Keeping Your Cool, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Keeping Your Cool, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Occasionally, there's a criticism that is leveled at the world's best players and that's a bit dull, a bit emotional, a bit faceless sometimes even and certainly when you watch some of the players when they're walking around the golf course and the television, they do just seem very, very focused not really reacting to the crowd that much, not really reacting to the TV cameras, not even reacting that badly to good or bad shots. But I think there's a lesson that we can all learn from those golfers because maybe we get a bit too emotionally involved in our results, maybe that ball that slices off the fairway results and you throw the seven iron back down the fairway, that's not going to help your golf, maybe it makes you feel a little bit better at that time but it's probably not going to have an impact on your score that's positive.

So, try and learn from the world's best players. There's worse things that could happen in a bad tee shot, worse things that could happen in a bad putt but maybe when we made that birdie as well, we don't want to rundown the green giving it a big Tiger fist pump, if that then means you stand on the next tee a little bit too anxious, a little bit too sort of aroused if you like and you get a bit too excited and then you waste that shot. So, we got to come up with a plan for you that you can go around the golf course, try and keep your emotions on a nice even keel.

So, the birdie makes you a little bit happier, the bogie makes you a little bit sadder but you don't have these big emotional swings too much. So, the way I like to think about it is I try and play three holes at once or three holes as a little sort of mini round in my head. I see an awful lot of golfers play nine holes as a round and then the back nine as a round and they mark the score card halfway through. They have a really good nine holes. They think they're on to a winner and then they play really badly on the back now because they got too excited.

Likewise, they play the first nine holes, feel like they're getting in the way of playing badly so they added the score after nine holes realize they're over the handicap and they just throw it around in the back. That doesn't really work for me. I like to play three holes at once and I set myself a target for three holes. My target would be three holes in level to my handicap, or level to my par or three holes in one on the handicap, one onto my par.

But after those three holes, I can push my emotions to one side and then start the next three holes again, see if I had three great holes, fantastic. But I'm not going to get carried away yet or if I had three really bad holes, that's okay. I can push those to the side and I can start my next three holes as a fresh and I just think if you do three holes at once rather than nine holes at once or 18 holes at once, you'll just help me take on each shot as a new entity, as a new challenge rather than getting too emotionally wrapped up in the good stuff or bad stuff that's gone before that.

So try and keep your emotions on a nice level. Look at maybe the Dunlop players on tour and try and watch them for their emotional involvement in the game and it might feel like you're playing a fairly boring round of golf but I think when you add the numbers up at put the end, it might actually look like a better score rather than the guy that throws his club down the first fairway and then starts fist pumping across the second green, might look exciting but I think ultimately the score will probably be worse that way around.

So, try and play nice, relaxed calm, controlled golf and see how that affects your game.

 2012-05-30

Occasionally, there's a criticism that is leveled at the world's best players and that's a bit dull, a bit emotional, a bit faceless sometimes even and certainly when you watch some of the players when they're walking around the golf course and the television, they do just seem very, very focused not really reacting to the crowd that much, not really reacting to the TV cameras, not even reacting that badly to good or bad shots. But I think there's a lesson that we can all learn from those golfers because maybe we get a bit too emotionally involved in our results, maybe that ball that slices off the fairway results and you throw the seven iron back down the fairway, that's not going to help your golf, maybe it makes you feel a little bit better at that time but it's probably not going to have an impact on your score that's positive.

So, try and learn from the world's best players. There's worse things that could happen in a bad tee shot, worse things that could happen in a bad putt but maybe when we made that birdie as well, we don't want to rundown the green giving it a big Tiger fist pump, if that then means you stand on the next tee a little bit too anxious, a little bit too sort of aroused if you like and you get a bit too excited and then you waste that shot. So, we got to come up with a plan for you that you can go around the golf course, try and keep your emotions on a nice even keel.

So, the birdie makes you a little bit happier, the bogie makes you a little bit sadder but you don't have these big emotional swings too much. So, the way I like to think about it is I try and play three holes at once or three holes as a little sort of mini round in my head. I see an awful lot of golfers play nine holes as a round and then the back nine as a round and they mark the score card halfway through. They have a really good nine holes. They think they're on to a winner and then they play really badly on the back now because they got too excited.

Likewise, they play the first nine holes, feel like they're getting in the way of playing badly so they added the score after nine holes realize they're over the handicap and they just throw it around in the back. That doesn't really work for me. I like to play three holes at once and I set myself a target for three holes. My target would be three holes in level to my handicap, or level to my par or three holes in one on the handicap, one onto my par.

But after those three holes, I can push my emotions to one side and then start the next three holes again, see if I had three great holes, fantastic. But I'm not going to get carried away yet or if I had three really bad holes, that's okay. I can push those to the side and I can start my next three holes as a fresh and I just think if you do three holes at once rather than nine holes at once or 18 holes at once, you'll just help me take on each shot as a new entity, as a new challenge rather than getting too emotionally wrapped up in the good stuff or bad stuff that's gone before that.

So try and keep your emotions on a nice level. Look at maybe the Dunlop players on tour and try and watch them for their emotional involvement in the game and it might feel like you're playing a fairly boring round of golf but I think when you add the numbers up at put the end, it might actually look like a better score rather than the guy that throws his club down the first fairway and then starts fist pumping across the second green, might look exciting but I think ultimately the score will probably be worse that way around.

So, try and play nice, relaxed calm, controlled golf and see how that affects your game.