How to Build Trust in Your Golf Game
Consistency requires trust in your swing during a round of golf.
Unfortunately, trust is not always an easy task.
The difficulty that faces every golfer and what makes consistency and trust challenging is that you play golf under inconsistent conditions:
- Different golf courses present different challenges.
- Even the golf course you play on regularly changes each round you play.
- The weather can be a challenging factor.
- Alterations to your swing due to injury.
- Changing your swing with a new instructor.
- How you played your last round has a strong effect on trust.
Even though you know how trust affects your game, it eludes many golfers.
These golfers, when faced with inconsistent results, resort to tinkering with swing, switching clubs, or seeking new instructors to get back on track.
All these changes often make matters worse and any changes made in a short amount of time create even more trust problems.
Imagine going through the following set of circumstances and take some time to really think how each element would affect your golf game:
- Playing in a downpour of rain.
- Playing in the cold weather.
- Having a string of bad rounds or being mired in a year-long slump.
- Battling an illness or injury for a year.
- Switching to a new swing coach with a different method of coaching.
- Overhauling your stroke.
- Having extremely high expectations and the pressure that goes along with it.
Any one of these circumstances can be a challenge to your ability to trust your game. Now imagine going through all these circumstance at once.
That is exactly the situation that LPGA golfer Anna Nordqvist found herself in.
Nordqvist had been mired in a slump winning her last Major in 2009.
Nordqvist suffered through a year-long battle with mono that zapped her strength.
Nordqvist switched swing coaches a few times and tinkered with her swing in attempt to get back to her old self which she admits was a major factor for her struggles.
Nordqvist knew if she was to play again at a high level, she would need trust. The trust in her abilities, trust in her instincts and trust in her swing.
Nordqvist decided to go back to her old compact swing and utilized some of the drills that contributed to her success in the past.
That trust paid dividends for Nordqvist at the 2018 Evian Championship where she won the Major in a playoff despite starting the final round 5-strokes behind the leader and playing in a downpour of rain and unusually cold temperatures.
NORDQVIST: “I feel like I recognize myself again a little bit more in my ball striking and the way I play the game. I told myself I needed to trust myself a little bit more and go back to the things that I feel like worked in my swing.”
Trust in your swing is an important mental skill that can help you play at a higher level on a more consistent basis.
Tip for Building Trust in Your Game
When all the practice is complete and you hit the course, you must go with the swing you brought to the course.
Trust what you have today!
Make sure you are committed to the shot you want to hit and not second-guess your decision for greater trust.
Simplify your thoughts over the ball to “target” or “Tempo” and try not to have three thoughts in your mind during your takeaway.
Related Golf Psychology Articles
- Mental Techniques to Trust Your Swing
- How to Improve Trust in Your Golf Swing
- How to Build Trust in your Golf Game
- 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!