The Golf Demons
posted in My Golf Stories |Have you ever stood on the last hole with a two footer to win the club championship? This putt the day before in a practice round was routine and maybe your buddies said that’s good, pick it up. But, today with the championship on the line there are no gimmies and the putt looks a mile long, you see all the ball marks, the little pebbles, and all those spike marks look two feet tall and your mind is racing. The fear that you feel is the same for most all of us that have ever played golf. The championship that you are playing may not be for the US Open, but it may be you trying to break 100 for the first time or the first chance you have ever had to beat your buddy. Rarely can you stand on the eighteenth tee knowing that par on the hole will allow you to shoot your best round ever and be able to pull it off.
It is amazing the pressure we are able to exert on ourselves. I believe this pressure comes from within and is mostly due to the lack of confidence we have in ourselves. The way we feel about our ability and our fear of failure and sometimes the fear of success. When we are put into positions that we may never have been in before this can cause an overload on our bodies and we loose the ability to control our actions. This probably happens to everyone in all walks of life, whether we are in our comfort zone or not. A business person can stand up in front of a large audience and give a presentation and never have a drop of perspiration appear upon his brow. But you can put this same person on the first tee Saturday morning with his buddies that he has never beaten and pretty soon that Izod is soaking wet. The hardest thing for us to remember and realize is that everyone gets these same feelings. The pressure may be on your buddies to play well and not let you win for the first time.
We may feel this rush of anxiety because of the way we feel about ourselves. There are many things that can go through your mind that causes you to tinse up and loose your ability to free swing it. You cannot worry about the out come of your shot and get caught up with the results of your actions. Once you stand up over the ball and make your swing the rest of the shot is completely out of your control. This tension and anxiety can be created when you let your mind wonder about what others may think about your swing or did I wear the right shirt with these pants. You may also loose your ability to play your own game and worry about what everyone else is hitting off the tee.
I have gone to tournaments and qualifiers and played some really great practice rounds where the putts could not avoid the hole and my drives would never think of missing the narrowest of fairways.Then comes the day when it all counts and the hole on the green looks like a thimble and my golf ball looked bigger than the fairways. I know the hole really did not change in size and the fairways were the same size as the day before, but I was not able to turn it loose and let it happen. My problem was that I worried about the outcome. This same phenom happens to all level of players. A player on the Champions Tour would play practice rounds with his best friend almost every week and one player was always trying the latest technology trying for more distance off the tee. Each week the player with the latest technology could never out drive his friend in the practice rounds and he would take a lot of ribbing. But each time when his buddy would kid him about his new club or shaft, he always had a pat answer–you just wait till they ring the bell and put that 300 pound pencil behind your ear and we will see who hits it the furtherst. The point was that pencil really caused the one player to tighten up and loose his ability to turn it loose and worry about the results. This lack of trust and confidence comes from within and these demons try to attack everyone that plays the game, no matter what level of competition.
Don’t let that 300 pound pencil keep you from getting the most out of your own personal ability. Keep practicing and play within your capabilities, and don’t worry about the results before you ever hit the ball. Let it happen.
Share your experiences.
See you on the next tee.