García v/s McIlroy. A lesson in Mental Golf

On Saturday afternoon of the US Open at Olimpic, on the 18 th hole, Sergio García faced an extremely difficult chip from the greenside rough. He hit a fantastic shot and holed it. The croud applauded and cheered, but Sergio´s reaction was no surprise to me.........he reacted with anger, with bitterness, it was as if Sergio was saying under his breath: "now you give me one, you son of a b.... ".

He didn´t acknowledge the crowd.......a young angry, bitter golfer.

It´s obvious Sergio knows absolutely nothing about Mental Golf.

Exactly a year ago I wrote an article in my spanish language Blog called, McIlroy v/s García: Actitud positiva para superar los desastres.

In this article I go back to how García handled his loss of the 2007 British Open to Padraig Harrington, and the consecuences it has had on his attitude and golf game.

On that ocasion a bitter and angry young man complained about his bad luck in his post round press conference. Not a pretty sight to see. But that was not all. He went home to Spain and for the next couple of weeks moped about his bad luck and kept reliving the three or four putts that liped out that final round, in Carnoustie.

In my opinion, the worst possible reaction  for this brilliant golfer.

In good Mental Golf, one forgets ones losses and bad shots immediately. There is a key reason for this. The unconscious mind is a supremely powerful processor that is not able to distinguish reality from imagination, good from bad, or positive from negative. It works like that old fashioned tape recorder that just stays with the most recent recording about a subject and erases the old one.

Sergio´s bitter and negative reaction to what happened in Carnoustie, and then continuing to mope and relive his mistakes only served to record the negative in his unconscious mind. And still worse, he did it with a huge amount of negative emotion, that guarantees that the "recording" will "stick" even longer.

Sergio´s negativaty just sends a bad message to his unconcious mind. "I´m a bad golfer under pressure. I´m a loser". And the next time, the powefull unconscious mind will do everything possible to fullfill this self image.

Rory McIlroy has showed us a completely different attitude.

Rory lost the Masters after "choking" on the second nine.

But he forgot about it in half an hour. His post round press conference was positive.He said he played great golf for most of the tournament. He said he would learn from the experience and hopefully have many more oportunities in the future. That evening he twitted a photograph with himself and Charl Schwartzel, the winner, wearing his green jacket.

And Rory came back two months later to sweep the 2011 US Open in great style. He has continued to win and is currently number 2 in the world.

Five years have gone by since the British Open at Carnoustie and, it seems, Sergio hasn´t learned a thing.

At the Masters he declared he thinks he just doesn´t have the game to win a Major. At the US Open he kicks microphones and get´s mad when he hits a great shot.

Nonsense !!!!!! Sergio is a great talent, he won the Players (sometimes called the 5 th Mayor) in 2008, has continued to win golf tournaments and is currently 22 in the world rankings.

My conclusion: Sergio García could still win five Majors if he changes his attitude.

My advice to him: Get a Mental Coach and get positive fast.

Conscious autosuggestion, the key to superior performance under pressure

I´m a Mental Golf Coach, but Conscious Autosuggestion is key to good performance under pressure in any sport.......and in life.

And what is conscious autosuggestion ?

It is the process by which a person induces self-acceptance of an opinion, belief, or plan of action.

The father of conscious autosuggestion is the French pharmacist, Emile Coué, who lived from 1857 to 1926. Also know as the father of psychotherapy.

Coué believed that between will (conscious mind) and imagination (unconscious mind), imagination will always win.

He developed the four laws of conscious autosuggestion, as follows:

1. CONCENTRATED ATTENTION OR REPETITION:

Every time that attention is concentrated on one idea, again and again, this idea spontaneously tends to become a reality.

2. REVERSE EFFECT:

The more effort we put into trying to make something happen, the lower the probability of  achieving it with success.

3. DOMINANT EFFECT:

A strong emotion or suggestion tends to replace a weaker one.

4. UNCONSCIOUS FINALITY:

When the objective or finality has been suggested, the unconscious finds the way to make it happen.

The foundation for conscious autosuggestion, then, is cemented in the tremendous power of the unconscious mind.

Let´s remember that the unconscious mind is 90 % of our total mind, that it is always in operation (as opposed to our conscious mind that does not operate when we sleep), and that it runs all our body organs and manages our physical movements.

