Confidence - has to be the biggest factor for us Amateurs?

I was struggling with my irons, so much so that I had no idea where the ball would end up and so no confidence in them. Then I had a lesson where my grip was changed. This did no good though so I went back to my old grip and lo, I started hitting my irons decently again, now my confidence is back and I have been played my best golf for a while.
Its a strange game!
 
I think confidence is a fantastic ingredient to have in your armour.
You have to believe the shot your are taking on is within your range,for instance it is a shot
you have done before on numerous occasions.
The problems start when you take on a shot you have achieved 1 in 10,then you start
to believe it cant be done.
Another thing is commiting to the shot you have chosen,if theres any doubt you
have probably chosen the wrong shot.
Confidence breeds confidence.
Another thing ive noticed when im playing well,less thought processes go into each shot,it comes
naturally,and that is all from confidence,imo.
 
Confidence is a massive factor for me in 2 places chip shots and "marginal" shots!

Saturday duffed my first couple of chips so a missed green meant bogey or worse all the way round - Sunday hit my first 2 chips of the day to within 5ft and chipped well all day and got up and down nearly every time!
 
Confidence is important but not the biggest factor for amateur golfers. For me, the biggest factor is having correct fundamentals; grip, alignment, posture and tempo. Without these being in some sort of decent nick, golf is a very difficult game.
 
Confidence in knowing your hitting the ball well is a must in my game, I dont care if I win or lose just as long I'm set up right and I'm focused on what I want to do,I've been going on the practice area at our club just hitting 80 -100 yard shots for about half an hour before my round ,and it just sets you up for the day.
this as been my plan all winter, instead of not bothering at all..
 
There are different types of confidence. There's false confidence, talking ourselves up when deep down we know its just talk. That does us no good at all, and sets us up for a fall when we take on something we shouldn't.

Then the other one we all know is Conditional confidence - "I hit my last drive well so I'll hit this one well". That's fine but what if you hit one badly (as anyone can). Then that confidence is replaced by doubt.

What we need is unconditional confidence. This is a tough one to explain, but the best way to explain it is have you ever been "in the zone"? When you're trucking along hitting everything the way you want to, and even a mishit gets a good bounce, you feel like its all going your way and its a joy to be on a golf course. If you could feel like that all the way around how well would you score? Unconditional confidence comes from believing in your own abilities and accepting what is outside them without negativity. That way you never hit a terrible shot that didn't make the carry, because you knew in yourself you couldn't make the carry but rather than feeling down about that you accepted it and laid up perfectly. That perfect (easier) shot was exactly what you planned for and you can play the next one perfectly to the green. Its simple to say and very difficult to do, but when reading the above posts there is obviously confusion about which of the confidences you need to play a good round of golf. I'm working on the last one :)

Last night I played a really good golfer (4.5 h/c and on the way down after 40 points Saturday) in very windy conditions. I had a good few shots on him and used them well, it was all tied after 18 and we went back up the 1st (not a shot hole) and there was no doubt in my mind I was going to win. I mishit my approach but that meant I left myself an uphill putt, 25 feet and him 10 feet but downhill. As I stood over the putt it was only ever going in, and it did. He missed and that was that. As Tiger said I may not hit every shot perfectly, but I believe I will. Thats unconditional confidence.
 
As Curls said ^, normally our confidence is conditional on having played lots of good shots already.

In golf, the confidence you need is just to stand over the ball believing it will go where you intend it to, regardless of what's gone before.

If you lose confidence you try to control your swing. Muscles tighten and movements become jerky and uncoordinated. The chances of a good result reduce and the downward spiral continues.

Just think about where you want the ball to go, and trust your brain and body to produce the goods without trying to consciously control it.
 
virtuocity said:
200 yards from the green, are you better taking 2 easy wedges or a hard 2 iron? The former can guarantee that you're hitting your next (3rd) shot with the putter. The latter means a par or a double bogey.
Click to expand...

I think this is a dangerous trap to fall into. Assuming the first wedge is hit ok, can you really guarantee hitting the green from 100yds?

Looking on the PGA website, there are only 3 players out of 185 that haven't missed a green from 75-100yds so far this season.
At the halfway mark are players like Jason Dufner and Steve Stricker at 80% success.
Going to 100-125yds, no-one has hit every green, and the halfway mark is around 75% success.

