I was flicking through an old issue of GM this evening and found a piece Bill Elliot wrote. It was in the Jan/Feb issue. It was about the mental aspect of the game, and compared the recent teachings of "mindfulness" and with the teachings many years ago from Karl Morris of having nothing in your head. No distractions, no white noise.
Bill used Johnny Miller as an example of having nothing in his head when he was in his rich vein of form in the mid 70's. I remember that spell of golf from Miller. He posted some phenomenal scores. I remember him winning a comp from the front, finishing with a 61, and winning the following week starting with a 61.
I digress. My best golf has been without conscious thought. No distractions, no white noise, no second guessing.
I believe it's a mindset created from trust. You don't have to have a scratch handicap to learn to trust your game, only a trust that you can play to your handicap. And you earned that handicap so why not trust it.
If you hit a bad shot, you create noise in your head. "Will the next one be that bad." But in reality you know what your good swing is. Pull the club, trust the swing and hit the ball.
If you have a reasonably repeatable swing, just go out and do it. You'll have the odd bad round but just let it go. You can only influence the next shot, not the last and you know you have a good swing. "Just do it."
Bill used Johnny Miller as an example of having nothing in his head when he was in his rich vein of form in the mid 70's. I remember that spell of golf from Miller. He posted some phenomenal scores. I remember him winning a comp from the front, finishing with a 61, and winning the following week starting with a 61.
I digress. My best golf has been without conscious thought. No distractions, no white noise, no second guessing.
I believe it's a mindset created from trust. You don't have to have a scratch handicap to learn to trust your game, only a trust that you can play to your handicap. And you earned that handicap so why not trust it.
If you hit a bad shot, you create noise in your head. "Will the next one be that bad." But in reality you know what your good swing is. Pull the club, trust the swing and hit the ball.
If you have a reasonably repeatable swing, just go out and do it. You'll have the odd bad round but just let it go. You can only influence the next shot, not the last and you know you have a good swing. "Just do it."
). 