The unconscious mind is one million times more powerful than our conscious mind (it processes information at 40 million bits per second, versus the conscious mind that processes information at "only" 40 bits per second).

Of the six million connections that each sense has with the mind (our eyes, for example), only 50 thousand connect with the conscious mind.........the rest, or, 5 million 950 thousand are connections to the unconscious mind.

The key, therefore, is to consciously "suggest" an opinion, belief or action plan that we want to become a reality to our unconscious mind, on multiple occasions (concentrated attention).

This suggestion, or affirmation, must always be positive and in the present tense, and hopefully with a good deal of positive emotion (dominant effect). The suggestion can be general in nature and the end objective should be stated, so that the powerful unconscious mind will do everything it can to make it happen (unconscious finality).

Coué´s only word of caution regarding his Method is the absolute need for the person who is doing a suggestion, to do it with care, without aggressiveness or pressure. It so happens that the unconscious mind reacts negatively to impositions and aggression. (reverse effect). On the other hand, it reacts very well to care, nurturing and to suggestions that aren´t too pushy. The most successful suggestions are the ones we don´t really try and push too hard. The amiable and positive ones.

In golf history, in my opinion, we can find two great examples of the "reverse effect".

The first is Sam Snead, still the golfer that has won the most PGA Tour events, and his obsession to win the US Open (the Major he was never able to win). He was close several times but he "choked" on the final hole the time he seemed to have it won.

The second is Greg Norman and the Masters. It became an obsession for him. He announced to the world that it was the tournament he really wanted to win. Unforgettable and painful to watch,was his final round collapse in 1996 after playing three great rounds and holding a comfortable lead. He shot 78 that day, and lost to Nick Faldo by five strokes.

In both cases the effort to win was so intense that the "reverse effect" came into action.

The process of "reverse effect" in golf works as follows:

The excessive effort and excitement of being on the verge of a greatly desired personal accomplishment generated too much tension that rigidized both golfers´ swings. Because of this, Snead and Norman hit a couple of bad shots, and those couple of bad shots consciously generated a doubt about their ability to keep playing well . The unconscious mind suddenly received a message of  "I can´t play good golf" and immediately did everything possible to do just that.

Other general examples of  the "reverse effect" are insomnia and when we can´t remember a person´s name, even though we know that person fairly well.

The harder we try to remember the forgotten name, or the harder we try to go to sleep, and the excessive effort and tentativeness involved, impedes success, as long as the instruction provided to our unconscious mind  is "I cant remember" or "I cant sleep". The problem is only resolved when the conscious message changes to "I will remember in a couple of minutes" or " I´m just going to relax, sleep will come".

Coué´s rules of Conscious Autosuggestion have an enormous impact on elite atheletes´ performance under pressure.

The athlete must frequently "feel" and "see" him/herself as a great competitor. He/she must never get angry or frustrated when things aren´t going well. In specific competition, she/he must never be obsessed with winning, but must concentrate on just doing the job to the best of his/her´s ability, with  the highest confidence level possible and focusing on those things she/he can control.

Self talk like "yes I can", "it can be done" and "come on, let´s just do it" are extremely recommendable in these competitive situations, and send a positive message for the unconscious mind to act.

On a final note, I really recommend Coué´s famous suggestion or affirmation, that he wanted repeated daily, and that can be adapted for any sport and which is the following:

“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better”.

Webb Simpson, a man of deep faith, wins the US Open

 Webb Simpson´s win in this year´s US Open 2012 isn´t as surprising as it seems.

Last year Simpson won his first two PGA tournaments, and finished the year in  N° 2 position in total money earned just behind Luke Donald, with more than U$ 6 millions.

When he won for the first time last August I got interested in his case because he is such a religious person. And I then wrote an article about his win in my spanish language Blog called  "Webb Simpson gana su primer torneo PGA gracias a su fé".

His faith is so strong that he studied Religion while he attended Wake Forrest, under an Arnold Palmer Foundation golf scholarship.

Last night, during his multiple interviews as the new US Open champion, Simpson said a few things that are very interesting from the Mental Golf perspective.

