Keep your focus on the ball and let all else fade into the background. 

Try to look down on the ball, rather than watching it at the end of the golf club.  Raising your shoulders is not going to assist you seeing the ball more clearly.  If you will look down on the ball, you will get results that are more successful and you will not have a tendency to look up before the end of your swing.  

Unfortunately, it is entirely normal to look away when you begin to pull the club back.  Pay no attention to the normal feeling and keep your eyes on the ball.  

When you are looking down at the ball, you should notice that the only way you can keep the club head in the correct line of flight is to keep your hands moving parallel to the flight line.  Keep your hands in line with the club head when making contact with the ball. 

It is very significant to learn to watch the ball no matter what kind of shot you need to make.  It does not matter if the ball is in the long grass, the sand trap, on a slope, or anywhere else, the main thing is to see the ball completely so that you can hit it solidly and successfully.  

There are not many golfers who stand still and keep their concentration on the ball.  Many times, people will look at where they want the ball to go and then look at the ball.  Most golfers would be taken aback to learn that they do not stand still and watch the ball.  The instant that you take your eye off the ball, you begin having problems. 

Most golf mistakes are a result of a loss of attention.  It you keep your focus on the ball, you will be able to hit the ball well.   

To help your golf game, remind yourself to keep your eye on the ball for the complete swing.  You will find your golf game improving so much that your friends may be asking you for suggestion!   

If only it was that easy when you stand with your ball on a tee peg and with your playing partners and others watching as you try to get the ball airborne. Why is a practice swing so easy? Why does it often differ so much from your real swing? The answer is it is tension-free. When you swing a golf club with no intention of hitting the golf ball, your focal point changes. You are now concentrating on how you swing rather than how you hit. When you have a golf ball placed in front of you, this becomes your main focus and suddenly, all your good swing thoughts take second place.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRACTICE SWING

The key to making good, crisp contact with your irons or a powerful sweeping strike with your woods is to somehow translate your practice swing into the real one. Have you ever heard professional golfers and teachers talk about "swinging through the ball"? What they are saying in effect is that you swing the golf club as you would in practice and simply allow the ball to get in the way. The problem most club golfers have is that they "hit" at the ball as opposed to swinging through it. If you can use your practice swing and connect with the ball, you will gain more distance and accuracy as a result.

The real problem with "hitting" at the ball is that it tends to destroy your swing plane. The shoulder comes in too early, the club is pushed outside the desired line and the result is that you either make bad contact by hitting the ground just before the ball, or you cut across the ball, producing a weak slice. On the other hand, if you can maintain your swing as you do in practice, the club will naturally continue on its path because you are still on plane and this will create a more powerful, accurate strike.

MAKING IT WORK ON THE GOLF COURSE

The tension-free sensation of swinging a golf club without attempting to hit the ball is one that should be practiced often, even when you are not on the golf course. Grooving a fluid, smooth golf swing is more likely to be achieved without a golf ball. If your home allows it, you could swing a golf club in your living room or garage, or if that isn't possible, out in the garden. Just finding somewhere you can swing a golf club freely can have a more positive effect on your golf game than pounding balls on the driving range.

The key of course is to take that grooved golf swing to the golf course when you play. The challenge you face is to avoid changing your setup and swing just because you now have a golf ball at your feet. Taking a few practice swings on the tee before you attempt to play the ball and simply try to repeat this when you bring your clubhead through on the strike. This can be difficult to accomplish because you somehow have the feeling you are not making a strong enough pass at the ball. The practice swing can often feel as though it lacks the power necessary to give you the distance you expect. But this is not so. The fact is that it will give you more power.

The reason for this is that your smooth swing you have practiced at home is one that will give you greater clubhead speed. Your other swing when you consciously tried to hit the ball harder has taken you off plane, brought the club outside the desired line and effectively killed the clubhead speed from the top of the swing. Maintaining your plane with a smooth swing will keep the clubhead on the correct path and deliver much more power to the back of the ball. Remember: Your practice swing is essential for developing the correct ball striking habits. Spend time in practice without hitting golf balls and if you can take that swing to the golf course with you, it will be sure to result in better ball-striking and lower scores.

