Golf is a very strange game, and I think the main problem—if you can call it that—is that you have too much time to think. In most other games involving hitting balls with a stick or a raquet, you are reacting. In golf, you are usually thinking. Some might prefer to think they are concentrating, but Bobby Jones famously said that when many people think they are concentrating, what they are actually doing is worrying.
When not worrying about where we don’t want the ball to go, we often worry about how we look to those watching us, or what score we’re shooting, or what score our opponent is shooting, or what we did on the last hole, or… So many things we can worry about, none of which are likely to improve our performance.
Other than worrying about hitting it in the water, perhaps the thing most people think or worry about when over the ball is their golf swing. This is despite the fact that, as Bobby Jones said, all you had to do was watch any group of top players tee off to appreciate that there are more than just one way to swing a golf club correctly. Yet we see most teachers talking almost incessantly about the golf swing. And, if you ask most golfers what they are working on; it’s almost always their golf swing. We seem to be golf swing obsessed.
So, how can we stop worrying and obsessing about our swing. In his book, Golf is my Game, Bobby Jones recommended, rather than thinking about your golf swing, you should instead focus intently on the strike. He wrote:
“It is in this very way that a player should approach every shot he hits on the golf course, or even on the practice range. Let him always decide first upon the result he wants to produce; second, upon the precise manner in which he desires to strike the ball; and then let him place himself in such a position that he knows he will be able to deliver the blow in this manner. This is the obvious, direct, and uncomplicated way of going about the playing of a golf shot. It will always be many times more effective than any attempt to follow a prescription for placing the feet and adjusting the rest of the body posture. It will result in an easy fluidity because it is natural. One may very easily and with great advantage carry this thing one step further. Indeed, for the best performance, the player must keep in the forefront of his mind throughout the entire stroke this very clear picture of the precise manner in which he intends to strike the ball.”
Golf gives you a lot of time—maybe too much time—to think. But, instead of worrying, once you have decided what kind of shot you want to hit, and where you want to hit it, focus on making the strike that will produce that result. That is the thing to concentrate on. After all, the ball only responds to how it is struck, not how pretty your swing looked.
