Most golfers agree that the game of golf is at least “90 percent mental.” In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with a golfer who didn’t acknowledge the role that their mind plays, usually as a distraction that stands between the golf game they think they have and the one that keeps showing up on the course.
Even golfers as great as Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw have said things like “I’m about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That’s the distance my left ear is from my right.”
But when I consulted one of my favorite golf teachers on this subject, he turned the tables on me. Fred Shoemaker, the author of the inner game classic (one of the few golf books that I consider a “must read”), Extraordinary Golf: The Art of the Possible, in his almost scary Zen fashion, told me that he thinks that golf is “zero percent mental.” Huh?
But then I got it. Fred was not talking about the kind of golf that you and I usually play. He was talking about what he calls “real golf,” or golf in the zone. He was trying to point me toward the kind of golf that people play when they have breakthrough rounds, the way we all want to play, but rarely do. Fred’s point is that golf at its best is not a mental game at all. Rather, it’s a game where we get free of all those fearful, self-limiting thoughts.
Fred told me, “Golf isn’t mental. We make it mental… and most of what goes through our heads doesn’t have any value.”
Fred went on to explain that when he asks golfers who are 100 yards out where their target is, the answer is always somewhere on the green. But when they take their club back to the top, the target has unconsciously shifted to the ball. Fred said that the point of this example is not that “they change targets in the middle of a crucial action. It’s that they don’t know they do.”
Finally, Fred practically taunted me by saying there was only one difference between his truly extraordinary golf game and my inconsistent 15-handicap golf game. He said, “I play better golf than you do for only one reason. In the two seconds that it takes to swing, I am more aware of reality than you are. That’s all. I’m more aware of what’s happening.”
And if you’re like every other golfer in the world who wants to lower their handicap, here’s what Fred Shoemaker’s 33 years of professional golf teaching experience has to say. “I’ve seen an inverse relationship in golf: As your awareness grows, your handicap shrinks. That’s the only thing I’ve ever seen govern the handicap. Handicap is a measure of your awareness… When a person’s awareness grows, there’s no possibility of them playing worse. They always play better.”
Now, that’s something I can take to the driving range, a commitment to develop more awareness of each and every swing. And, in this way, I can move beyond swing thoughts, and even beyond the mental game that interferes with my performance so consistently.
My dream is to come home to just playing golf, one moment at a time. That seems to me to be a game worth playing.
—–
This article was orginally commissioned by Sierra Golfer magazine for their “Mind Games” column. Written by Jon Leland. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
8 users commented in " Fred Shoemaker Takes Me Beyond The Mental Game "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHi Jon, great post! I just had a breakthrough round last weekend (posted at artfulgolfer.com) and what Fred explained to you was truly the key — I didn’t think. I was able to maintain a connection to the target before and during my swing. It was just like throwing a ball to 1st base! I wasn’t trying to score, I was just playing golf. The next day, I tried to score another good round, and as you’d expect — I didn’t. My focus changed back to trying and scoring! You just have to let go of expectations and score and let those good rounds find you 😉
Thanks for a great comment, “Artful.” Yes indeed, this approach is working for me too. This interview has stayed with me.
I had a semi-breakthrough round myself, just this Saturday. I hope to share more about my progress on this blog soon (but I may have to write my next “Sierra Golfer” column first!)
You nailed it with “let go of expectations and score, and let those good rounds find you.” That’s the way to do it.
Trying harder doesn’t work, but focusing on states of being, what I like to call “process targets,” does.
Wonderful to be in synch with you on this. Keep up the great play.
Jon, I just posted a new entry at artfulgolfer.com about Christopher Smith, the world’s fastest speed golfer. I found a link to his website at GolfSmarter.com. He shares some more good insights on playing without thinking 😉
Great column about Fred Shoemaker. Why is it that we amateurs put more emphasis on the mental game and professionals say we spend too much time on it?
Thanks for the question, “Mr. Host” 🙂
I think the point is not to put more emphasis on the “mental game” but rather to play “real golf” as in “just hitting the ball” and “letting it go” etc without thinking too much. Without “paralysis of analysis.”
I’ve heard people say that “my mind is a dangerous neighborhood… I try not to spend too much time there.” I think this is the point, ie through a process of learning we can become more connected to the wonderful golfer that we already have within us.
Make sense?
Конкурс для блоггеров от DRUGREVENUE с призовым фондом в 3000 долларов, спешите
Now that’s a commentary on my golf game that I can relate to…
SC
[…] my travels in New Zealand, I met a friend of the inner game of golf who adapted learning from Fred Shoemaker‘s book, “Extraordinary Golf,” and came up with this little mantra. She shared […]
Leave A Reply