How to Stay Mentally Tough in Your Golf Game
When you think about feeling comfortable in golf, what comes to mind?
Most golfers would associate feeling comfort with a smooth, fluid swing. In addition, many golfers would identify a comfortable swing as the key to success during a round of golf.
While comfort may be necessary for an efficient swing, comfort in terms of improving your game is detrimental.
Let me explain. Being comfortable with your swing for tee shots is vital because it leads to consistency. In other words, if you want to hit the ball far consistently, you need to be able to replicate your swing consistently.
However, being comfortable could lead to complacency. For example, you worked on gaining distance off the tee for the past year. You started the year driving the ball about 200 yards.
Eventually, you see positive results. You added about 200 yards to your drives. You felt good that your hard work paid off and was satisfied with that part of your game. Unfortunately, you stop working on your tee shots.
Not only did you see no more improvement on your drives, but you also took a step backward and lost those gains. As a result, your mental and physical game suffered, and you lost confidence in your ability to hit great tee shots.
For this reason, many athletes preach “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.” This term refers to successfully dealing with the unexpected during competitive rounds and being motivated to improve your game continually.
In her first press conference of the new LPGA Tour season Danielle Kang was asked, “At the end of last season, you said you were feeling uncomfortable. Where is your comfort now to start 2022?”
Kang had an interesting response….
KANG: “I’m always uncomfortable. I have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, as my brother says. I’ve done some really good work this off-season. I’m happy with the progress, but I’m not where I want to be yet.”
For Kang, success is the pursuit of reaching her potential…
KANG: “I feel really good. I don’t feel injured, tired. Those are the things that I worked on doing, a lot of different types of analysis and people helping me out. I have a great team back home.
They’re probably not going to listen to this, but Nicole is my nutritionist, I got my mental coach, I got Duncan with my strengthening, Heather with my physio. It’s just nonstop with all these groups of people building and helping me better, like create better footing.”
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable means not resting on your laurels. You should be proud of your accomplishments.
However, if you are going to compete in golf, you should try to maximize your potential by committing to improve your game daily.
Strategy for Reaching your Potential in Golf
First, celebrate your successes. Don’t disqualify the small wins.
Second, understand improvement is not the pursuit of perfection. Focus on being one percent better each day.
Thirdly, work on 1-3 parts of your game that will give you the most bang for your buck.
Fourth, never neglect the importance of your mental game.
Related Golf Psychology Articles
- Do You Revert Back To What’s “Comfortable” After Lessons?
- How to Manage Fear on the Golf Course
- Mindset and Performance Ruts in Golf
- Subscribe to The Golf Psychology Podcast on iTunes
- Subscribe to The Golf Psychology Podcast on Spotify
Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0
Do you suffer from fragile self-confidence after missed hitting shots or making mistakes, playing with strict or high expectations that undermine confidence, or the inability to play freely and relaxed on the course?
Successful golfers have learned how to perform with ultimate confidence in competition, so we’ve developed The Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0 Workbook and Audio program to help you do this!
The Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0 program includes the top 11 mental training sessions I do with my personal students to help them boost their mental game and improve consistency on the course!