by Michael Riggs<\/p>\n
The most common emotional challenge a golfer must deal with is how to keep from losing his cool following a mishit or a series of poorly played shots. Much is made of being able to maintain an emotional equilibrium while playing golf.\u00a0 While emotional outbursts may enhance performance in more aggressive sports, such as football or hockey, becoming emotional while playing golf will almost always result in higher scores.\u00a0 Maintaining positive and calm emotions during times of crisis is a defined skill of quality players.<\/span><\/p>\n The desire to throw a club and begin a self-barrage of insults is very real. The real question is, \u201cHow can we effectively deal with anger on the course?\u201d<\/p>\n The perfect golfer does not exist.\u00a0 Acknowledge, accept, and embrace the fact that you are going to have off shots, off holes, and off rounds.\u00a0 That is life.\u00a0 That is golf.\u00a0 Event the world\u2019s best players are constantly playing out of forests, sand, and roughs.\u00a0 So, if they make errors, don\u2019t expect perfection each time you head to the course.\u00a0 Following a mishit, learn to say to yourself, \u201cWhoops.\u00a0 Reload.\u201d<\/p>\n Realize that becoming angry will only intensify the emotional response.\u00a0 The catharsis effect<\/em> \u2013 the display of anger will act as a release valve and allow you to get back to calm — is a fallacy.\u00a0 Sport psychology research has shown that anger usually results in more anger.\u00a0 And, like a train rolling down a track, your emotions will gain momentum making it impossible to get back under control and will certainly lead to the great train wreck.<\/p>\n Do not abandon your pre-shot routine.\u00a0 Remember that your pre-shot routine is designed to get you mentally calm and clear for the shot at hand.\u00a0 Letting anger linger may cause hasty choices resulting in poor shot and club selection and increase the odds of another poor shot.\u00a0 The past is the past; nothing you can do will change it.\u00a0 So, leave errors behind you, go through your full routine, take a smooth swing, and trust for the best.<\/p>\n When you become angry and frustrated your muscles will tighten up — causing a tight and stiff swing.\u00a0 Therefore, it is wise to keep your mind from becoming anger-filled and frustrated so that your body can stay loose and fluid.\u00a0 A loose and comfortable mind is more likely to translate into a loose and comfortable body.<\/p>\n S\u00b2 Tip<\/strong><\/p>\n Realize that anger results in more anger.\u00a0 So \u201clet it go\u201d and move on to the next shot.<\/p>\n Success Story<\/strong><\/p>\n The No. 2 Auburn men\u2019s golf team picked up its third win of the season, and\u00a0eighth under Nick Clinard<\/a>, after winning the Hootie at Bulls Bay by nine strokes over No. 24 Virginia on Tuesday in Awendaw, S.C. Sophomore Niclas Carlsson<\/a> won the individual title after carding a 1-under 71 in the third round to finish at 5-under 211. Nice job, Tigers! In Another\u2019s Words\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” — Douglas MacArthur, General<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Michael Riggs The most common emotional challenge a golfer must deal with is how to keep from losing his cool following a mishit or a series of poorly played …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2013\/04\/Golf-mental-3-200x3001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12357,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/12357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wedevelopyou.com\/riggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n