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Simple yet powerful keys for keeping your composure and the mental edge over your opponents, which will help you play with more consistency, experience less frustration, and shoot lower scores.

Legendary sportswriter Red Smith characterized Ben Hogan’s comeback from a near-fatal automobile crash in February 1949 as “the most remarkable feat in the history of sports.” Now, more than 60 years later, that statement still rings true. The crowning moment of Hogan’s comeback was his astonishing victory in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia, where his battered legs could barely carry him on the 36-hole final day.

As we address the ball, occasionally something happens that makes us want to change our mind. It may be a change in the wind, something about our lie or stance that we didn’t notice before, or an uneasy feeling about our club selection. When you change your mind about how you’re going to play a shot just before you execute it, there’s more that needs to be done than you might think.

Trust is one of the most important qualities in the game of golf. With trust, it feels like you and your golf club are partners dancing as one. Without trust, it feels like you and your golf club are on opposite sides in a tug-of-war. Golfers often have a mistaken notion of trust. They think that trusting their swing means it should be perfectly reliable. We’re human beings, not robots, so our swing doesn’t repeat exactly. What we can trust is that it will be like our signature.

Sense perceptions are necessary for creative imaging of the shots we intend to play. Our senses collect information that we use to direct our mind and body in executing a golf shot and everything else we do. Therefore, it is very helpful to practice awareness of our sense perceptions and how they are experienced.

Impatience compounds mistakes. Making a poor shot, we should accept the situation and play the smartest shot from there. Instead, we try to make it all up with the next shot. If we miss a few putts, we begin pressing to get our approach shots closer to the pin, often taking unwarranted risks and suffering the consequences. Stephen had been playing golf for just three years, but had taken lessons regularly. Still, he had never broken 100.

One of the challenges faced by all levels of golfers is expressed in this lament: “Why can’t I hit it on the course the way I was hitting it on the range? It feels so frustrating!” There are many reasons, one of which is purpose. When you are on the range before a round you are usually trying to get comfortable with the swing, seeing how it feels that day, looking for some swing key, and so on. Once we’re on the tee, it is about performance.

Facing a difficult recovery shot is a particular situation that’s likely to give rise to an anyway. There’s a method to avoid compounding one mistake with another. When you set up as though to play the shot, tune in to your body. Using the body scan, feel how comfortable or uncomfortable you are. You’ll intuitively sense the difficulty of the shot you’re planning.

When body and mind are synchronized for a golf swing, they are unified in purpose, presence, and focus. They are functioning in the same place at the same time. Can you send your body into the past or the future? Of course not. Our body is in the present and only in the present. Can you send your mind into the past or the future? Of course you can.

All too often we try to get something extra out of our drives, and the results are usually the opposite of what we desire. Even if we’re lucky enough to find the ball, it has traveled less than our usual distance. The golf swing is a series of muscle movements, all in sequence. Any interference with that sequence, such as extra muscle tension, interrupts the flow of the swing, causing errors in body action, swing path, and contact point.

A vital part of our preparation for a golf shot has to do with alleviating tension from our body. Excessive muscle tension is an obstacle to making a fluid, powerful golf swing. There needs to be just enough tension to maintain our posture and hold onto the club as we swing, but any more than necessary interferes with the flow of the swing.

Many years ago in Japan, a student came to a master swordsman and said, “If I become your devoted student, how long will it take for me to master the sword?”

The master replied, “Perhaps ten years.”

“That’s a long time,” said the student.

“If I try really hard, how long would it take me?”

The master replied, “Oh, maybe twenty years.”

The student was shocked. “First you said ten, now you say twenty years. What if I try as hard as I can?”

When we say to someone, “Don’t think of a monkey,” the image that comes to mind is a monkey. That’s because the word “monkey” refers to something we can perceive, but the word “don’t” is purely conceptual. On the golf course, when we say to ourselves, “Don’t hit it into the lake,” the image that appears in our mind is our golf ball flying toward and splashing into the lake. Golfers tend to have a negative attitude about themselves after hitting the ball in the place they hoped to avoid.

Less than one percent of all golfers have completed a round of golf on par or better. That makes it a rather unrealistic target score for all but the most skilled among us. Measuring yourself against the par on the scorecard is a setup for failure for the average golfer. Another problem with par is that it is printed on scorecards and signs. When it was first used, the number set as “par for the course” varied according to the difficulty of the course conditions under which a competition was played.

In golf, if we keep thinking about a mistake we made on a previous hole, or project how our score will turn out at the end of the round, it’s as if we’re daydreaming. We spend much of the time “asleep” to the present moment, preoccupied with thoughts about the past and future. Lacking awareness of the task at hand leads to poor decision making before the shot and distraction while we’re swinging.

In the martial arts and similar mind­-body traditions of the East, the body’s “center of gravity” is the source from which all movement and energy flow. It is located a few inches below the navel, in the center of the torso. Awareness of this center of gravity is extremely helpful in golf.

The mental skills necessary to play your best golf need to be learned and groomed, just as good swing techniques do. The tendency to “focus on the negative” needs to be replaced with the habit of accentuating the positive. A conversation with a touring professional provides a good illustration of this point. After the first round of a tournament, I asked Andy how the day went.

Once a Zen master was listening to a student complain about his uncontrollable temper. The student said, “I’m a very angry person. Please help me to change.”

“Sounds like a big problem. Let’s see this terrible anger of yours,” the master demanded of the student.

There are reactions to good and bad shots that are common to most golfers. If we hit a drive down the middle of the fairway, we might bend down and pick up our tee before the shot has even landed. If we hit a poor shot, we follow it to the finish and get upset. Here’s a post-shot routine that reverses those responses. When you hit a shot that comes out just the way you pictured it, get some emotion going.

Let’s start with an exercise. Take your golf stance and close your eyes. For a few seconds, think of a situation that you’re afraid of or that causes you anxiety when you anticipate dealing with it. Now check on your breathing—is it deep and relaxed? Chances are it isn’t. Most people respond that they were barely breathing at all.