arise, you don’t have control over them. What you do have control over, is your response to those feelings. If you’re a parent to a junior golfer, helping them manage the feelings that arise in a round is an important part of helping them get the best out of themselves. 

When I give a playing lesson to a new student and ask them where their focus of attention was before and during a shot, I rarely find that it was on the same things. Apparently, golfers are very good at training their swings, but not as good at training their attention. The mind can become distracted, unfocused, and more concerned about the movement of the swing than the intention for the shot. Most golfers “go through the motions” during their Pre Shot Routine and convince themselves that they are focused, but really they are unaware of where they are directing their attention. 

External Focus For Golf

The swing and stroke needs to be trusted, and guided not by conscious thought about it, but by a sensory connection with the target and intention for the shot. When we are able to place our attention on what we are trying to do with the golf ball or the effect of our movement (impact) rather than the movement itself, it’s called External Focus for golf. Studies by the likes of Professor Gabriel Wulf show that generally speaking (and even more so for the short game and putting) having an external focus is the most effective way to play. When we become too focused on what we need to with the body (called “Internal focus”), energy is directed away from the intention for the shot and towards thinking about the swing. By doing this, the intuitive “athletic” mind, which is needed to play the shot, is pushed out of the process. 

As Bobby Jones once said: “the golf swing is too complex a movement to be consciously controlled”. 

A Holistic Approach Is Needed

One of the problems is that golf coaching and information to help golfers lower scores is, generally speaking, very technical. Few coaches teach players how to access the athlete within, and instead they have them trying to achieve a multitude of “correct” positions in their swing. I’m by no means undervaluing the importance of the technical aspects of the game (nor am I saying that you shouldn’t play with a “swing thought”), but my view is that it needs to be taught using a more “holistic” approach. 

As a golfer hits more poor shots during a round, it can cause them to become increasingly focused on the mechanics of the swing which further distances them from their intention for the shot, creating tension and a loss of rhythm and tempo. 

If I was to ask you what “thinking” is, you might refer to it as activating your brain to solve a problem or to “think through” something. However, as much as we like to think we have control over our thinking, most of it is automatic or “subconscious”. How we think and feel in certain situations is mostly predetermined by our “thinking patterns” and recent memories.
In fact, neuroscientists say that up to 95% of our mental and physiological processes happen without us being aware of them happening.

This is actually a good thing. As I’m sure you’ve experienced, your best golf is when you are playing with little thought – you are playing subconscious golf. However, playing subconscious golf is not much good if what’s in your subconscious is negative and creates feelings of fear and worry.

In this article, I’m going to share some powerful techniques for “priming” your subconscious daily and during your rounds to create a feeling of confidence and give you access to your best skills under pressure.

The Two Minds

In his book “Thinking Fast and Slow”, psychologist and Nobel Prize winner (in Economics), Daniel Kahneman explains that most of our decisions are made using what he calls “System 1” the automatic, intuitive mind.

The logical and analytical mind, which he calls “System 2” is used very little in comparison. The reason that System 1 is used to do the majority of our “thinking” is about energy efficiency – it is faster and uses less energy to operate than System 2.

The Ryder Cup week is one of the most exciting events in professional sport. Major championship golf is high adrenaline stuff, but The Ryder Cup takes it to another level. Add in the team aspect, playing for your country/continent and the noisiest fans in golf and you get the high pressure atmosphere that has created so many great moments over the years. No doubt this year will be no different.

The reason we love The Ryder Cup is because of what’s at stake and watching how the players perform under the pressure. To be a successful Ryder Cup player requires a top notch mental game and proven strategies to diffuse pressure. Here are my views on what the players will have to deal with this week and the strategies they will use to adapt to it.

How does The Ryder Cup pressure affect the players?

Most players who have played in The Ryder Cup say it’s the most pressure they’ve ever played under. The pressure comes from not wanting to let down their teammates and their country, with the world of golf watching. They all want that feeling and the legacy of being on a winning Ryder Cup team, you can tell that from the passion that exudes during the 3 days.

Pressure affects us in different ways – what’s important is that you know how it affects you.
The pressure that the players will feel on the first tee of The Ryder Cup might be similar to the pressure that you’ve felt in some of your rounds. Heart racing, hands shaking, a racing mind, etc. That first tee shot will be uncomfortable, there’s no doubt about it. The key is to prepare for it and know what you intend to do. Pressure limits our ability to direct conscious thought, so you’ll need to make sure that you’ve prepared for it well. There’s no winging it when you’re playing in The Ryder Cup. What mental strategies for golf would you use?

