Consistency of thought.... the road to lower scores
by Simon Hunt

What is the cornerstone of a sound golfing mind ? - it is the recognition of freewill. What does this mean ? Simply we have a choice as to how we think on a golf course and the most important lesson I have learnt over the years is that we need to take control of our thoughts and let them influence events rather than let events influence our thoughts.

Consider a situation.

You are standing on the 1st tee of an important tournament - you are feeling great after your warm-up session on the range. You start off making 3 straight bogeys - what happens?

Do you lose some confidence ?
Do you start to question your ability ?
Do you start analysing swing mechanics, looking for technical solutions.

Step back a moment..

The reality is that, as a human being, we are unlikely to complete a full round of golf without making a few bad swings. Consider the 2007 Masters last weekend. 57 of the 60 players who made the cut had at least one double bogey on their card. The most important issue is how we deal with the results of these poor swings.

We do have a choice.

Stop for a second and consider what is your response to a bad shot when you are playing a game with your friends ?
Is it the same response as that in a tournament ?

My guess would be it's different. We still trust our swing, we forget about the poor result and approach our next shot with a confident outlook. It is the ability to trust our swing when the results are not as we desire that leads to distinctive performance.

So what should you be thinking about ?

Please try the following exercise.
I want to illustrate what happens when you tell yourself not to do something:- close your eyes and picture a blank screen. Now follow this instruction: don't picture a piece of fruit in the blank screen. What happens ? I would expect most of you picture something from the fruit bowl ! So what do you think happens when you are standing on the 16th fairway with water all down the left and you say to yourself "don't hit it into the water" - the mind locks onto the object and it will have an influence on the result. I would like you always to think about flying the ball to your target rather than trying to avoid a hazard. On the green I would always like you to think about holing the putt rather than just getting it close.

Drill

In order to develop this thought pattern on the course in pressure situations we need to have rehearsed it many times for it to become a habit. One drill for the range that I have found helpful is getting into the following rhythm:

- address the ball
- look at the target
- look at the ball
- swing

I work on seeing the target in my mind's eye as I carry out the drill.

Summary

You need to think consistently to score consistently. Ask yourself a question : would I try a different swing on every shot ? I expect the answer would be negative. You need to decide how to think on every shot:- you have a choice, choose to think well !

Simon