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The Friendly Fairway
August 1, 2011
The Friendly Fairway
Early in my exploration of this subject with Golf
Professionals I had the opportunity to discuss what I was
doing with a particular teaching professional. We shall
call him Dave. Dave was interested to find out what I was
doing and was willing to give some of his time to help me.
I, in turn, wanted to find out from him what he did on the
golf course and in practise which was different from those
who do not achieve high performance and similar to those
who do achieve it.
The meeting went well and I explained to Dave that I was
interested in what high performers did in their minds that
helped them to play good golf. Now, often when I explain
this to people for the first time they initially think of
what I do as course management i.e. where to hit the ball
and what club to use etc. The reaction this time was
similar and I went on to explain to Dave that what I was
really interested in was mind management. I wanted to know
what he did in his head before, during and after a shot
which allowed him to execute such a high percentage of
accurate shots.
Many top performers are highly aware of the rituals and
routines that they carry out on a conscious level and yet
not so obvious are the subconscious patterns that they use.
Dave explained as many have that he looks to see where he
wants to hit his next shot taking into account trouble
spots and distances and specifically pointed out that he
wanted his shot to finish in a place which made his next
shot easiest. He told me about the activity that made up
his pre-shot routine explaining how he was trying to relax
himself and get into the right mindset to hit his shot.
Now, these are the things we hear and read about regularly
as golf tips in magazines and books but they are what I
call ‘surface structure’. They are the things we are
consciously aware of and do in order to try and get
ourselves into the right frame of mind. What I was
interested in was the ‘deep structure’ that he was using
that allowed his mind to find the shot he needed. I asked
him to bear with me for a moment and to “remember a time
when you hit a shot that you hit just right and landed and
rolled to where you wanted it to?”. When he nodded to tell
me he had one in mind I asked him to “make a picture of
that shot”; “See yourself going through your pre-shot
routine all the way to when you are standing over the ball
ready to hit it”. Dave nodded to indicate that he was
there. “Now, what I want you to do…” I said, “…is to answer
this question. How do you know when to hit the ball?”. Dave
looked at me as if I was asking him a ridiculous question
and answered “I don’t know. I suppose it just feels right.”
Now, I have had enough experience to know by now that when
someone says they “don’t know” then they are on the
boundary of conscious thought and about to go inside and
get the key driver for their performance. This is a
critical moment because if you manage to get them to look
inside then it is like pulling back the stone on Aladdin’s
cave but if they fall back on the wrong side of “don’t
know” then the information is left locked inside. We’ve all
seen ravenous wolves on the TV or in films if not in real
life and when they find the food they have been craving
they drool uncontrollably at the anticipation of what is to
come. I find myself in times like these described above in
many ways similar to the hungry wolf (although I am most
often able to control the drooling). “Dave”, I said,
calmly. “Just before you don’t know, when you look at the
picture you are making, what is it that you see that tells
you that it is the right time to hit the ball?”
Now, the most surprising things happen when people go
inside and find their deep structure. It does surprise me
time after time that when someone becomes aware of their
subconscious thoughts they take it for granted that you
would already know what they had omitted to explain.
“When you look at the picture what is it that changes that
tells you it is the right time to hit the ball?” I
repeated.
“Oh that. Well, that’s easy” says Dave, “the fairway
becomes friendly” and he looked at me again as if I was
supposed to know what that meant. You see, what many people
are unaware of is that inside our own minds we have a whole
world of thoughts which we take for granted that others
have, but which are unique to the individual and no-one
else.
“In what way does the fairway become friendly?” I asked.
“Well, the colours become softer, smoother and more
friendly looking to the eye and the fairway changes shape
going concave like a valley and you just know that if the
ball was to go off line it would hit the bank and come
straight back into the centre of the fairway” he announced
easily.
“Okay. So now the colours are becoming softer and the
fairway is changing shape…” I reminded him “how do you know
when they have changed enough for it to be the right time
to hit the ball?”.
Dave looked straight in front of him and then a smile
covered his face, “At some point the fairway gets so
friendly that I get a feeling of contentment come all over
me starting from my head and going down to my toes and when
it reaches my toes I hit the ball.” “The great thing is
that when I hit that ball I hit it without a care in the
world”.
What Dave was doing isn’t something difficult or weird. He
was using his mind and the patterns that his mind works to
create the environment necessary for him to perform well. I
give you this as an example not so that you will all to a
man or woman go off and copy it but so that when you begin
to see what makes you hit a good shot or a bad shot you can
relate to it as something normal to the human race and not
something to be dismissed.
I have been amazed at the many different ways that people
create in their minds to make sense of the world that they
live in and the often outstandingly simple ways that we
power up our performance by using our imagination to
stimulate our chemical nervous system. You can see other
examples when you read the Deep Impact Golf book and these
range from the pint sized Tiger Woods or the Humpalumpas of
Charlie’s Chocolate Factory to the whispering cup amongst
many others.
What do you do in your head before hitting a poor shot and
more interestingly what do you do in your head before
hitting a great shot?
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