From 200yds I'm going to miss more greens than I hit, but I'm confident that as long as I get it somewhere near the green I've a better chance of getting up and down than I have from 100yds out in the fairway.
 
Region3 said:
I think this is a dangerous trap to fall into. Assuming the first wedge is hit ok, can you really guarantee hitting the green from 100yds?

Looking on the PGA website, there are only 3 players out of 185 that haven't missed a green from 75-100yds so far this season.
At the halfway mark are players like Jason Dufner and Steve Stricker at 80% success.
Going to 100-125yds, no-one has hit every green, and the halfway mark is around 75% success.

From 200yds I'm going to miss more greens than I hit, but I'm confident that as long as I get it somewhere near the green I've a better chance of getting up and down than I have from 100yds out in the fairway.
Click to expand...

Have to agree Region, if I can get it to 30 - 50 yards I will rather than laying up to 100, there's the very very odd time the pin is right at the front of an elevated green and I want to fly it in and stop it, rest of the time I'm happier that I'll get it closer from 30 yards than I will from 100. But then I practice pitching quite a bit so have confidence in it. Ooooh spooky, its like its all connected...
 
virtuocity said:
I would suggest that it's less about confidence and more about grasping the concept of being realistic.

200 yards from the green, are you better taking 2 easy wedges or a hard 2 iron?
Click to expand...

a) 7-iron and a 50yrd chip....

OR

b) 2-iron if there's NO REAL DANGER around the green. Even if you duff it 100yds you've basically laid up and still have that same 2nd shot that you were expecting.... worst case scenario is to hit the 2-iron and scab it into the trees 60yrds to your right or pull it into the ditch that's 30yds left of the green :D

It's all about the danger and the consequences.
 
JustOne said:
. Even if you duff it 100yds you've basically laid up and still have that same 2nd shot that you were expecting.... worst case scenario is to hit the 2-iron and scab it into the trees 60yrds to your right or pull it into the ditch that's 30yds left of the green :D

It's all about the danger and the consequences.
Click to expand...



Mmmmmmmmmm ... Like taking a driver off the deck on a par 5 from a scabby lie? :funk:
 
chrisd said:
Mmmmmmmmmm ... Like taking a driver off the deck on a par 5 from a scabby lie? :funk:
Click to expand...


EXACTLY like that!!

It was supposed to be a lay-up if the shot didn't come off..... that said,.... it never crossed my mind that I might take a divot 4 inches behind the ball and be lucky with the mahooosive 30yds I managed to nudge it forwards ;) LOL

Effectively it WAS a lay up... I just left it 180yds further back than I wanted :p ;)
 
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I think with handicap golfers we can fall into the other 2 areas far too easily that will cost us shots, overconfident and unconfident. I pulled these definitions from the dictionary:

Overconfident: excessively confident
Confident: the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something:
Unconfident: not confident; hesitant

Put more into a golfing way I would see it something more like this:

Overconfident - Standing on the tee knowing that your Sunday best drive might carry around 250 yards and there is a ditch across the fairway at 240 yards, chances are you are going in the ditch and dropping a shot due to being overconfident.
Confident - Standing on the tee and that ditch is now at 220 yards, you know you can carry that even if you do not get all of it.
Unconfident - Standing on the tee looking at the bunkers down the right hand side, looking at the OOB 20 yards left of the fairway, but not seeing the fact that there is a 40 yard wide fairway down the middle. So be more confident or you will end up in the OOB or the bunkers.

So you need to have confidence without a doubt, but be careful of being over confident as that can get you into trouble that you really should not be in. So be confident when you play a shot, but play within your own capabilities.
 
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I can't get over how true this is. Played tonight with a new wood off the tee. I truly felt that even if I duffed it, it would go 200+ yards straight. Suddenly combined with this my irons improved, chipping went well, and putts were sinking.

Wish I had that confidence during a handicap round!
 
Confidence is one of the biggest factors in my game.The more confident I am in a shot the better I play it.The key to this has to be the mental side of the game.When my head is In the right place my confidence is high as so it goes on.Think I will get my Bob rotella books out again!!
 
Low uncertainty = High confidence = High chance of success

High uncertainty = Low confidence = Low chance of success

Reduced uncertainty = Increased confidence = Increased chance of success

So ANYTHING that reduces uncertainty around your game, or shot you are to play, will increase your confidence and increase your chance of success. We should look at the little things as many little things that each reduce uncertainty in what we do can add up to significantly increased confidence.
 
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