Check Your Grip

If you have a tendency to slice the ball, try adjusting your grip very slightly by turning your hands more to the right on the handle of the club (for right-handed golfers). When you look down on your grip at address, you should see two or three knuckles now that your grip is slightly stronger.

Ball Position

Where you position the ball can have a marked effect on how you strike the ball. If the ball is too far back in your stance, you may find you will hit the ball fat or push it off to the right. If the ball is placed too far forward in your stance, this can lead to topping the ball or pulling it left. Take note on your practice swing where your club bottoms out and this should help you identify the correct ball position for you.

Check Alignment

When on the practice range, observe how you are aligned when you set up to hit the ball. It is easy to let your alignment drift by opening your shoulders and this usually leads to slicing the ball. How you align your feet is also important as this can determine the direction of your ball flight. Use a golf club to check your alignment by laying it on the ground touching both feet, then step away to check where it points. You can do the same with your shoulder alignment by taking your address position and then placing your club across your chest to see where the club points.

These are jsut a few basic adjustments we can make if we feel we are not striking the ball as we would like. Try following these tips and see how it can improve your ball striking which should greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game.

What are you thinking about as you prepare for your chip shot. Think seriously about this, what exactly are you thinking?

Probably you have in your mind the words of your instructor,” hit down on the ball” or perhaps “hold the hands forward” or create a slight wrist cock. Good advice at times but why are you reading this article? Because good advice of this sort is mechanical that only works under perfect conditions which are proper mental conditioning and lots of practice.

You are still looking for a solution because you are simply not able to chip that tiny little golf ball consistently in spite of all the good advice.

A big problem with some instructors is that they go by the book, they teach you the things you have to do but they don't really tell you the things that you shouldn't do. By adding more and more mechanical techniques they add to your confusion and your golf game suffers.

You are still fluffing it, sculling it, shanking it topping it and generally lacking the precision needed for a consistent quality shot.

More than likely you are thinking thoughts of uncertainty and feeling insecure because your experiences of past flubs are circumspect. You just aren't sure of yourself in this situation.

Let's fix that for you now once and for all.

Golf is a mental game; fix the problem mentally. But in order to fix a problem you must first identify the real causes of your lack of success.

Has anyone ever told you the problem with poor chipping is lack of body discipline and uncontrolled movement? I watched the pros and I studied their body discipline and saw poetry in motion so to speak. In contrast I studied hundreds of amateurs and guess what the difference was compared to the professionals.

In most cases they were dancing as they hit the ball, yes dancing. They weren't all dancing to the same tune because the movements were different. They were following the instructions to the letter, perfect grip, hands a little advanced, hit down on the ball, etc, etc, but they were flubbing the ball and shanking it and if they did succeed to make a decent chip shot they still left themselves long unattractive putts.

Here's what the common error is, I call it dancing but in reality it is the inability to stay still and locked in during the four stages of the motion, swing back, swing forward, hit the ball and follow through. For chipping the legs should not follow the rhythm of the swing but they naturally do both with the backswing and follow through resulting in all the aforementioned problems.

Since golf is a mental game here is the fix you need to make perfect chips every time.

I'm not going to give you any mechanical tips, if you are a golfer reading this you have all the mechanics you need to know so from this point on it's your mental approach that is going to be fixed.

Here is the mental picture you have to establish and indelibly imprint in your sub conscious mind. After a while it will become automatic and the results will be amazing. You only have to do this to prove to your self that it really works.

With a pitching wedge in your hand standing over the ball mentally nail the toe of your left shoe and then the toe of your right shoe into the ground solidly with a hammer. Mentally try to move your feet but find that you can't budge them, they are locked.

At the same time imagine your knees being strapped tightly to an upright post. Mentally try to move them either way but find them locked in an unmovable position.

With this mental picture being developed and respected make the chip. It may take a little time if you have a thick skull but persevere and the results will come. Keeping the legs and feet under control is the solution to practically all chipping problems and a key to making your golf buddies jealous at your greatly improved short game.

Good golfing!

This, believe it or not, is one of the many enjoyable parts of our favourite game, too many golfers get their enjoyment only from a good result which leads them to feeling frustrated most of the time.

