The Mental Aspect of Golf – How it Affects You
We know that professional golfers have sports psychologists to help them deal with the mental aspect of their golf game. But how do we, the amateur golfers, handle the mental aspect of golf? If you have learned the proper techniques, purchased great equipment, play on a nice course and practiced hours and hours, how can your mind possibly affect your game that much?
“Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears. ”
Bobby Jones
Golf is known as a mental game that is affected by your thoughts and your mood. Many people learn to golf without realizing that it is not just the physical part of playing golf that you need to work on but it is also necessary to equip yourself with the knowledge and confidence to do your personal best.
Having the right thoughts AND attitude during your round will usually result in better results and thus lower scores. Replaying a bad shot over and over will only prove to be detrimental to the rest of your round.
Do you have a love/hate relationship with golf?
Are you new to the game and hoping to gain some consistency or have you played for many years but still struggle with parts of the game?
We have all experienced the results when we tell ourselves NOT to do something on the golf course. Results in us doing it anyway. For example, how many times have you told yourself “keep your head down” but then as you swing through you lift your head?
How many times have you told yourself “don’t go in the bunker (sand trap)”? Where do you end up? Smack in the middle of the bunker! Ugh…totally frustrating! What about the dreaded water hazard for newer golfers?
When I was a new golfer, if I saw water, guarantee ball in water! I would stand over my shot and say “do NOT go into the water”. I guess I do not have to tell you where I ended up 9 out of 10 times!
On this website we hope to share our personal golf experiences and exchange ideas and suggestions that can help others that are struggling or learning or seeking to improve their golfing skills. Equipping ourselves with the knowledge and tools that will help us to practice positive thoughts and have a new outlook out on the golf course.
Whether we share tips, stories, products or whatever it may be we encourage you to let us know what has helped you improve. There are many golf magazines, golf videos and golf sites available. Many of them provide insight and training from the Pro golfer’s experience and perspective. We enjoy reading those and have learned a lot from them.
This website in no way tries to replace those resources and tools but rather add to your golf toolbox.
Unlike the Pro golfer, the every day, recreational golfer does not have trainers, sport psychologists, swing coaches, very expensive equipment and the hours on the golf course that are required to play at the Pro level. What we do have is what we have learned through different resources, whether those are books, classes, videos, training equipment or simply watching others and applying those things we learn on the golf course.
By trial and error we discover what works and what does not work. We continue that cycle in our goal to continue to improve our golf game and our mental approach to the game.
My husband has been playing since he was 10 years of age and started to teach me what he knew about golf when I was 49 years of age. I learned to apply some of the techniques that worked for him and got great results and saw significant improvements in my swing, putting and chipping techniques.
However, I realized that what works for him does not always work for me and I had to find my own “swing” and my own routine in order to continue to improve my game.
In pursuit of improving my golfing skills and mastering the mental aspect of the game, I have spent the last 5-6 years finding and testing golf techniques, reading and practicing until I find what works for me. However, no matter how much I improve my swing or my chipping or putting, the biggest hurdle for me continues to be the mental part of the game.
Every time I go out on the golf course I have the following goals: stay positive, visualize good shots and don’t dwell on the bad shots. Easy, isn’t it? Of course not. I understand that I can be my own worst critic and can make or break my round with my thoughts.
What type of information can you expect to find on this site?
Whether you have played golf for a long time or you are brand new to golf, we hope that we can inspire, encourage and motivate you to enjoy golf for many years by offering tips and/or solutions for the various aspects of golf that can affect our thoughts on the golf course.
Click on our blogs to read about:
- The physical aspect: If your body is not feeling its best your golf game will suffer.
- Equipment: If your clubs are not giving you the best results it will impact your confidence level on the course.
- Social aspect: Who we play with and the types of tournaments or games we are involved help shape our golf game over the years.
- Techniques: Offering tips and improvement ideas for putting, pace, golf swing, chipping, etc.
- Product Reviews to help you decide on products that might help improve your game of golf.
- Our Store: links to retailers, such as Amazon.com, Walmart.com, etc. We will add any we find that have great deals so that you can go right to their sites to shop.
We look forward to hearing your feedback!
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I love the purpose of your site. I started playing golf a little over a year ago, and I pretty much got hooked immediately. I really like your quote by Bobby Jones. Golf is a game with yourself and the course, and it really is all about the inches. Good luck with your site, and i’m sure i’ll be back soon!
It is amazing how much of the game depends on your mindset when you step on the 1st tee. Glad you joined the rest of us who decided to learn the game and got hooked. Please feel free to come back and share some of your thoughts and experiences on the golf course. We will be adding more posts related to each part of the game and hope that others share their tips and ideas on what helped them on the golf course.
I’ve actually never played gold before – Just miniature golf. Golf seems like a really hard sport! You need such accuracy to get the ball in the hole I think it is absolutely incredible how pro athletes can hit these tiny balls into this small hole. Golf certainly requires a lot of patience, something I don’t have 🙁
I used to feel the same way until I got out and started learning to play. Patience comes with time on the course. While I do not expect to play like a Pro I find that golf with time gets easier and rewarding. I find that being outdoors surrounded with beautiful golf course views is relaxing after a stressful work day. Thanks for your comment.
