“The golfer has more enemies than any other athlete. He has fourteen clubs in his bag – all of them different. 18 holes to play – all of them different – every week and all around him is sand, trees, grass, water, wind and 143 other players. In addition – the game is 50 percent mental – so his biggest enemy is himself.” - Dan Jenkins
By Ian Hardie
There are very few things that can tear through the heart of a golfer
Like the thought of losing a ball from a good shot
We all begrudgingly accept that if we hit a carving slice
A roping hook
Or any one of the many poor shots that all golfers seem to be able to do
Occasionally of course
Then it’s probably fair enough if we lose the ball
After all, we hit a shot that was technically deficient
Possibly even devoid of skill
But having to reload after a good shot
Well that’s a different story – isn’t it?
It doesn’t matter where it is during the round
Be it the first, the fifth, the thirteenth or the eighteenth
The mental effect of losing a ball from a good shot
Is considerably greater than losing one from a poor shot
It can effectively cause a ‘terminal’ breakdown
In our mental state
Which of course can affect the next shot greatly
As well as the next
And the next
The next………..
Left unchecked
Losing a ball from a good shot
Can destroy the rest of the round
Or if you are playing a multi round event
It can be the end of your tournament
So to say, that as golfers we need to find an exceptional way to deal with this
Would be a massive understatement.
As far as I understand it
The reason that we are more affected by losing a ball from a good shot
Than we are if we lose a golf ball after hitting a poor shot
Is that the mental state we are usually ‘in’ while playing
Is being controlled by our conscious mind
It is effectively the part of the brain that we use to ‘concentrate’ while playing golf
As well as choosing our shots by working out things like wind direction and distance
It also holds our current expectations of how we are going to play
And for some reason as golfers
We all seem to have a simple expectation installed in us
One that says ‘if I hit the ball badly, I can potentially lose the ball’
If that happens during a game, it can dent our confidence a little
But over time and with experience
Most golfers can ‘concentrate past that’
And be able to use their conscious mind to override any negative effects
But losing a ball after hitting a towering drive over a hill
Which we expect to find on the fairway
Then not being able to find it once we get there
Or hitting a great approach shot to a green
Only to have it a sprinkler head and ricochet into a hazard
That’s when the golfer’s mindset can be severely challenged
Losing a ball from a good shot is almost certain to cause ‘a terminal breakdown’
As our conscious mind is simply not sufficient to be able to ‘concentrate through that one’
It’s not powerful enough to override what happens to us
That job belongs to the sub conscious mind
Which as you are probably aware
Parts of our subconscious mind are controlling the physical and mechanical business of hitting your shots
As well as things like breathing, vision, walking and no doubt thousands of other things that are constantly required to keep us operating as humans
But on the flip side of the marvelous job the sub conscious mind does to run everything for us automatically
Is the fact that some of it is made up of the older parts of our brain
Like the very basic part called the ‘Corpus Amygdaloideum’ which we more commonly know as the Amygdala
Which has been shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing of memory and emotional reactions
It’s also where every human stores their rage, demons, doubts and fears
All of which are incredibly destructive if they ‘come out’ during a game of golf
Which is what generally happens when we lose a ball after a good shot
And we have all had experience of this
Unable to find the ball where we think it should be
Our mental state builds anxiety
From our initial ‘where is the ball?’
It spirals down each successive minute the ball is not found
The reason for this is that
The Amygdala has jumped into action
Perceiving what has happened as a threat
Even though it’s not a life threatening one
It still senses a threat to our expectation of how we will play
And to our self-image as a golfer
The Amygdala responds by producing a flood of chemicals which change our state
These chemicals cannot be controlled or overridden by our normal conscious state
We cannot ‘concentrate’ past it
The only way we can stop this happening
Is to install
A release trigger
A way of us taking charge before the Amygdala reacts
So that the rage, demons, doubts and fears
Stay away
And don’t come out to cause a ‘terminal’ breakdown in our game
We’ll start doing that in ‘How to deal with losing a ball from a good shot – part two’
Play well
Related Posts
Finding focus after a horror hole
Now that sounds interesting Ian