Golf is full of cliches but what do they really mean?

Don’t you just love a cliché? These are clever little sayings you’ll hear around any golf course – the old “saws” people have heard for ages. You know, things like, “drive for show and putt for dough,” and “never up, never in.”

Lately I’ve been hearing more “mental” sayings. Perhaps it’s because the big-name guys up in the TV booth have just about run out of anything new with swing analysis, and are now thinking of new material. So I thought I would explore some common mental cliches and take a closer look at what they’re really saying.

My favorite is, “It’s all in your head.” This probably started when folks felt sick but had no obvious physical signs or symptoms to prove their illness, and some they may be malingering. I used to hear this self-statement at our golf schools some years ago when a high-handicapper would turn to me and say, “You know, my biggest problem is it’s all in my head.” I had to fight back the urge to reply bluntly, “No, it’s mostly because you don’t know how to make a correct swing and can’t get the ball airborne.” We would then proceed to help him fix that.

“I was thinking too much” is one cliché I hear a lot. This is mostly a nervous reaction to a badly missed shot. What is really going on is something like, “I knew I was between clubs, and I failed to quickly estimate the factors, make a decision and commit to it.” As I size up golfers, both chops and sticks, I don’t see the problem as thinking too much, or too little for that matter. I see golfers thinking at the wrong time. Most inexperienced golfers don’t take the trouble to quickly think through the shot and rapidly consider choices before making the right one. All golfers occasionally make the mistake of allowing the brain cortex to actually try to operate (think) during the golf swing, which is practically impossible in reality, insofar as being able to transfer a thought into some practical or useful physical motion. This can be disastrous, especially when the mind is already pre-occupied with fear and doubt. Thinking anything immediately before or during the swing would be precisely the worst time to do anything except move your body gracefully. We must understand that the “think zone” is well behind the ball as we prepare for the shot itself. Once we step forward and address the golf ball we have entered the “play zone” and all thinking must end so that we can just react and swing.

Almost every time a pro or a parent of a young golfer sent me someone to work with in my role as performance coach they often would say “he’s a head case.” Today they usually don’t say “mental case” because they feel that would be too demeaning. The parent might add, “He just needs to get out of his own way,” whatever that means. They can’t quite put their finger on exactly what the kid’s trouble is but it goes something like this: “This kid’s got loads of talent, and hits the ball a mile and putts great, but he can’t seem to score.” After hearing this many times I learned to decode a junior golfer’s “head case” as a good golfer who is probably a perfectionist, an emotional volcano, a rapid-cycling thinker, and completely undisciplined when it comes to self-analyzing his own game.  And, ah, a perfect student for coaching.

I just adore hearing “even a blind squirrel (or blind pig) finds an acorn once in a while,” especially after Mr. Average pulls off and absolutely brilliant play, like sticking a five iron from 175 yards to three feet. I respect self-effacing humor, but what Mr. Average doesn’t realize is that all the ability, focus,  planning, positive karma and shotmaking that went into the successful result were his and his alone, assuming the ball didn’t bounce off a ball washer.

Finally, all I can do is cliché you this: use the six inches between your ears, because it’s just mind over matter. So don’t be a mental midget, get out of your own way, get in the game, and above all, when the chips are down and it’s crunch time, just don’t choke.