Wow. I had no idea there was a mental aspect to playing golf! I can’t believe that the more positive you think, the better the results and/or the more negative you think, you don’t get the results so it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy!
I never realized how much mastery is involved in this sport, and some mindfulness too, as the techniques are so specific.
Vanessa thank you for commenting on our page.
Golf is definitely a game that is affected by the mind. In fact, professional golfers talk about picturing the shots in their minds before hitting their shots in order to get the result they envisioned.
It is a rewarding game as you learn to “master” the shots and gain confidence seeing great results. It is a humbling game because when you think you have it figured out it will surprise you.
Thanks again for taking time to visit our website.
Great post! Very informative, I never been play golf before, but I want to try at the same time I’m scared to be failed. This post can help other people like me, don’t have confidence. This post can motivate people who want to try the golf sport. Well done! Thanks for sharing!
Cheers
Eric
Quite a shake-up in the golf equipment world. In May, Adidas announces that TaylorMade and Adams are for sale and they are exiting the golf equipment market to concentrate on footwear and apparel. Then yesterday Nike makes the same announcement that they are leaving the golf equipment business, for the same reasons.
Although the TaylorMade and Adams brands will likely continue under future new owners, Nike Golf equipment will be no more. Interestingly, Adidas recently released their earnings and the TaylorMade division was up 7%.
As a player of TaylorMade, I wonder what affect these moves will have on competition, price, and innovation going forward. Unfortunately we are going through a phase of declining public participation in golf.
Yes it sure is. Based on some news articles and interviews it appears that over production of golf equipment (mainly clubs) was a key factor to their financial woes. Over recent years, as the economy suffered in many states and communities courses got shut down and resulted in less people out there playing golf. The industry needs to work on attracting new players and by raising the level of participation and fan interest in the game they might be able to see those levels rise again but it will probably take years to do that. The fact that most of us golfers do not go out and buy a new set of clubs every year or even every 5-10 years makes it even more necessary to bring in new golfers who will buy those new sets of clubs being produced. Now when you talk about apparel and shoes, we all know that even if you can’t play good golf you have to look good! Just ask the ladies in my golf group. You can only wear a golf shirt, skort or shoes for so long before it is time to go and get new ones. Not to mention golf balls. As many as we put in the water some rounds the golf ball industry will remain strong. I guess for now we can take advantage of possible sales! Did I hear the word shopping?
This is one sport I keep telling myself I am going to get into. I have way to many hobbies right now though. Great advice about the game and great outlook on the mental portion. I really think this is a game I would appreciate playing!
Golf is a game that no matter when you start you can play well into your old age. When the time is right you will find the time. Like most of us, you will probably get hooked and find yourself wanting to play as often as you can. Thanks for your feedback.
Hello, Golf people! I am not a golfer, but I have played three rounds in my life; Twice with my now deceased brother and once with my son.
I did, however, find your website interesting, along with a few things I did not necessarily think about when I think about golf and definitely did not think about while I was watching my ball sink into the little pond on the course!
Thank you for a fairly enjoyable half an hour!
Mickeyb
Ah water hazards! That is definitely the last thing on my mind when I decided to learn to play golf over 5 years ago. I manage to keep it down the middle for the most part but every so often that splash equals an extra stroke for my score. No bueno! Glad you enjoyed reading about our golfing experience! Hope you get out on the course again in the near future as it is a game you can play for years to come.
HI Carmen
Love your website. Very interesting articles. Now I am going shopping from your link. See you on Sunday.
Thank you! Feel free to add any feedback on any articles you have or your personal tips for those of us who have not golfed for very long! Some of our audience are new to the game and our hope is to provide tips on how to mentally prepare for all aspects of golf including how to chose equipment based on level of experience. One of the things I found out as a new golfer several years ago was that getting a fairway wood that was known to help newer golfers get the ball up in the air was important to my game and provided the confidence I needed to continue improving. 🙂 Happy Shopping!
Years ago I heard this putting tip from jack Nicklaus: When greens are bumpy (maybe after aeration) strike your putts with a pronounced upstroke. This will put top spin on the ball and better keep it on line. I have found this to be good advice for all putts as it prevents decelling the stroke. Try it
Thanks for that putting tip. Will definitely have to give it a try and even show a video using that method to see how it works for us! If anyone else uses this method let us know how it works for you. Thank you for visiting our website!
There can be no better place in the country to enjoy great golf courses than Oregon. Having been born and raised in Oregon, I read with interest the Golf Digest “America’s 100 Greatest Public Golf Courses for 2017/2018. According to Golf Digest, “Top public golf destination in America? It has to be Oregon where four courses at famed Bandon Dunes Resort are ranked among the top 14 in the nation…” (#2, #7, #10, and #14) Plus, four more Oregon courses were ranked in the top 100. Not only is Oregon a beautiful state, but also a place every golfer should put on their bucket list.
Our retirement goal is to travel and golf in every state of the U.S. Therefore, we will definitely have to check one or two of those when we do that. Been to Oregon once and the little I saw was beautiful. Looking forward to golfing there in the next future. Thanks for sharing that information!
I really like the idea behind this website. I recently starting taking up golf and decided to blog about my experience. One thing I quickly realized when I started playing, is that you are your worst enemy if you are not in the right mental state of mind.
That is great. What is your blog site?