Rotella, Robert. Your 15th Club: The Inner Secret to Great Golf
Publisher: Free Press (May 2008), New York.
This is a summary of Chapter 6 "Remember to Remember":
I have a client, Mark Wilson, who's about the same age as Tiger Woods. But that was all their golfing resumes had in common until recently. Tiger was a success as soon as he turned pro. Mark was one of those players who struggle to stay on the PGA Tour. He grew up in Wisconsin, where the golf season is short, and while Tiger was winning junior events worldwide, Mark's claim to fame was a Wisconsin, where the golf season is short, and while Tiger was winning junior events worldwide, Mark's claim to fame was a Wisconsin high school championship. He finished at the University of North Carolina in 1997, turned pro, and spent six years grinding on golf's minor league level, playing before nonexistent crowds, doubling up in cheap motel rooms, knowing that only a very high finish would earn back a tournament's entry fee. (It's one of the ironies of professional golf that the millionaires on PGA Tour pay a $100 entry fee for each tournament, a figure that hasn't changed in years. The struggling novices on the mini-tours pay tournament entry fees two and three times that high.)
He got to the PGA Tour in 2003, but he never quite managed to earn enough money to keep his playing privileges for the next season. Mark compiled dubious distinction of playing in the tour's qualifying tournament ten times. He first came to see me in the fall of 2006, as he was preparing for his tenth trip to Q-school. From that fact alone, I knew he was a determined guy. I knew he wasn't a quitter. And I admire those qualities.
But one of the toughest challenges a player in Mark's situation faces is maintaining his confidence. As years go by and the goal of success on the PGA Tour remains just out of reach, it can be tough for a player to continue to see himself as a winner. It can be easy to start dwelling on missed shots and missed opportunities. It can be easy to feed the subconscious the sort of thoughts that undermine confidence instead of building it up. This is why players don't progress at a steady rate as they play and gain experience. They may be learning better ways to hit the ball; they may be learning better ways to manage their games in tournament situations; they may be learning how to handle life on the road. But if they're not becoming more confident as they learn these things, it can be all for naught. Mark had played more than 100 events on the PGA Tour, but he would have been the first to tell you that he couldn't win there. I suggested that he improve his subconscious self-image by keeping a journal. I wanted it to be a special kind of journal.
Keep a "Good Memories" Journal
In it, I wanted Mark to record every good shot he hit every day. I didn't care if it was just a 5-iron he pured on the practice range warming up. I wanted him to write it down. Mark agreed. Every night he wrote down or typed into a computer file all of his good shots. He then read and reread that list.
Keeping the journal accomplished several things for Mark. Obviously, it required him to recall all of his good shots. He had to remember them in detail in order to write them down and describe them. So each night, he was reliving the good shots that he'd made. The act of writing reinforced the memory of those good shots. Over time, Mark began enjoying the process of writing in his journal. He like pulling out the handwritten version and reading it throughout the day. The process helped him learn to take pleasure in his good shots.
And, as time went on, he realized that the vast majority of his shots every day were good ones. He hit more good shots than he had time to write down. Equally important was what the journal prevented him from doing. He no longer went back to his room and brooded over his bad shots.
By staying with this process, Mark dramatically improved the input he was giving his subconscious. He quickly saw results. Five months after we started working together, Mark was playing down in the Honda Classic down in Florida (51). He won by making a clutch 30 footer on the first playoff hole and by making a 10 footer on the third playoff hole. This is what Mark's improved confidence allowed him to do. He had never won before. Those who think that confidence can grow only from winning would have predicted he'd melt down in the crucible of pressure he faced in the final holes. They would have been wrong. Confidence doesn't depend on experience. It depends on how you choose to think.
I've had other clients who benefited from keeping journals. Skeptics may read about this and think that I'm saying that a golfer who keeps a journal of his or her good shots will become an immediate winner. I'm not saying that. I understand that golf is a game of both confidence and competence. If you haven't mastered the fundamental shots, you're not going to win any tournaments (unless you're getting handicap strokes). You need to make sure that your physical skills match your aspirations. What is important is that you improve both mentally and physically. Mark had the physical skills. He just needed more confidence, and he got it by using journals to change the nature of the data they were feeding their subconscious minds. If your physical skills are adequate only to break 100, you won't start shooting in the 70s just by developing confidence. But if you develop confidence, you'll be shooting in the 90s even when you play your buddies for that hotly contested $2 Nassau or in that tournament you call "your major."
Publisher: Free Press (May 2008), New York.
