The Mental Side Of Golf: Part 1 Get Into A Groove Before Teeing Off (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Mental Side Of Golf: Part 1 Get Into A Groove Before Teeing Off (Video) - by Pete Styles

When I’m teaching clients on the driving range, people often arrive for their lessons and they walk straight through to their lesson bay. They come in, they sit down. They’ve still got the shirt and tie and their work shoes on and they get changed and then they hit 10 balls that are absolutely appalling. And they say, sorry about all that, I’m just warming up.

And that's fine and okay you can warm up, that’s great, but what does happen on the golf course? When you hit 10 balls then walk on the golf course, if that guy turns up to play on the first tee on a Saturday morning in the middle and he’s only warming up exercises closing the boot lid on the car and bending down tying his shoe laces, he’s running to the first tee. Those 10 horrible shots he’s just hit in the lesson bay might be the first three or four holes on the golf course because he doesn’t get 10 shots off the first tee, he’s got to hit it, go and find it and dig it out.

So, it might take three or four holes in before he’s actually in the swing of things and therefore, he’s already ruined his card. His confidence is already going down hill, and he's not going to recover from that bad start. So, it's easy to recover from a bad start at the driving range. You’ve got a basket of balls in front of you and there’s nobody making you find those first 10 shots.

So, make sure when you get to the golf course, you have a good few minutes to really sort of settle down and get into golf mode, particularly if you’ve had a morning at work or a morning with the family. You arrive at the first tee, still with those thoughts in your head. Really, we need to kind of reduce those thoughts and bring up the idea that I'm playing golf today.

So, what do we need to think about? Firstly, have I got all my gear, and my equipments and have I got five minutes to check all of that. If you're playing a different golf course something that you're not used to playing, make sure you've checked into the pro shop nice and early, picked up a score card, or a course planner if you need one of those. Work out where the driving range is, where the putting green is, and where the first tee is.

And then go and spend some time on the range. Just maybe 25 balls, You don't want to tire yourself out, but just going through the back, hitting a few different shots and then save the last five balls for the shot that you're going to hit off the first tee. So if the first tee is a nice long par 5, maybe it’s a drive a hole. Okay, well, I'll hit the last five balls before I tee off with my driver.

If it's only a Par 3, I might have a look at the score card, work out roughly with what club I’d be hitting. And if it's a 150 yards, that might be a 7/9, so I’ll hit those last five shots on the practice ground with my 7/9 preparing for the shot that’s forthcoming. Then I'll go to the putting green, and just get used to the speed of the greens. Even if it’s a golf course you’ve played a few times, the greens might feel different on any given day.

The green cue might have been caught them nice and quick. It might have been a sunny day, they’re going to get a bit faster or a rainy day, they’re going to be a bit slower. So, five minutes on the putting green, just getting used to how hard you're going to have to hit the ball. Otherwise, you'll arrive at the first green and you're second guessing the speed of the surface. At least that you’ve had five minutes on the putting green, you should put well right from the first hole rather having to play your way and then feel for the greens. So, try and get all of that kind of warming up preparations done before you get to the first tee.

Arrive at the first tee nice and early, you’ve already prepared your bags, score card, pencil, course planner, hopefully you’ve met your playing partners and then you could stand on your first tee, nice and relaxed, ready to carry on your round.

You often see the golf course that you see on the TV, they treat the first hole almost like it's the 9th, 10th hole. Had enough long shots, enough putts to actually feel like they’re already playing golf.

So, they walk to the first and they just carry on their round. It's not a case of arriving straight out of the car, fresh and going, “Whew, all right, I'm playing golf. Here we go. And that's the first hole on the way and I'm going to play badly if I do that.”

So, try and get to the golf course at least half-an-hour beforehand. On the way to the golf course, start thinking about golf modes, start visualizing the course, visualizing the shots that you're going to be playing. And hopefully when you stand on the first tee, it won’t actually feel like the first time you’ve swung the golf club that day. It will just feel like an extension of the swing you were only doing in practice and I'm sure that's going to help you improve your skills.

