Published: November 01, 2009 01:49 am      

The power of negative thinking

This article is primarily for older and experienced golfers. Beginners and young people are concerned mainly in hitting the ball. They have not lived long enough, in the world of golf to have experienced the extensive trauma related to the game.

Their time will come.

Everyone knows that the laws of averages apply in golf. For every good break you will have a bad break.

You have learned that the good breaks will usually happen early in the round and are inconsequential, while the bad breaks will come at a critical time and will be devastating. After you have played a number of years, you will become aware of this fact.

Having acquired some good breaks early in the round, you will play the remainder of the round living in fear, waiting for the inevitable bad breaks. Your fear of this happening will usually help you create the bad break.

Having a good day with the putter and knocking in everything? Everyone has been commenting on your great putting.

Inwardly, you know that you are really not that good, and you know that somewhere before the end of the round, you are going to choke on an important putt. You will succeed in that category also.

The second shortest period of time known to man is the time it takes a golfer to go from being a positive thinker to a negative thinker. It will usually take only one bad swing, or one bad break, to completely destroy the confidence of a golfer.

Incidentally, the shortest period of time is the elapsed time it takes a traffic light to turn from yellow to red.

After a person has developed a good golf game, the mental part of the game becomes more prevalent.

Any person, who has ever played for a dollar or two, will at times have to resort to a form of “dirty pool” against his opponent.

This is another way of working on your opponent’s mind. It comes under the classification of “psychological warfare.”

It can be a very simple remark, such as, “You are certainly playing well since you have changed your swing.” Of course this guy has not changed his swing, but you will have to illustrate some fake little movement on the top of the swing. He will be through for the rest of the day.

It is also a good move to remind your opponent, who has a slice, that the wind sure is blowing hard from the left to the right. He will either pull it to the left, or hit a granddaddy of a slice.

The “gorilla” is one of the easiest to work on. On the tee, you can casually remark, “Would you believe that I played with a guy last week who hit this green with a drive and an 8-iron?”

The “gorilla” is going to do it with a drive and a wedge, if he is lucky enough to find his ball.

At some time, nearly every great golfer has gone into a slump. Some manage to recover, while others become mired down and never really recover.

Many players, in order to try to recover, become victims of what I call “analysis paralysis.”

The only thing positive about your golf game, is that somewhere between hole No. 1 and hole No. 18, is that somewhere in that round your positive thoughts will become negative.