How committed and confident are you during a round?

jack nicklaus confidence

How committed and confident are you during a round?

“Don’t hit the shot you think you should, hit the shot you know you can!”  My favorite quote from Bob Rotella.  How often have you stepped up to a shot and said “I should be able to get it there with this club” or “if I hit is just right it will be perfect” If you make the statement “I should” in a sentence, during a round, you clearly are not committed.  Also, if you think you are going to hit it just right you are more than likely going to hit is just wrong.  Why? Because you lack confidence!

Golf is a game of misses.  You have heard it several times but we continue to try and talk ourselves into thinking we “should” be able to do something different.  Let’s go back to the quote.  “Hit the shot you know you can”.  So much of golf is shot commitment and confidence.  When we question whether or not we should do something in a certain way, we are already questioning if we can. 

How well do you know your misses, fundamentals of the game, distance, swing faults etc.? Do you have a favorite distance? Do you listen to your gut when selecting a club?  Are you familiar with your own swing faults? Do you have a routine to get you back on track?  These are just a few fundamentals of golf to consider in helping you improve your shot commitment and confidence. 

Let’s talk about misses.  I have been playing for over 40 years and I can honestly say I have had the same miss since I was 7 years old, to the right.  I have certainly tried to change it but it still stays relatively right.  That being said I now play my misses.  It is predictable and that helps me create a committed shot.  I have a favorite distance, 80 yards so I purposely will set myself up for that distance the best I can.  This helps me stay confident during a round. I go with my gut when choosing clubs, if I waiver I am more than likely not committed which results in a poor golf shot. These are a few examples of ways to help players create better shot commitment and confidence.

We think we know our golf swing, game and misses, but most players do not.  Most often we try to create shots in a round that we think we should not the ones we know we can.  So how do we better understand and know our misses, distances, club selection etc.?  We journal. The next 3 rounds take a journal on the course with you.  Record your misses, how you recover, your favorite distances and most of all how these shots make you feel.  The purpose of this is to create more confidence in the abilities you have not the ones you think you should. This will propel your game into a whole new world of committed shots and better confidence!

By LPGA Class A Kathleen Heiney

Personal Trainer and Yoga Instructor

www.lincgolfandwellness.com