 2012-06-11

When I’m teaching clients on the driving range, people often arrive for their lessons and they walk straight through to their lesson bay. They come in, they sit down. They’ve still got the shirt and tie and their work shoes on and they get changed and then they hit 10 balls that are absolutely appalling. And they say, sorry about all that, I’m just warming up.

And that's fine and okay you can warm up, that’s great, but what does happen on the golf course? When you hit 10 balls then walk on the golf course, if that guy turns up to play on the first tee on a Saturday morning in the middle and he’s only warming up exercises closing the boot lid on the car and bending down tying his shoe laces, he’s running to the first tee. Those 10 horrible shots he’s just hit in the lesson bay might be the first three or four holes on the golf course because he doesn’t get 10 shots off the first tee, he’s got to hit it, go and find it and dig it out.

So, it might take three or four holes in before he’s actually in the swing of things and therefore, he’s already ruined his card. His confidence is already going down hill, and he's not going to recover from that bad start. So, it's easy to recover from a bad start at the driving range. You’ve got a basket of balls in front of you and there’s nobody making you find those first 10 shots.

So, make sure when you get to the golf course, you have a good few minutes to really sort of settle down and get into golf mode, particularly if you’ve had a morning at work or a morning with the family. You arrive at the first tee, still with those thoughts in your head. Really, we need to kind of reduce those thoughts and bring up the idea that I'm playing golf today.

So, what do we need to think about? Firstly, have I got all my gear, and my equipments and have I got five minutes to check all of that. If you're playing a different golf course something that you're not used to playing, make sure you've checked into the pro shop nice and early, picked up a score card, or a course planner if you need one of those. Work out where the driving range is, where the putting green is, and where the first tee is.

And then go and spend some time on the range. Just maybe 25 balls, You don't want to tire yourself out, but just going through the back, hitting a few different shots and then save the last five balls for the shot that you're going to hit off the first tee. So if the first tee is a nice long par 5, maybe it’s a drive a hole. Okay, well, I'll hit the last five balls before I tee off with my driver.

If it's only a Par 3, I might have a look at the score card, work out roughly with what club I’d be hitting. And if it's a 150 yards, that might be a 7/9, so I’ll hit those last five shots on the practice ground with my 7/9 preparing for the shot that’s forthcoming. Then I'll go to the putting green, and just get used to the speed of the greens. Even if it’s a golf course you’ve played a few times, the greens might feel different on any given day.

The green cue might have been caught them nice and quick. It might have been a sunny day, they’re going to get a bit faster or a rainy day, they’re going to be a bit slower. So, five minutes on the putting green, just getting used to how hard you're going to have to hit the ball. Otherwise, you'll arrive at the first green and you're second guessing the speed of the surface. At least that you’ve had five minutes on the putting green, you should put well right from the first hole rather having to play your way and then feel for the greens. So, try and get all of that kind of warming up preparations done before you get to the first tee.

Arrive at the first tee nice and early, you’ve already prepared your bags, score card, pencil, course planner, hopefully you’ve met your playing partners and then you could stand on your first tee, nice and relaxed, ready to carry on your round.

You often see the golf course that you see on the TV, they treat the first hole almost like it's the 9th, 10th hole. Had enough long shots, enough putts to actually feel like they’re already playing golf.

So, they walk to the first and they just carry on their round. It's not a case of arriving straight out of the car, fresh and going, “Whew, all right, I'm playing golf. Here we go. And that's the first hole on the way and I'm going to play badly if I do that.”

So, try and get to the golf course at least half-an-hour beforehand. On the way to the golf course, start thinking about golf modes, start visualizing the course, visualizing the shots that you're going to be playing. And hopefully when you stand on the first tee, it won’t actually feel like the first time you’ve swung the golf club that day. It will just feel like an extension of the swing you were only doing in practice and I'm sure that's going to help you improve your skills.