Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
If you ask a golfer pre round of golf how you think they're going to play they'll often give you a pretty good indication and actually follow through with it. About how they play sometimes it pre-tournament you ask a golfer on the T.V. you know you're confident about this week yeah absolutely my games in a really good shape. I'm playing well I really think I could post a good number. You ask another golfer our well I'm working on my game at the moment I'll be trying these new clubs I'm trying to putting grip so you know we'll see how it goes and straight away you can identify two golfers there with different mental strategies different levels of confidence and guess what the guy with more confidence will generally go out and outperform the guy with very little confidence and that's exactly the same right down at club level. A lot of people go on the golf course thinking what under what today's going to hold I hope I don't see over a hundred again like I did last week that guys confidence is on the floor another golfer goes out there thinks oh I could win this today my handicap reductions on it's way down and now and I reckon I'm going to post a good number and it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy often the guy with confidence will shoot the batter No So the question is how can we get confidence we can't buy from the shop even as a coach I struggle to give people confidence.
I can't just pass on my confidence in them to themselves they really have to believe in themselves so how is a golfer do you create confidence after what I would suggest is that you actually go and do something that's relatively easy as in you've gone play a relatively easy golf course. You're never going to get confidence by playing really difficult golf course and shoot really high scores. So if you can find a shorter golf course it might even just be a part three golf course but if it's a wider golf course the one you're playing a shorter golf course on play on a relatively easy they were no win the play from the forward tees and just have a really good solid round a goal for you hit plenty of fairways you hit plenty greeds you hold a few putts and your handicap or your score is lower than average. That should instill a little bit of confidence in you and you think you know what I can do this I've not been looking for balls all they have not been struggling in the trees all they have not been three putting all they have played well I remember the good shots of it on to fairway to remember the good shots I've been on greens in regulation and hold a few putts for par that should instill a bit of confidence in you. So next time you go out and play you have that degree of confidence even if that's on a slightly more difficult golf course next time hopefully the confidence and gain on the easier golf course pays off when the golf course gets trickier.