How to deal with the pressure of the ryder cup

The brain’s default is to think of what could go wrong, so it’s important to override that by focusing on the possibility of success. Prompt yourself to think about what success looks like. Remind yourself of the times in the past that you’ve played well under pressure. Like any “big” event in your life, you’ll benefit from rehearsing it. Using mental imagery or “visualization for golf”, you can get an immersive experience that can create the feelings of pressure and you can run through in your mind how you want to behave and what actions you’ll take.
Change your perspective on pressure – it’s a privilege! The greats of the game are able to embrace it and see it as an opportunity. If you can get past those feelings of discomfort you can use the energy to your advantage.

One of the most common reasons that I see players fail to reach their potential is because their performances are sabotaged by a fear of failure. This fear can often cause what we know as choking in golf.

Such fears could be:

What is fear?

Fear is a normal part of the human experience and it’s not wrong to feel it. Simply put, it’s the mind’s projection of a future negative (or painful) event that impacts how you think and feel in the present.
Think of any scenario that would make you feel uncomfortable (a popular one for most is giving a speech in front of a large group) and immediately a movie will play out in your head and change the way you feel inside. We experience the stress or fear response to various degrees – butterflies, sweating, increased heart rate and possibly shaking hands.

Why does fear exist?

The purpose of fear is to help us survive and avoid pain. In the past, fear kept us away from large predators. In the present day, it’s purpose is more so to keep us away from the threat of emotional pain, rather than physical. What we fear can vary from person to person, but it’s our subconscious telling us that we should prepare ourselves for danger or try to avoid it all together.

“Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.” ~ Jack Nicklaus

I agree with Jack 100% – that confidence is a huge factor in a player’s success, but building and sustaining it requires work. But what sort of “work”?

Research shows that up to 70% of our confidence is trainable and has nothing to do with the personality traits we were born with.

In this week’s lesson, I’d like to show you 7 ways to begin building confidence for golf and life, from the inside out.

1. Self Talk

We become the stories we tell ourselves every day. Do you think you are great? You should. Tell yourself why you think you are great and why you believe you can achieve your goals, every day. I do this as part of my daily morning routine.

Mental mistake 1: Too much ego

“Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.”– Ryan Holiday, Author of “Ego is The Enemy”

We all have a bit of ego in us, but more successful players are more in control of it. 

Firstly, what is ego? 

From my research, there are several psychological definitions and interpretations of it. Personally, I  think of it as a drive to increase our sense of self-worth or standing with others through being good at something, in our case, golf. 

The ego seeks pleasure, validation and improving/maintaining identity through achieving external goals such as winning, shooting a low score, or impressing others. If we shoot that low score or get that decent finish in a tournament, then we will be happy, if we don’t we won’t be. 

“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden, UCLA Basketball Coach

Over the years that I’ve been coaching the mental game of golf to all levels of golfer, I’ve concluded that one of the biggest factors in a junior golfer’s long term development is how their parents and coaches define their success.

For most golfers (and athletes in general), the measure of success is simple – it’s the end result, their score, place in the tournament, and for some, how others perceive them. Vince Lombardi summed this perspective up best with his famous line: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”.

But is this really the best way to measure success to improve long-term performance and what we should teach our kids?

Our junior golfers are constantly seeking our approval and trying to impress us. They are heavily influenced and shaped by what they hear from us and how we respond to them.

I often get asked if there are any exercises that can be practiced away from the course that can improve your mental game of golf.

Fact is, the mental game of golf could essentially be called “the mental game of life”. How you are off the course (mentally), is reflected on it. i.e. how well you can focus, deal with stress and challenges, use techniques to be confident, etc. is the same whether you are playing golf or not. This is why you can work on these skills as you go about your daily life and at the same time, improve your mental game of golf.

I’m always trying to find ways to improve my overall well being and productivity and here are 7 of them I’ve found to be very effective during my days.

Habit 1: Make Your Bed

How you’ll improve your mental game of golf: self-discipline, keeping a sense of order

What you do as soon as you wake up can affect the success of the entire day. 
When the pandemic started in March 2020 and most people had to start working remotely, many were enjoying the prospect of being able to work in their pajamas and not have to do all the things that we normally do to start our days, like making our beds. Hopefully for them that got old quickly. 

After Phil Mickelson’s incredible win at the PGA Championship, he spoke about some of the techniques that he’d been using to prolong his career and become the oldest winner of a major at the age of 50. The longevity of Phil’s career (his first PGA Tour victory was over 30 years ago) is not only because he stays physically strong and flexible, but because he strengthens his mental game too. He said:

“I’m trying to use my mind like a muscle and just expand it”.