The pros, at least the top pros, all have help from a lot of different sources, eg. swing coach, mental coach, coarse analysts, and of course not forgetting their caddy who does a lot more than just carry their equipment for them.

Most of us, however, have to rely on nothing more than ourselves and maybe a few lessons from the local pro now and again, so getting to know our own swing and adapting what we have is imperative and a good pro will help us achieve this when we do get a lesson.

Our local pro is not with us when we are playing golf, so his advice on correcting our swing faults is not available when we most need it. This is why we have to be able to analyze our own swing and get to know each and every part of it.

As far as our swing goes, it's the basics that we struggle to get right, if we don't know the fundamentals then we have nothing to rely on when things go wrong, that fundamental method that we know works every time and gives us a straight shot, no heroics, no great distance, but something that we know will produce a certain outcome.

In order to get the basics right, we have to be aware of our swing, the path it is taking, and whether the club face is square at impact. Getting our stance right is less important, an open or closed stance should not matter if the swing trajectory and club face is right, it is still possible to produce an accurate and straight shot, the only part of our stance we need to get right is what they call the athletic stance, straight back, chin up, bend from the hips. Apart from these, it's your personal swing that you have to work with.

When most golfers are preparing for a shot, they take a couple of practice swings and concentrate on... what?

Usually, a lot of things like, are they lined up right, is the club head just skimming the grass at the right spot, is their left arm straight..., and a whole collection of other things. What they should be concentrating on is the swing, they should be aware of what the club is doing during it's complete journey from being at rest all the way through the back swing until it returns to the impact zone. Not just the trajectory of the club, but also what is happening to the club face.

Once we stand up to the ball, get our balance right and take a look at the green, trust in your own natural ability that you will be lined up correctly, you really don't have to worry about that, our brains are well capable of doing this automatically.

So next time your on the course or at the driving range, trust your mind to control the things it can and concentrate instead on what your swing is doing, once you get proficient at that, the basics will become obvious and, more to the point, you will understand them and be able to return to them whenever you need to.

My own golf site is young and still growing, but it has some information, some quirky and some of a more conventional nature, but it still has a long way to go with more being added as time permits, most of all it is supposed to be fun. I hope you enjoy it.

1. Aim for the front of the ball. When you make eye contact on the ball, swing as if you intend to hit the front of the ball rather than the spot where the club actually makes contact with the ball.
2. When making a put, line up the writing on the ball with where you are aiming for in relation to the slope. If you are down a couple degrees and to the right of a slope, line the letters on the ball up one degree to the left of the hole.
3. When driving, try not to crush the ball. Trying to smash the ball when you are not a pro will get you as far as the woman's tee. When you are a beginner, it is best to try and make contact.
4. Pull your backswing back slowly. Being impatient and rushing your backswing will take your aim off the ball before you make contact.
5. When making iron shots in the fairway, shoot for the ball as if you are trying to scoop up some earth with it; this will provide you with more loft (especially with your low irons). If you do not do this, you will simply be rolling your ball along the fairway picking up lots of strokes and missing out on much needed loft that it will take you to make it to the green.
6. Refrain from caffeinated beverages. You might think slamming coffee or energy drinks will improve your game but they will not. Caffeine and energy drink products will make you jittery and less relaxed resulting in a deficiency of accuracy.
7. Pay attention to the wind. When making distance shots that will produce loft, make sure you adjust to the wind accordingly. You can even do the "ol "throw a piece of grass in the air' trick to see what direction the wind is blowing. Adjusting your stance according to the direction of the wind will land you on the fairway every time. Not doing so will put you in the drink or in the forest always.
8. Do not hit the ball right away. Step up to the ball first and look to where you're aiming for. Take a couple of practice swings to gauge the shot before attempting to hit the ball. If there are people behind you, so what - let them wait. If they are too impatient then let them pass.
9. Choke up on your pitching wedge when making closer chip shots. This will give you much more accuracy to land your ball right on the green near the pin.
10. Rotate your club face (irons and woods) inwards slightly to gain better control on the ball

Following the simple guidelines can save you lots of strokes on the course. Not following these simple rules will have you shanking, slicing, and rolling your ball in every part of the course but the fairways and greens. Following this guide will give you better accuracy and improve your golf game significantly.

