All golfers would love to hit the same good shots over and over, with practice, without practice, any type of condition, any golf course. To show up at the course and expect your 7-iron shots to travel their intended distance every time you play would be a dream! So many golfers arrive to my lesson tee, or therapy couch, desiring consistency. They want to make the same swing over and over, without any deviations, so they can predict where the ball will go. Sounds awesome, but I’m here to tell you it is just not possible.
Do you wake up every day with the same mood? Same level of energy? Same motivation? Same physicality? If you’re human, the answer is “No.” We are different day to day, therefore our golf swings will be different day to day, and that is OK!
If any athlete could be consistent, they would never make a mistake. Baseball pitchers would be able to throw every pitch desired on command. Quarterbacks would never miss a throw to their receivers. Touring professionals would never hit an errant shot. We have all been a witness to exhilarating Sunday afternoon tour golf, just to see a leader miss a short putt, hit a ball in the water, or bogey the last hole to lose a championship. Let me pose this question to you. If the best athletes in the world are not consistent, how can the rest of us golfers expect to be consistent when we head to the golf course?
Align Your Expectations
From a psychological perspective, a great strategy is to directly align your skill set with your expectations. If you normally shoot in the 90’s, your game will be filled with great shots, mediocre shots, and a few horrible shots in every round.
Ben Hogan was quoted as saying golf is a game of misses, and that the person who misses best, wins, and has been noted to say he was happy if he hit two quality shots a round. Annika Sorenstam has said “golf is a game of good shots. Golf is also a game of bad shots. The Champion is the one who hits more great shots.”
If your expectations are directly in line with your ability in golf you will experience less disappointment and frustration round to round.
So if we know we cannot be consistent, because its not humanly possible, what can we do to attain the “repeatability” of a satisfying golf score or shot? Fellow colleagues and top instructors Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriot suggest “being a master of variability.”
Repeat Your Positive Processes
Let’s start by changing our language. Instead of trying to be consistent, could you perhaps try to be repeatable in your steps to approach the game? For example, if you take two practice putting strokes before hitting a putt, could you do that every time you approach a putt to build a repeatable process? If you stretch out and do a warm-up session before an important tournament, could you strive to repeat that process before every round? Lastly, if taking a deep breath helps you relax and focus, could you take a deep breath before executing every golf shot? This is by no means a guarantee for perfect shots all the time, because that just isn’t possible, but following your routine and repeating positive processes helps you get into a good mental state to perform your best.
Embrace the Variables of Golf
As situations occur on the golf course (i.e. rough shots, sidehill lies, different grass types, varying speeds of greens, and changing weather conditions) look to embrace the variables. Golf is not played on a perfectly flat surface 100% of the time with consistent weather, therefore it is helpful to embrace the conditions as they change, and the different situations as they come your way.
Look at the changes as exciting opportunities to excel. Reword your self-statements from “Oh no. My ball is in a divot. How unfair!” to “OK, this will be a challenge, but I know how to hit out of a divot, and this will be a fun opportunity to see how I do!” If we change our perception about adversity, it will be a lot more tolerable.
The moment you give up trying to be consistent by aligning your expectations and embracing all the variables that golf brings, you can use your repeatable processes to succeed.