1. "I had never prayed as much as I did in the last three holes of this tournament"

2. "Today I had the best warm up of the week. I just told myself: Don´t get too excited, don´t try and win".

3.  "I never really wrapped my mind around winning.  This place is so demanding, and so all I was really concerned about was keeping the ball in front of me and making pars".

4.  "I was glad he told me that (his caddie told him not to look at leader boards) because I've been a leader board watcher my whole life.  But with what pressure a Major brings I just didn't think it would do any good to see where I was at.  So much can happen, even if I was 2‑up or 3‑up or even 5 back, so much can happen during the middle part of the golf course, so I didn't look again".

5.   "I wanted to just come out (this year) and continue to improve my game, continue to improve my mental capacity to play well in tournaments.  And I've had a slow year compared to last year, but I've been pleased because I felt like I was getting better, up until now".  

Comments:

Prayer is very recommendable from the Mental Golf perspective. It´s something we can only do in the Present Moment and, also, for a believer to put what is about to happen in God´s hands can only give peace of mind when pressure is at it´s highest intensity.

A good warm up is essential to be as relaxed as possible, for good tempo and to not get "ahead of ourselves" on the golf course.

Not getting too concerned about winning is key. One of the main problems that arises from the psychological theory of conscious autosuggestion is the "reverse effect" (the harder we consciously try and achieve something, the more difficult it becomes to achieve it)".

To think only about the ball in front of us is something good, since it´s something we do in the Present Moment and ensures a better chance to play in automatic mode and with proper body/mind synchronization.

It´s the same for not looking at leader boards.........we have a better chance of "staying" in the Present.

To continue improving on a day by day basis is a great objective for any golfer. This we can basically control as opposed to winning that will always depend on the performance of others.

On the other hand, yes, Webb Simpson was not on my short list to win this US Open (he had missed the cut in his last two tournaments), but I must say that at the beginning of the week he was ranked 15 th in the PGA Tour´s greens in regulation statistic.

So, he certainly had the ability to do well at the very complicated and difficult Olympic.

Greens in regulation, in my opinion, is a great measurement of  a golfers ability to plan golf shots rigorously and conservatively, or as is better known, to have great golf course management skills, one of the key factors of modern Mental Golf.

The best golf course "manager" will win the 2012 US Open

The more difficult the golf course, the greater need for rigorous and conservative shot planning.......better known as "good golf course management". And this includes good planning on the greens.

To me it´s no surprise that after 36 holes, seven of the top ten leaders of the PGA Tour´s year to date, "greens in regulation" statistic (Westwood, Rose, Senden, Mahan, Dufner, Woods y Kuchar), are realistic candidates to win the coveted title at Olympic Country Club, come Sunday evening.

But, they are not the only "greens in regulation" leaders that can win.

Others, such as Furyk (N° 25) and Toms (N° 31), both currently tied for the lead with Tiger, McDowall (N° 23), Whatney (N° 26), Els (N° 27) and García (N° 41) are also in a great position to raise the trophy on Sunday. 
But, why is the greens in regulation statistic so relevant ?

It´s simple.

Greens in regulation measures the percentage of times a golfer is on a green, in regulation shots or less.

Now, in my opinion, to be a consistent leader in this category the player must necessarily be an excellent "golf course manager" or, as I prefer to call it, a rigorous and conservative planner of golf shots.

And rigorous and conservative shot planning is the key attribute necessary to conquer the Open course at Olympic, with it´s narrow, fast and undulating fairways, infernal roughs and small and hard greens.

And we have mentioned many times, he who does a better job at shot planning will make fewer mistakes, and, for this reason, will have the best chance of maintaining a proper body/mind synchronization, the key to "staying" more in the "automatic" or "unconscious" mode, that allows for great shot making.


This is the reason why Tiger has talked so much this week about executing his "game plan", and explains why Rory McIlroy went to such lengths to explain his inability to "put the ball in the right position" after his first round yesterday.

My betting would be that the winner of this 2012 US Open will be one of the players I listed above, and that have demonstrated all year long that they are the best "course managers", or as I prefer to say, the best at rigorous and conservative golf shot planning, one of the key elements of modern Mental Golf.
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Mental Golf: My favorites to win the US Open 2012

To try and forecast the winner of a Major golf tournament is not, to say the least, an easy task.