Whatever goals you are pursuing, whether in golf or otherwise, here are 5 mental skills that you’ll need to hone if you are to achieve them.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how he:

1. Phil improved his focus and ability to be present

After the Wells Fargo Championship a few weeks before the PGA Championship, Phil said:

Junior golf is more competitive than ever. There are more and more tournaments each year and a greater depth of talent and ability in every age group. To be competitive and reach a high level, a junior golfer not only needs good technical skills, but they need to develop a mental game that can allow them to access those skills under the pressure of such intense competition.

From my 15 years spent working with junior golfers on the mental game, I know that they can sometimes struggle with the following, all of which can prevent them from playing their best game in tournaments:

Parents and coaches have a big influence over the development of a junior golfer’s mental game and how well they cope with and overcome these struggles.

What they say before and after rounds can affect their junior’s state of mind and performance. When I do remote mental golf coaching sessions (link) with a junior, a parent or coach will often join us in the sessions, to learn the strategies to help them improve their junior’s mental game.

Fortunately, juniors are very “coachable” and can learn new mental skills and change thinking patterns quickly. If you are a parent or coach of a junior, I’d like to share 5 ways that you can begin working on it.

Playing Golf In The Zone

Whenever I ask players to describe their mental state during their best rounds, they all say very similar things, such as:

The state of mind that these players are describing is synonymous with “the zone” or “Flow State”, which I’m sure you’ve experienced at least once. Ironically, it happens when you least expect it to.

But what usually follows this description is the question: “How can I feel like that more often?” Most of us just accept that this optimal state of mind for golf is something that only happens at random and we can’t do much about when it shows up.

Although we can’t “try” to get into the zone, we can train ourselves on and off the course so that golf in the zone can be accessed more readily and more frequently. In this article I’ll give you 5 simple ways to do it.

“Flow is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than we were.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

1. Have a daily morning routine

How you start your day has a big effect on what you achieve during it and how much you grow. Every day is precious and your morning routine can remind you of the importance of it. Most of the world’s most successful people start their day early enough to go through a daily morning ritual which sets the tone for a great day. If you think you “don’t have time” to spend 30-45 mins to practice meditation, visualization, gratitude and set goals for the day, then think again as it’s worth every minute of the time spent (and you more than get the time back with increased focus, energy and a positive attitude). Create the time by going to bed an hour earlier, so you can get up an hour earlier. Instead of reaching for your phone as soon as you wake up and exposing yourself to whatever news and communication might await, get your mind ready and prepared for making it the best day possible.

2. Define your success for the day and honor that commitment to yourself

Long-term goals are your dreams and your short-term goals are the daily and weekly attainable goals that take you closer to them. Achieving your short term daily goals gives you a hit of the feel good chemical Dopamine which increases motivation and effort. It’s important that you feel this sense of accomplishment and progress at the end of the day as it builds momentum.

Unfortunately, too many people don’t, because of the way they set their daily goals. From my experience, I think that daily input goals are better than output goals. With a huge list of tasks to do each day and success being measured by completion, it’s easy to feel like you underachieved. Instead, set goals by time spent, rather than the outcome. E.g. If you are writing a book, instead of setting the goal of “completing chapter 1” today, you set the goal of “writing 500 words”.

Try to do the same things at the same time each day e.g. My first task of the day is to check and respond to emails (and I try to limit email communication to this time). Routine makes tasks easier to do each day (as they become habits) and require less effort and energy, meaning you have more for being creative. Train your discipline each day – it will help you build self-trust, a factor of confidence.

3. Become more focused

Following on from #2, better focus should be an intention for each day. Studies prove that multi tasking only works for a very small percentage of people. To get the best out of yourself requires being able to stay focused on a task despite all the external and internal distractions that will be trying to get your attention (for most of us that comes from our phones). Make 2021 the year of self-control and spending less time being distracted. Build trust in yourself by knowing that you can resist the temptations of more pleasurable things to do during the time you’ve allocated to a task. If you don’t you’ll burn valuable time and energy by having to refocus and the quality of the output will not be as high. Being aware of what your distractions are will help you avoid them. By improving focus, you’ll notice that you can get better at staying immersed in a task (not distracted or thinking about the outcome of the task), which is synonymous with the “Flow State” and high performance. Developing this skill will help you stay calm, think clearly and focus on what you need to in the pressure moments on the golf course.