There are lots of theories regarding golf, the power drive in particular, and a powerful golf swing, you can find them all over the internet, in books, dvd's, from your local pro, even your buddies will have a few of their own. The one common theme that I agree with though, is don't try and murder the ball, it just doesn't work that way. The harder you try and hit the ball, the less control you have of your swing and balance and the ball will most likely just have a wild slice! Sometimes it might just all fit together right and you'll hit a beauty, but very rarely.

Well, not that long ago, I had the same lack of power in my shots, also very common with new golfers, I'd taken instruction, read everything I could find on the subject, practiced at the range and nothing worked. I've lost count of the times I've changed my swing, clubs, stance, grip, you name it, I've changed it. I know I'm telling you nothing new, you've most likely been through the same, but I found a method that works, at least it did for me, and I thought you would like to know what it is.

One of the things I noticed was that no matter what I changed (except for the clubs) within a few weeks my swing invariably returned back to my old one. As none of the changes worked anyway, it did not matter too much, but it led me to believe that maybe my "natural" swing was not the problem. So I started to think of ways that could increase power without having to change my swing at all. It wasn't until I was trying to teach my young nephew to flip a coin, that it dawned on me.

The more tension you let build up in your thumb before releasing it to flip the coin, the faster your thumb releases and the further the coin flies in the air.

Here's the scary bit, I thought how could I apply that to the golf swing? Well, I did, it's not that easy to hit a good shot at first, but with a bit of practice it really does work. It goes something like this.

Take your normal stance, no club or ball just yet, take your normal back swing but don't go much further than waist height, your left arm should be roughly parallel with the ground, and stop. Get someone to support your hands to stop them coming down and allow you to build up tension in them by gradually pulling down against the upward force of your friends hand, then get them to suddenly take their hand away. I'll bet your forward swing has never been as fast.

Now, try it with a club (minus the friend, we don't want any accidents). This time, take the same back swing, stopping at the same height, then let your right hand stop your left from dropping, just for a second, until you've got a small amount of tension built up, then, suddenly, stop holding back your left hand.

It is as simple as that. Make your back swing as short as it needs to be to hit a good shot, then, once you get the feel for it you can start increasing your back swing a bit at a time. Don't rush it, a short back swing can still deliver a lot of club head speed which is where the power comes from.

I hope I've managed to explain this well enough. The timing might be a bit strange at first, but try it at the range,. It took me a while to get the ball to fly straight and I had to use a slightly open stance, you also might try strengthening your grip (ie, at address the back of your right hand faces more towards the ground than normal), apart from that it has worked well for me, and you can control how far the shot will go (particularly with the irons) by varying the amount of tension you allow to build up before releasing. Remember, the back swing can be as slow and controlled as you like, in fact a hurried back swing can spoil the shot.

I'm not going to make wild claims about how far I can hit the ball now, that just doesn't mean anything to you, anyone can make claims, I've seen plenty of them, and anyway, it's how far you will be able to hit the ball that matters, and I'm not going to make any claims there either, except to say that I'm sure you will hit further than you do at present.

You will find information on curing your slice here. If you follow this link you'll find that I am not a very orthodox golfer.

None of your golf equipment, ie golf clubs, golf shoes, gloves,etc. are to blame for this peculiar trait that most golfers exhibit, nor is your stance, grip, or swing, you can't even blame the course or lie of the ball. It turns out that it's all your fault, you bring this about yourself, you do it by concentrating on your fault, the slice.

Just to prove to yourself that the fault isn't in your stance, try taking a really gentle swing at a golf ball by first lining up square to the target, then, the same gentle swing but this time, instead of lining up square to the target, open your stance and take a shot at the same target, lastly try the same thing with a closed stance. Chances are good that the three golf balls will not be too far apart, and they will probably have been pretty straight as well.

The biggest cause of a slice by far, is over hitting the ball. The harder we try to hit the golf ball, the less control we have of any part of our swing, and, as we all know, every swing we take should be controlled.