But I find it interesting to give it a try, on this
occasion, by using, what I consider to be, the three key factors
that allow exceptional Mental Golf to be played.

These factors are:

1. Confidence:

Nothing is more important to playing great golf than confidence. So, I have come up with a list of golfers who´s confidence is peaking, because they are winning, or due to recent significant improvement in their games.

My list includes Tiger, Mickelson, Westwood, Donald, McIlroy, Kuchar, Fowler, Mahan, Rose, Curtis, Zach Johnson, Dufner, Oothuizen, Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Harrington and Furyk.

2. Short game:

The Open course at Olympic Country Club, is renown for it´s small sized greens. In all probability this years winner will posses a great short game. In my opinion the PGA Tour´s year to date "scrambling" statistic gives us a clear idea about who´s short game is at it´s best. Scrambling is defined as the percentage of times a player achieves par, or better, when he misses the green in regulation numbers. As you can see, Luke Donald is king in this category, but many other players on our confidence list, also do very well.

On the other hand, Lee Westwood, who has had a lot of trouble making key recovery putts for some time now, is way off at place N°139.

3. Shot planning:

As you may know, to me, rigorous and conservative shot planning, is essential not only for shooting low numbers, but also for allowing us to "stay" in our unconscious, or intuitive, mode for "in the zone" golf. And, in my opinion, the year to date "greens in regulation", PGA Tour statistic, allows us to measure how players are doing in this key "course management" activity. It tells us the percentage of times that a player is on the green in regulation strokes or less.

You can see, here, that Westwood is number one, and that Luke Donald is way down in spot N° 92.

And who are my personal favorites to win this year´s US Open ?.

I will mention nine players, in random order.

Tiger Woods:
After his great win at The Memorial, his confidence is very high. His short game is at N° 19 and in shot planning he is N° 7.

What could get in his way?. In my opinion two things.

There is the lingering doubt about his new golf swing and just how reliable it is under Major tournament pressure (i.e. this years Masters). The second question is purely mental and is related to one of the principles of conscious autosuggestion. This principle says that if one wants something very badly, it becomes so much more difficult to achieve. And Tiger is obsessed with winning new Majors, and to surpass Nicklaus.

Phil Mickelson:

From the day that Dave Stockton fixed his putting, Mickelson is full of confidence. Phil is also N° 2 in the short game ranking, but has never been the best of shot planners ( he is N° 43 in this category), and it has probably cost him several Majors. If he can plan well he can win.

Jasón Dufner:

Since his first win several weeks ago, his confidence level is at an all time high, and he is now the year to date number one in the FEDEX CUP standings. He is a solid candidate to win, as he plans very well (N° 6) and has a very good short game (N° 17).

Luke Donald:
If he can plan well, he will have a great chance at winning. As with Tiger he is obsessed with winning his first Major and this could work against him.

Lee Westwood:

Westwood´s case is similar to Donald´s. If he can make some of those key recovery putts for par, he can win, but he, also, might be too obsessed with winning his first Major.

Justin Rose:
I wouldn´t be surprised if Rose won this US Open. He´s done a great job on the mental side with his  coach, Gio Valiante, over the last two or three years. His confidence level is very high since he won in Doral, a couple of months ago. His key statistics are the best. N° 3 in planning and N° 6 in  short game.

If you push me, my candidate is Rose.

Matt Kuchar:

Another pupil of doctor Valiante, Kuchar´s confidence level couldn´t be better coming off his great win at the Players, the so called fifth Major, last month. He is N° 10 in shot planning and N° 13 in short game, and his positive attitude on the course is second to none. And last but not least he hits the ball very straight, an excellent attribute for US Open courses.

There are two other great golfers who could be serious candidates come Sunday. I´m talking about Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker. Both have regained a high confidence level, have superb short games and are excellent shot planners.

I´m looking forward to an exciting US Open 2012. We shall see if my "mental method" is also good at picking Major winners.

Pressure golf´s two trekking poles

My trekking friends almost always use a couple of poles when they are on a hike and the slopes get steeper and the going gets tough.

And which are the supporting poles for the golfer when pressure hits ?

In my opinion, golfers supporting poles are also two, and they are key if we want to successfully survive pressure situations, and maintain a high performance level on the golf course.

