Select Page

Improve your game from your inbox – Go for it!

Improve your game from your inbox – Go for it!

Coen Welsh on the Psychology of Golf

Brendan Steele won the FedEx Cup season opener at the Safeway Open for the second year running. But afterwards he admitted to losing focus in the previous season, playing only to protect his FedEx Cup points to get into the season ending TOUR Championship as opposed to winning tournaments.

He told PGATour.com: “I really felt like at the end of the season through the summer, I definitely limited myself to what I was trying to achieve,” Steele explained. “I just wanted to make the TOUR Championship so bad, I was just trying to scratch and claw for every point I could … I wasn’t trying to win. I wasn’t trying to play my best.”

This is the point for the tip of the week. You have to go for it.

Tip of the week – Go for it.

For medium to high handicappers a lot has been said about course management. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, course management refers to the idea that you should not try to go for shots that you know you won’t be able to make. Some websites advise to “play the shot you brought”.

In other words if you have never been able to play a particular shot you should not try it on the course. If you’re not at least 80% sure you can play a shot, then don’t take the shot.

There is some value in that suggestion. My experience is that by not trying to go for the green in two and laying up, leaves you with very little room to make mistakes.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Justin Thomas’ confidence and swagger. This week the suggestion is to visualise the shot you want to play take a deep breath and with confidence commit to your shot and go for it.

After all, you don’t want to finish your round wondering what could have been.

Quote of the week

I didn’t miss the putt, I made the putt. The ball missed the hole. – Don Christopher.


For more tips visit www.capacitytrust.com


 

 

About The Author

Coen Welsh

Coen Welsh, a qualified industrial psychologist, is an expert on the Antecedents and underlying Psychological Conditions predicting Employee Engagement.He has worked in diverse teams in the UK, Egypt and Namibia. Coen regularly gets invited to speak at HR and other conferences. He is a regular contributor to NBC National Radio as well as Tupopyeni and Off-the-Hook on NBC Television. He is a founding member of the Professional Speakers Association of Namibia. You can visit him at www.coenwelsh.com or send a comment to [email protected]