That's not the only reason though, there are quite a few others that can cause a slice, getting into the impact zone with the face of the club in an open position is the real fault for producing a slice and this can happen for a myriad of reasons. One of them is your body leading your hands in the downswing, a too upright back swing can do this as well, so also can breaking your wrists incorrectly (your wrists should hinge at the thumb NOT at the back of your hand, shake hands with someone, that's the way your wrists should hinge.)

However, our minds are very good at taking all our faults and automatically adjusting to give us our desired outcome. Take balance as an example, we all manage to walk, run and jump differently from each other, but we still manage to remain balanced because our subconscious evens out all our different faults and succeeds in giving us what we intend, even if we are all doing it in a different way.

Well... the same is just as true in all areas of our life, including golf. What our subconscious thinks we desire is what it will try and achieve.

Our little bit of grey matter, at least the bit that controls our reactions, breathing, heart rate, etc. can't tell the difference between what we want and what we are trying to prevent, it can;t even tell the difference between reality and dreams. Whatever we concentrate on or make really important (or fear) is what our subconscious thinks we want, a self-fulfilling prophecy as it were.

By worrying about producing a slice, we are reinforcing the desire in our subconscious to produce exactly that result. So no matter what we do to solve the problem, our brains readjust us to make sure that we don;t solve it. I'm sure that you.ve tried playing to your slice and aiming far to the left and still not getting the ball where you want it, it may even end up in much the same place if you hadn't bothered playing for your slice.

The remedy...well, don't focus on having a slice, never dwell on it. Easier said than done, but that is what we have to do, try and forget about it altogether, and if you do have a slice, then just shrug your shoulders and concentrate on the next shot. A few practicalities can be undertaken to fool your mind. Put your teepeg as far right on the tee as you can (when facing the flag) and line up to place your shot on the right hand side of the fairway, play for a slight draw on the ball, by imagining the ball flight,. This will let your subconscious know that you are no longer afraid of the slice. Positive affirmations also work wonders in controlling what your subconscious does. Just before you take your back swing, try saying "everyday, in every way, I'm hitting the ball straighter and straighter!" No need to laugh... there is documentary evidence that some people have been cured of different diseases by reciting "every day, in every way, I get better and better!" The important thing here is that when you recite it to yourself, believe it, really believe what your are saying.

Don't expect instant miracles, It may happen, but more likely, it will happen gradually over a few games, however, you should see some improvemnt immediately, how much depends on you. At least, your slice should be nowhere near as bad as it was.

Good luck with it, and remember, golf is supposed to fun!

Find more information Click Here!

If you would like to learn more about positive affirmations try this for size.

By the way, if your interested in writing articles, and getting paid for it, try here.

Athletes need mental toughness, dealing with the stress of the competition, especially once they reach an elite status in a professional sport. To reach their optimal potential by playing within their OPZ, athletes need to control their arousal states. In a sympathetic arousal state, there is a high-alert and readiness, the heart rate increases and adrenalin is released from the autonomic nervous system's response. The adrenalin paired with negative thinking causes stress hormones to be released within the body. So when an athlete is in a critical moment during a game, they become over excited, and anxious. This can cause an athlete to become too aroused and blow the shot and not be able to come back into their OPZ. The athlete can also become too relaxed and not be able to get aroused and excited enough for the rest of the game. Being consistent with your personality traits and being able to channel and control your aggression through positive emotion will lead to a more preferable outcome. For an athlete to succeed in their sport there is a need for mental toughness and confidence in what they do. Having active control over their mind and body under pressure, being resilient, fueled by competition and the spirit to fight, will ultimately lead to success in a sport.

Golf is an individual sport. An athlete is given the opportunity to grow within himself. The success of the athlete is determined by the time and effort he/she puts in to the preparation for the game both physically and mentally. If a golfer goes to the driving range every day, but puts no effort towards an advanced mental state, there is a good chance they will play poorly. In my experience, the confidence from practicing at the range is not enough to handle the emotion of a lost ball to a water hazard. For me golfing puts a new twist on the word demoralizing. I fail in dealing with the stress of a bad shot or the nervousness while people are watching which creates performance anxiety and anger. Setting up for a shot, my mind is focused on impressing the other players, and not messing up the shot like I did on the last hole.