The first pole is the easy one, but to use it well, requires great discipline.

It is none other than rigorous and conservative planning of all shots in a round of golf. Or, superb golf course management as some people call it.

This pole is absolutely essential for two reasons:

The first is obvious because if we do a good job of planning our shots well, almost for sure we will shoot lower scores.

The second reason for planning well, isn´t as obvious, but is absolutely essential, and it has to do with what happens to our minds.

If we make a planning error and, as a result, hit a bad shot (example: we hit a shot out of bounds), we run a big risk of frustration, and/or anger, at our dumb mistake.

Inevitably we tend to dwell on the mistake and our next few shots are probably hit without the necessary body/mind synchronization, for great golf under pressure. This is because the frustration/anger took us out of playing with our unconscious mind and pushed us into our inefficient conscious mode.

This explains why we see so many "chokes" at golf´s top tournaments that start with one simple planning error.

It´s, in my opinion, what happened to Rory McIlroy on the 10th tee of the final day of the 2011 Masters, when inexplicably he "forced" a driver way left, when a normal three wood would have got the job done, just fine. And, as we have seen many times, once the planning error is incurred in, the golfer seems incapable of regaining the form he had displayed just prior to his mistake. 

The second pole is the Mental Method that all golfers must use in order to face pressure situations with success.

As we have discussed many times, a Mental Method is a set of techniques and behaviors that allow the golfer to successfully face pressure situations on the golf course. A comprehensive Mental Method starts with certain recommended behaviors well before we get to the golf course, and before start of play, and serves as a road map to how we should face low, medium or high pressure situations on the course.

A well implemented Mental Method keeps us playing with our right brain (unconscious, subconscious, automatic or intuitive mind), from the moment we finish planning a shot, until we start planning our next one.

This is also essential since it´s our powerful unconscious mind that allows us to be in the present moment, and duly synchronized in body and mind, for great shot making.

Furthermore, it´s our unconscious mind that controls our body movements, our perception of depth and proper target awareness.

This is why I really like this analogy of the two trekking poles for pressure golf.

Why negative golf and anger are so bad

Once, at the height of his career, Seve Ballesteros was asked why he didn´t get angry when he missed a short put.

"I have instant amnesia", he responded.

Ballesteros like other greats, such as Jack Nicklaus, who never lost his composure on the course, knew a lot about Mental Golf and how the mind works.

Man, I play a lot of golf and a large majority of the players I see get angry when they hit a poor shot, complain about the course set up, whine about slow play, cry about how badly they usually play on this type of course, and so on and so forth.

Last January I played an Open tournament with a couple of teen age kids, and I was amazed at how fast they signed their scorecards so that they could run off and complain to their friends about the two or three disasters in their rounds.

Andrew Fogg, the "Golf Hypnotist", wrote a great article about the subject, called, "The Psychology of letting everybody else complain while you win". He describes how the mind works and tells the story about how Jack Nicklaus used to listen to his opponents whine and complain, and he would know they wouldn´t be beating him that week.

It all comes down to the psychological principle of reinforcement. This principle says that our powerful unconscious mind will do its utmost to carry out whatever we consciously talk, think or write about.

So when we get angry about hitting it out of bounds, or hitting it in the water, in all probability it will happen again, because we have recorded these events with intense emotion (anger) in our unconscious minds.

And it so happens that our unconscious mind does not understand  that what we got angry about was bad, and that we don't want to do it again. This is because the unconscious mind, as opposed to our conscious mind, does not posses the power of rationality, and is not able to judge if something is good or bad.

So while anything bad that occurs on the golf course should be ignored or forgotten immediately, on the other hand, great shots or positive situations should be savoured, and celebrated, so that we make sure we are making a strong and lasting positive recording on our powerful unconscious mind processor.

Playing great golf "savoring" the Present Moment

As we have discussed many times, our body, that by nature cannot think, is always in the Now. Then, our mind must always be in the Present, in order to be perfectly synchronized  to produce excellent golf shots.

But, according to an excellent article published in the website Psychology Now (The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment), we tend to be more concerned with what will happen in the future (catastrophizing) or what happened in the past (ruminating).

