How To Keep it Low

One Shot at a Time

Over the past few weeks, I have had a similar conversation with four different players with whom I consult- One PGA Tour player, two Division 1 college players, and one high-level amateur. Each of them had the same question; “how come when I get my scores low in the round, I seem to give some strokes back before the end of the round?”

Indicative of my answer, when I asked the Tour player what he was thinking about early in the round that helped him get to -5 through nine holes, he said “just taking care of good preparation for each shot and being very target focused.” When I asked what he was thinking about when he saw his name atop the leader board and when he realized that he was “taking it deep”, he paused. He then said with a chuckle, “well, I guess I started thinking that it would be nice to ‘get it in the house’ at -5 and have a solid first round”. After that point in the round, he realized through our conversation, that he was playing more defensively, trying “not to hit bad shots”, was focusing on his scores, and was stressing his outcomes over his preparation.

As I said above, this is a phenomenon that has the potential to affect every player- from a Tour player to a high handicapper. The challenge when one gets out of one’s “comfort zone” with their score, is to continue to be disciplined enough mentally to acknowledge the outcome thoughts or score focus and still shift one’s attention back to the process and task of hitting golf shots. The phrase “one shot at a time” is an overused cliché in golf, but the reason that it is used so frequently is because it is the absolute essence of how to approach this game from a mentally disciplined perspective. Next time your scores are going low and out of your comfort zone, get back to the method of thinking and preparing that worked up to that point- and you might be surprised that you can take it even deeper!

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