I suffer from performance anxiety and anger when it comes to my golf game. All it takes is one bad shot. One catastrophe, one mishap, can ruin a perfect day of golf. I tend to feel incompetent when I play poorly as well as get angry and it leads to feeling embarrassed. “Albert Ellis referred to the following perspectives as interfering with capacity to perform in sports to full potential:

1. The belief that you must always have love and approval from all the people you find significant
2. The belief that you must always prove to be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving
3. The belief that emotional misery comes from external pressures and that you have little ability to control or change your own feelings
4. The belief that if something seems fearsome or threatening, you must preoccupy yourself with it and make yourself anxious about it
5. The belief that your past remains all-important and that because something once strongly influenced your life, it has to keep determining your feelings and behavior today. (Orlick, 71)”

These five perspectives outline performance anxiety. They state that one needs the love and approval of others at all times, have to be perfect at what you do, and that the past depicts the present and future. I started playing golf religiously this past summer. Every time I went golfing was not enjoyable for me because I would get so angry with myself and blames my clubs. It would start with teeing off on the first hole at Glenn Ellen Country Club, slicing the ball into the woods. From the woods I would hit a five iron back onto the fairway if I could find my ball, eventually leading to a triple bogey, scoring a 7 on a par 4 for the first hole. After that I would think that the rest of the day was going to be the same. All I wanted was to impress the people I was with, showing that I was a worthy player. I would start missing all my drives, hitting all the hazards, and progressively getting worse with every bad shot. A few days, I was angry enough to throw my clubs, break them over my knee, and cause a huge seen on the golf course.

Recently my family joined a country club on Cape Cod called New Seabury Country Club. The course is beautiful, the first nine holes running along the Atlantic Ocean. On a good day there is a steady breeze, making the course a little more difficult. Having the membership available to me I was able to experiment a few methods and look at my golf game while playing on a competitive course. I took note of what I did before I went onto the golf course, and when I set up to a ball, and recorded my emotion and reaction for several shots that I found critical. The 4th hole par 3 is an 150 yard shot over a pond. I documented this hole over and over because it was where I found the strongest emotion. I noticed my thought process when attending the ball. Almost every time on that hole, I felt intimidated because I do not play well on par 3's, but more importantly because of how many balls I had already lost to the pond. The water intimidated me, and caused me to reach a different state of arousal. I became anxious, and could not control my stress. My breathing elevated along with my heart rate, my hands would become shaky and I would miss the shot. After missing the shot repeatedly, it created this resentment for the hole, I became angered with myself and the game of golf, and my performance went downhill from there. On that specific shot, I became too aroused for the shot and lost control. Afterwards I was not able to regain my arousal for the next 14 holes.

My anger seems to come from fixing my attention on shots that I do not want to happen, and when they do I become angry. However, I find that treating the anger is not the solution, but preventing it from ever occurring. “Attempting to make a change while we're "in anger" is unlikely to work since the emotional intensity of anger precludes access to any reasonable thought (golf-mental-game-coach.com)!” Using common methods to have a stronger mental state before hitting the ball will help to roadblock the anger. There are a few different methods and approaches with issues around performance anxiety and anger. Breathing exercises, self talk, meditation, and psychological therapy are just a few.

There are two breathing exercises that I have chosen as possible solutions to test. The first, to calm myself after the fact of a bad shot, I will close my eyes, focus on my breathing while resting my hand on my stomach, noticing how the breathes make my stomach move in and out. This will be to calm my nerves or anger if it does occur during the match. The other is a tip used before teeing off. “While waiting for your turn to hit stand aside and follow this breathing pattern: Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 5 counts, and exhale for 6 counts. Long, deep, slow breaths. This process interrupts the breath influenced aspect of your state and directly instructs the brain to become still. Now of course there are several other areas that cause/increase nerves (golf-mental-game-coach.com).” Using this method before setting up to the ball will hopefully calm my breathing, and take the focus and pressure off the upcoming shot.