This is not a golf article but it is very interesting, since it spells out six steps that allows access of the Present Moment.

What I liked best was the second step:

2: To avoid worrying about the future, focus on the present (savoring).

And the quote from Mark Twain is simply superb:  "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

I really liked the concept that psychologists call "Savoring". Or to relish or luxuriate in whatever you're doing at the present moment.  "This could be while you're eating a pastry, taking a shower, or basking in the sun. You could be savoring a success or savoring music," explains the author of the article.

Well, I have sometimes, under pressure, had the problem of  "going to the future" when playing very well, and ruining a potentially great round of golf. The concept of "savoring", I feel, will greatly help me in my quest to stay in the Present Moment.

This should be easy since when one is playing great golf, there are many things to savour.

The pleasure of playing great golf, the beauty of playing golf outdoors and in beautiful natural surroundings, and just the feeling of how lucky one is to be doing what we most like, among others.

From now on, together with other techniques that I use to "stay" in the Present Moment, I will certainly be incorporating the concept of savoring the NOW.
It seems to me that if a golfer frequently "ruminates" about past mistakes or tends to "catastrophize" about his future shots, to savour a good Present Moment will help him guarantee good synchronization to keep playing great golf.

Tiger wins the Memorial a lo Tiger (or a lo Nicklaus)

Tiger Woods wins the 2012 Memorial Tournament in a spectacular Sunday finish, reminding the golfing world that he is back.

I watched  a lot of Tiger on TV this week end and I liked what I saw.

I think that the key for this week was his superb shot planning and overall course management. He hit a bunch of three woods off the tee and when he missed shots, he did so in the right places.

This was a typical Jack Nicklaus´ characteristic........nobody was better than Jack at course management and at planning golf shots rigorously and conservatively.

But the most important factor going forward is that it seems that Tiger´s swing changes have now gelled. It definitely looks like the changes are now automatic and he can play golf without having to "think swing" on the golf course.

Last but not least, Tiger´s short game and putter reminded us all of the Tiger of old. He was superb when it came to flops, short wedges, chips and clutch putts.

Let me repeat something I have been telling my spanish language blog readers for some time. All Tiger needed was patience. Patience because it just takes some time (and thousands of repetitions) to automatize a new swing. And no doubt that Tiger was putting in the work.

Now, I am sure that Tiger will be a factor, at least at two, of the three remaining 2012 Majors.

Luke Donald credits his Mental Coach for return to N° 1

In an interesting Associated Press interview, a couple of days after his recent victory at the 2012 European PGA in Wentworth, new world N° 1, Luke Donald, gives a lot of the credit to his performance coach, Dave Alred.

Alred, is best known for coaching kickers at the English rugby squad, and taking Jonny Wilkinson to fame and fortune.

A three handicapper himself, Alred is quick to point out the similarities of kicking a stationary rugby ball under pressure and hitting a stationary golf ball.

But what I really liked most about the interview are two key points that Donald made:

1. "He's certainly always on at me again about keeping the shoulders back and not getting down on myself, staying positive not just mentally but physically and through my body position," Donald said of Alred. "So I think I've done a lot better job of it since I've been working with Dave. He's always reminding me".

Luke Donald and Dave Alred

Very interesting. The reason behind Alred´s insistence on not only staying mentally positive, but physically positive, is due to the fact that our powerful unconscious mind, the mind that lets us play great golf, does not have critical abilities or judgement of it´s own. If the unconscious mind receives negative data from our conscious mind, it will try its utmost to keep our golf negative. On the other hand, if the unconscious mind is perceiving mental and physical positive vibes on the course, it will do its utmost to help us play great golf.

2. "It helps to feel very confident on the greens, too. It's always been a strength of mine, especially in the last four or five years", says Donald, also.

What could be better for an elite golfer than to be a great and confident putter ?

Especially if your not a very long driver of the ball as is Luke Donald. This reminds me of something Gary Player said in his recent book: "Don´t Choke: A Champions Guide to Winning Under Pressure". He says: " Give me a player with a strong mind and a great putter and I´ll take him any day" (over the long hitters with beautiful swings).

A positive on course attitude, both mentally and physically, and a an intense short game practice routine, are essential to a successful Mental Method for high pressure golf.