This is a summary of Chapter 6 "Remember to Remember":
I have a client, Mark Wilson, who's about the same age as Tiger Woods. But that was all their golfing resumes had in common until recently. Tiger was a success as soon as he turned pro. Mark was one of those players who struggle to stay on the PGA Tour. He grew up in Wisconsin, where the golf season is short, and while Tiger was winning junior events worldwide, Mark's claim to fame was a Wisconsin, where the golf season is short, and while Tiger was winning junior events worldwide, Mark's claim to fame was a Wisconsin high school championship. He finished at the University of North Carolina in 1997, turned pro, and spent six years grinding on golf's minor league level, playing before nonexistent crowds, doubling up in cheap motel rooms, knowing that only a very high finish would earn back a tournament's entry fee. (It's one of the ironies of professional golf that the millionaires on PGA Tour pay a $100 entry fee for each tournament, a figure that hasn't changed in years. The struggling novices on the mini-tours pay tournament entry fees two and three times that high.)
He got to the PGA Tour in 2003, but he never quite managed to earn enough money to keep his playing privileges for the next season. Mark compiled dubious distinction of playing in the tour's qualifying tournament ten times. He first came to see me in the fall of 2006, as he was preparing for his tenth trip to Q-school. From that fact alone, I knew he was a determined guy. I knew he wasn't a quitter. And I admire those qualities.
But one of the toughest challenges a player in Mark's situation faces is maintaining his confidence. As years go by and the goal of success on the PGA Tour remains just out of reach, it can be tough for a player to continue to see himself as a winner. It can be easy to start dwelling on missed shots and missed opportunities. It can be easy to feed the subconscious the sort of thoughts that undermine confidence instead of building it up. This is why players don't progress at a steady rate as they play and gain experience. They may be learning better ways to hit the ball; they may be learning better ways to manage their games in tournament situations; they may be learning how to handle life on the road. But if they're not becoming more confident as they learn these things, it can be all for naught. Mark had played more than 100 events on the PGA Tour, but he would have been the first to tell you that he couldn't win there. I suggested that he improve his subconscious self-image by keeping a journal. I wanted it to be a special kind of journal.
Keep a "Good Memories" Journal
In it, I wanted Mark to record every good shot he hit every day. I didn't care if it was just a 5-iron he pured on the practice range warming up. I wanted him to write it down. Mark agreed. Every night he wrote down or typed into a computer file all of his good shots. He then read and reread that list.
Keeping the journal accomplished several things for Mark. Obviously, it required him to recall all of his good shots. He had to remember them in detail in order to write them down and describe them. So each night, he was reliving the good shots that he'd made. The act of writing reinforced the memory of those good shots. Over time, Mark began enjoying the process of writing in his journal. He like pulling out the handwritten version and reading it throughout the day. The process helped him learn to take pleasure in his good shots.
And, as time went on, he realized that the vast majority of his shots every day were good ones. He hit more good shots than he had time to write down. Equally important was what the journal prevented him from doing. He no longer went back to his room and brooded over his bad shots.
By staying with this process, Mark dramatically improved the input he was giving his subconscious. He quickly saw results. Five months after we started working together, Mark was playing down in the Honda Classic down in Florida (51). He won by making a clutch 30 footer on the first playoff hole and by making a 10 footer on the third playoff hole. This is what Mark's improved confidence allowed him to do. He had never won before. Those who think that confidence can grow only from winning would have predicted he'd melt down in the crucible of pressure he faced in the final holes. They would have been wrong. Confidence doesn't depend on experience. It depends on how you choose to think.
I've had other clients who benefited from keeping journals. Skeptics may read about this and think that I'm saying that a golfer who keeps a journal of his or her good shots will become an immediate winner. I'm not saying that. I understand that golf is a game of both confidence and competence. If you haven't mastered the fundamental shots, you're not going to win any tournaments (unless you're getting handicap strokes). You need to make sure that your physical skills match your aspirations. What is important is that you improve both mentally and physically. Mark had the physical skills. He just needed more confidence, and he got it by using journals to change the nature of the data they were feeding their subconscious minds. If your physical skills are adequate only to break 100, you won't start shooting in the 70s just by developing confidence. But if you develop confidence, you'll be shooting in the 90s even when you play your buddies for that hotly contested $2 Nassau or in that tournament you call "your major."
- Record and relive the good memories
- Forget the bad shots
- Assign the same relatively low level of importance to every shot
- If you aren't going to figure out ways to feed positive, confidence-building memories and ideas to their subconscious, you ought to try not to think about golf at all when you're away from the course.
- The golf world and life in general is full of commentators. They exist at the professional level, at your local course. They are generally very good at reaching the conclusion that what has worked is brilliant and what hasn't worked is not. Sometimes they're right, and sometimes they're not. The point is that outside commentators are the last thing you or anyone else should believe in. Believe in yourself. Believe in your own internal commentator. Make sure that your commentator is telling you things that will help you. (see The Road to Progress and Happiness in Life, Golf, and Beyond)
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