Since June I have been in therapy to work around the same issues of anxiety and depression. It has allowed me to relieve myself of anything that would create anger, and has reduced stress in my life dramatically. It has also allowed me to realize my performance anxiety with golf, showing me that I need to go out and have fun, not worry about yesterday's game and what other people are thinking about my game. In the beginning of the summer, I had a very high level of anxiety, and playing golf was not very fun because of it. Therapy has allowed me to become more analytical and has given me a higher Emotional IQ, where I can understand my emotions and direct them appropriately, and if not, I am able to deal with them in a more reasonable way. This has allowed me to enjoy golf more, and subsequently has affected my performance for the better. However the performance anxiety and anger still lingers with me.

Meditation is also another method to look into for increased focus, and being able to keep calm with a difficult situation. There are methods of meditation used before sleep, to help with bad dreams, and there are other forms of meditation to help with breathing patterns. A form of meditation in golf is visualizing the shot before it happens, closing your eyes and picturing the shot backwards from where the ball lands rewinding back to the beginning of your swing to see exactly what you need to do. This meditation pre-shot helps to keep my mind off of previous shots missed and mechanics that are important to the swing. For this to work, practice on the driving range is also needed so that you are confident with your swing and that you will be able to hit the ball where you want.

To test these possible solutions and aids, I brought myself back to the fourth hole at New Seabury. Waiting for my shot, I used the breathing method stated above, and helped to calm my nerves a little bit. As I addressed the ball, I looked to where I wanted to hit the ball, closed my eyes and visualized the shot before opening them and getting ready for the shot. Looked down at the ball, and swung. I put the ball to the right of the green in the long rough. The ball did not end up in the water, but it was not my best shot. For the rest of the day I played well, using the same method.

I have been back to that hole time and time again since then to see whether or not it was the practice with golf or practice with the breathing exercises. I played with my grandfather, and it was 19 degrees and windy. That left me with an extra challenge of staying warm, and keeping my blood flowing. I was able to use these methods and I shot a par on the hole. Driving the ball is where I am also struggling, so I took note after each shot whether or not I had hit the fairway. At the beginning of the testing for this project I was hitting 3 out of 15 fairways, and slicing most of the balls into the woods. The last time I played golf, using the methods above, I was hitting 7 of 15 fairways, and I was not struggling as much with par 3 holes. However, the one method that was not working was the after shot method. Breathing with my stomach and focusing on the breathing was not working to calm my anger. If I had made a bad shot, it was hard to come back from it, and the breathing was making no apparent difference after the shot. Breathing and meditating before the shot was much more beneficial.

At the beginning of the semester, my average score was 100 strokes on a par of 72; 28 over par. If I only had 90 strokes it was a miracle. Now my average score is <90 on the same golf course. I have put in no more physical practice than I was before, all mental preparation has given me better scores. I now find golf more enjoyable, and have not broken a club since late September.

For me, all it took was one bad shot. One bad shot would ruin my day, sending me into a downward spiral where I would lose all hope of recovering. Stepping up to a key shot proved that I was not handling myself well in an arousal state. I was allowing my heart rate to climb and my breath to become too heavy, creating stress and nervousness. The nervousness leads to performance anxiety creating bad shots which lead to anger; a powerful emotion that I could not control. To attend to the issue I implemented simple breathing and meditation exercises, along with therapy which has helped me realize and attend to my issues. This has helped me to control my breathing and heart rate, keeping me relaxed in an arousal state, allowing me to remain within my OPZ for difficult shots.

Looking forward, I hope to further apply what I have learned through this into my everyday life activities: schoolwork, family, work, and any other stress filled situations. I will continue using the methods while playing golf, and am looking forward to increased success in the future.

 

He tries hard to be like Tiger Woods, even though he'll never be like Tiger Woods.

He practices at home on his electric putter daily and dream of becoming the next Tiger Woods. If he can't even keep his balls on the fairway; how can he be the next Tiger Woods? He spends most of this time in the woods looking for his balls. Friends recommend that he should take golf lessons to at least keep his balls on the fairway; he refused. He has no idea what his handicap is.

Who is? He's a want to be Tiger; he lives in a little town called Spring Gully near Bagas Penn, in the Caribbean. He's no Tiger Woods, he will never be like Tiger Woods, he'll never meet Tiger Woods, his name is Peter Woods.

This depicts Peter Wood's vision of the ultimate golfer.