How can I beat the first tee jitters? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How can I beat the first tee jitters? (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think we have all been there with the first tee nerves haven’t we? I don’t know many golfers who could say they’ve never struggled under pressure of the first tee. First tee is kind of that that cauldron sort of anticipation and fear maybe you have been thinking about first tee shot all week. You’ve been raring to get out on the golf course. When you finally get there it’s the first hole so you’ve not had many practice swings, you’ve also got a couple of extra people around the first tee, maybe playing partners you’ve never met, maybe the starters there as well, maybe the group waiting behind as well.

So maybe up to eight, nine, ten different people on the first tee you desperately want to hit a good golf shot and then you top it ten yards into the pond and then all of a sudden the fear encompasses you, you then got to go and do it again you got to tee it up again you got to hit the next one. So to overcome the fear can be quite difficult for a lot of people, and I think the real issue here is people focus far too much on the outcome of the shot. Where it might go, what people might say when it goes in the pond, what my score might look like if I knock it out of bounce off the first tee? And they forget to think about the process and it’s the process that hopefully you are quite good at, a process you’ve practiced all week on the driving range. A process that you have just done on the practice ground 10 minutes ago and you did it okay. You teed the ball up, you set yourself up, you have your little waggle, you pop one down the fairway, it looked good you thought I’d take that on the first. You did the same again, you did it 10 times on the practice ground it was fine. You get here suddenly you forget the process and you start focusing on all those negative things that might cause problems with the golf shot. So it’s really important that when you get to the first tee, you stay in the moment and you stay with the process. So you just go through the same routine you’ve practiced, you tee the ball up, you step back, you take your practice swing, when you’re happy you step up, you go ahead and make your swing and you picture the ball landing down the fairway and you stay in the process side of your mind rather than the, geez what might happen with the outcome side and I guarantee if you go to the next round of golf and every time you feel under pressure be it first tee, last tee under the gun when you’ve got to hit it over a lake. Stay in the process, work on what works for you on the practice ground and you’ll hit better golf shots more regularly and hopefully those first tee nerves will just fade away. 2015-03-26

I think we have all been there with the first tee nerves haven’t we? I don’t know many golfers who could say they’ve never struggled under pressure of the first tee. First tee is kind of that that cauldron sort of anticipation and fear maybe you have been thinking about first tee shot all week. You’ve been raring to get out on the golf course. When you finally get there it’s the first hole so you’ve not had many practice swings, you’ve also got a couple of extra people around the first tee, maybe playing partners you’ve never met, maybe the starters there as well, maybe the group waiting behind as well.

So maybe up to eight, nine, ten different people on the first tee you desperately want to hit a good golf shot and then you top it ten yards into the pond and then all of a sudden the fear encompasses you, you then got to go and do it again you got to tee it up again you got to hit the next one. So to overcome the fear can be quite difficult for a lot of people, and I think the real issue here is people focus far too much on the outcome of the shot. Where it might go, what people might say when it goes in the pond, what my score might look like if I knock it out of bounce off the first tee?

And they forget to think about the process and it’s the process that hopefully you are quite good at, a process you’ve practiced all week on the driving range. A process that you have just done on the practice ground 10 minutes ago and you did it okay. You teed the ball up, you set yourself up, you have your little waggle, you pop one down the fairway, it looked good you thought I’d take that on the first.

You did the same again, you did it 10 times on the practice ground it was fine. You get here suddenly you forget the process and you start focusing on all those negative things that might cause problems with the golf shot. So it’s really important that when you get to the first tee, you stay in the moment and you stay with the process.

So you just go through the same routine you’ve practiced, you tee the ball up, you step back, you take your practice swing, when you’re happy you step up, you go ahead and make your swing and you picture the ball landing down the fairway and you stay in the process side of your mind rather than the, geez what might happen with the outcome side and I guarantee if you go to the next round of golf and every time you feel under pressure be it first tee, last tee under the gun when you’ve got to hit it over a lake. Stay in the process, work on what works for you on the practice ground and you’ll hit better golf shots more regularly and hopefully those first tee nerves will just fade away.