"I'm about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That's the distance my left ear is from my right." 
~ Ben Crenshaw

The Mental Side of Club Selection

A seasoned American golfer on holiday in Scotland was playing with a young teenage girl. She was very good, playing the first 7 holes 2-under. "How far do you hit a 7-iron?" asked the American, used to the US target-style golf played in Florida.

The young lass paused and thought about it. Her answer when it came, surprised her playing companion. "I don't really know" she said, "I look at the direction the wind is coming from, the position of the pin and then I hit what I feel is right. I play the distance by eye".

This story illustrates the need for being perfectly comfortable in your club selection. If you think a 6-iron is going to be short or a 5-iron is going to be long- it WILL be!

Being happy with your club, trusting it, is an essential part to scoring well. Confidence breeds success and vice versa. This even extends to the way a Club looks - if it doesn't align easy to the eye, if it doesn't help you mentally focus on execution, it is not helping but hindering!

How many times have you mentally thought "Don't hit it in the bunker", then moments after see your ball lying in the sand or take extra precaution not to hit OB only to see the ball fly over the white stakes?

Pick clubs that will enable you to trust your swing. Your mind will "tell" your body what to do in order to get close to the pin, enabling you to select the right club everytime.


A Golf Book for Rainy Days

One of the best books to get inside a professional golfer's mind on tour.

A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein is a rarity in that it is a non-instructional golf book that continues in print after ten years - it is regarded by many as one of the best books about professional golf.

Feinstein followed the Tour in 1994, covering the hopes, struggles and accomplishments of the players on the United States PGA Tour. He hade unparalleled access to the stars of the game but paid no less attention to the vicissitudes of Q-school. The book chronicles his year and tells the story from "inside the ropes".

There are 2 good reasons why you would enjoy this book:

It puts you "inside" the heads of professional golfers and shows how very difficult golf can be - even the best players in the world fear losing "the magic" at any time: It depicts how the games of even the best players abandon them at key moments, and how they practice, practice, practice so that when their chance comes, they can take it with a stroke of precision. It shows the determination and desire necessary to stay at the highest level of golf and the fears and apprehension of not making it.

It shows what the PGA Tour was like before Tiger Woods. The impact Woods has had on the game is astounding, but back in 1994, he was just a kid with great potential and hardly merited any mention (one line about an amateur prodigy called Woods!). It puts into perspective what he has accomplished. In 1994, Nick Price won the Open and the USPGA and already he was being called the game's dominant golfer having won 3 Majors and 11 tournaments over 2 years. It shows how high Woods has raised the bar...

If you're a golf fan, or if you simply want to know what goes through the heads of the guys you see playing golf for money on TV. Grab a copy of this book and bring it out on rainy days.

Feinstein, John. A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and nights on the PGA Tour. 1995. New York: Little, Brown, 2005

Musings - It's All In The Mind

You can have all the physical attributes but if you don't train your mind - you'll always be a high handicapper.

All the articles in this issue of eNews stress the importance of the mental side of golf. It's an area that I believe contributes 80% to enjoyment and success of the game but is practiced less than 10%!

It's no secret that all great golfers have an ability to block out distractions, a focused awareness of their environment (also known as tunnel vision), the ability to stay positive, a desire to succeed, and confidence in their ability.

Maintaining poise and focus on the golf course is essential to success whether it's golf. For me, this was highlighted during the tense Thomas Cup semifinal when Malaysia lost to Denmark. When both countries were tied at 2-2, Malaysia's third singles, Kuan Beng Hong, failed to deliver the winning point losing to Joachimm Persson. Persson said he was very happy, but when things got tight he used "mental tricks to help him relax and play freely".

In sports, the strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong - Both Ernie Els and Michael Campbell used mental coach Jos Vanstiphout for their British and US Open wins!