Carmel Magazine

Carmel Magazine, Summer/Fall 2017

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TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT B Y D A N PA S Q U A R I E L L O A N D L A I R D S M A L L 116 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 7 How Do We Manage Our Game and Emotions to Play Our Best Golf ? hile watching golf on TV recently, we were impressed by comments made during the broadcast of the 2017 Memorial Tournament. Jack Nicklaus was asked what he thought about during the final round, and he answered, "That depended on what was going on that day inside me and with my swing. Thought mostly about tempo, and my mental balance; also, what was going on when I warmed up." "I always played shot by shot, moment by moment, to the end of the round," Nicklaus continued. "I took what my game was giving me that day and did not think about winning. I always have felt that golf is a game of emotion and adjustment. You start your round with several birdies, and now you need to adjust your emotional state to stay calm and present." Ben Hogan said the same: what the ball was doing when he warmed up is how he played the ball that day. If it was going a little left or a little right, he adjusted his line of play accordingly. He said that he believed his strength was the way he managed his play, not his swing. These pros were playing golf, not their golf swings. If you are thinking about your golf swing, you don't have the ability to focus your mind's attention on the target. After all, when we play golf, our intention is to send our ball to the target! Anyone who's ever been "in the zone" will tell you the same thing— how quiet it is. When most amateurs are playing poorly, their minds are full of chatter. They're bombarded with verbal commands such as "keep your head down," "turn your hips," "shift your weight" or "keep your left arm straight." Plus, they carry all these negative thoughts which they have to combat with an equal amount (or more) of positive thoughts. The back-and-forth between the two and the internal conversation in their heads is loud and out of control. When you're playing well, however, there's an absence of all this chatter. It's very quiet and peaceful. You're not thinking about outcomes; you're thinking about hitting the ball to the target. The other way one can get into the zone is to deflect the outcome. The golf course is not the friendliest of environments. As your eyes scan the fairway, you see bunkers, out-of-bounds stakes, sloped fairways and heavy rough—nothing but trouble! It's hard to see the fairway grass right in front of you. All of a sudden, you're thinking about all of the things that can go wrong, instead of those that can go right. Your objective on every shot in golf is to not match your- self to the outcome of the shot—i.e. everything that can go wrong with the shot. We use the acronym NATO (Not Attached to Outcome) to describe this mindset. You want to focus on the present, not what has occurred in the past (e.g. "The last time I was here, I drove it into the fairway bunker and made double-bogey"), or what might happen in the future (e.g. "What if I top it, hit it fat or shank it?"). There are several things you can do to remove yourself from the out- come of the shot and stay committed to the present. You can create a mantra, or swing-through, designed to help you achieve a specific goal. For example, a lot of players on the PGA Tour focus on making solid contact, like driving the middle of the clubface into the ball off the tee. Many play- ers will call the shot they are about to strike. That's not being boastful, it's using descriptive terms to paint a picture of the shot they are about to strike: such as, "I'm going to carve this shot to the left off the bunker." All of these ideas are designed to take your mind away from focusing on the swing mechanics and to transfer attention to the target or the shot you are about to strike. It will take some courage to let go of some of the swing mechanics on the course. Save the swing techniques for the practice facility; when you're on the course, trust yourself and your swing so you can "play golf, not swing." Come visit us at the Pebble Beach Golf Academy & Practice Facility. Our top instructors look forward to helping you maximize your golf game and enjoy- ment on the course. Contact us at 831/622-8650 for more information. W

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