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Golf--The Mental Game
Golf--The Mental Game
Golf--The Mental Game
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Golf--The Mental Game

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Originally written by America’s most experienced golf coach for golf coaches, it was embraced by a myriad of golfers who wanted to improve their games. From his acquaintanceship with great coaches and professional golfers, he plants nuggets of mental hints and technique ideas in his intimately folksy way. This book gives the golfer hints to quickly drop one’s handicap. From driving and putting to strategy on the course—this book will help your game. There is no question that you will find the tips, history, philosophy and psychology helpful for your game.

 

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 7, 2014
ISBN9781498988957
Golf--The Mental Game
Author

John Johnson

John Johnson has brought love to children of all ages in the beloved guise of Santa Claus over four decades. He began his journey in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, where he was also an actor, musician, playwright, and historical presenter. He has performed Santa in every possible setting. He lives with his wife, Michelle, on the South Carolina coast, where he shares Christ’s message of love, peace, and goodwill.

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    Golf--The Mental Game - John Johnson

    Table of Contents

    GOLF | The  Mental Game

    Chapter I  The Mental Approach To Golf

    The influence of the top professional golfers from both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour on intercollegiate golf is nothing short of amazing. The Big Five in PGA golf is made up of Tiger Woods, Vi­ jay Singh, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, and Retief Goosen. Of the five, the two American players Tiger Woods (Stanford) and Phil Mickelson (Arizona State) are both ex-college players whose universities are well known, although Tiger Woods had a short career at Stanford University. He retains his ties publicly to Stanford by attending basketball games and football games when his schedule permits.

    Chapter VIII Coaching Techniques

    Chapter IX  The Mental Challenge of Playing

    Chapter X  Positive Thinking

    GOLF

    The  Mental Game

    A Guide for Players and Coaches

    ––––––––

    Dr. John Johnson

    ––––––––

    Copyright 2013

    Total Health Publications

    Oslo, Norway

    ––––––––

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Coach Johnson has coached golf for over 65 years. He is the oldest active coach in any university in the U.S. He has been the head golf coach both at the University of California at Los Angeles and at California State University at Dominguez Hills. He has had close associations with many of the greats of the game—and with coaching legends in other sports. The combination of these experiences has given him an incredibly insightful and complete view of how to improve and how to compete in all sports—and he has applied these gems of athletic wisdom to our game of golf.

    ––––––––

    Table of Contents

    Chapter I  The Mental Approach To Golf

    Chapter II  The Track to Winning

    Chapter III  The Pyramid of Success and Golf

    Chapter IV  The Winning Attitude

    Chapter V  Winning Techniques

    Chapter VI Coaching The Mental Game

    Chapter VII  The T.R.A.C.K. For Practice Sessions

    Chapter VIII Coaching Techniques

    Chapter IX  The Mental Challenge of Playing

    Chapter X  Positive Thinking

    Chapter I  The Mental Approach To Golf

    First of all, I must admit that much of my philosophy on golf and my coaching concepts were obtained from John Wooden, legendary head basketball coach at UCLA, and Red Sanders, iconic head football coach at UCLA.

    My office at UCLA while I was an assistant football coach and a golf coach was right down the hall from the office of John Wooden.

    My interest in golf  coaching golf and completing my research on golf-was sparked by Coach Red Sanders. He taught me the game. He also taught me to love the game and to explore the mental phase of golf

    My conversations with Coach John Wooden in regard to coaching were marked by the development of my coaching philosophy. He was also influential in my desire to conduct my research on golf beyond the golf swing.

    My many practice sessions for my golf game with Coach Red Sanders on the football practice field at UCLA consisted of learning to approach the game from a mental standpoint. We spent hours hitting balls onto the field and out of his sand trap. (He had his personal sand trap on the football practice field at UCLA.) He personally supervised the construction of this sand trap and he practiced every weekend during the football offseason on our practice field. We talked about all phases of golf by the hour.

    I also took his ten commandments of football , which we used as our ultimate guide for coaching football and applied it to golf, and I took the liberty of borrowing many of his coaching principles and applied them to golf.

    The first concept of the mental game of golf is developing an attitude which will aid in your success. We must begin with the assumption that golf  cannot be played perfectly. Golf is a series of recovery shots. As long as we have this idea in mind, we are able to cope with our mistakes as a matter of course and overcome them. We know that we cannot be perfect as golfers and as human beings, so we must allow for that in our quest for knowledge beyond the golf swing.

    How we measure success in golf is also open to debate.

    Does success in golf always mean winning? The answer to this question is an emphatic no. Success in golf can be a personal best. If a personal best is good enough to win, we have accomplished our purpose. If a personal best is not good enough to win, we have still accomplished our purpose in competing in a college golf tournament.

    As a golfer you must accept the fact that although you strive for perfection, you will not always attain this goal. Once you have posted your score, you cannot change it. You must vow to come back another day You must accept the fact that although you strive for perfection you will not always attain it. Once you have accepted this fact you will be able to play with much less restrictive mental conditioning.

    You must also be aware of the concept of the career shot. Many times, a player who has hit a bad shot will attempt to hit a career shot—the best shot of one’s golfing life-to make up for the bad shot. The result is usually more trouble. The percentage shot is much more sensible in a situation such as this.  Hit the percentage shot out into the fairway

    from behind a tree with a chip shot. Do not attempt to hook the ball around the tree, over the water, and past the trap onto the green if you do not have a shot.

    The above does not mean that you should not always strive for perfection. One of the life lessons which we learn in golf is that we must strive for perfection. The key is to accept the fact that you might not attain perfection every day or in every tournament, or with every shot. How you cope with this is the key.

    The elements which you cannot change in competitive golf are the course layout , the weather, and your last shot on the golf course.

    First of all, the weather is something you cannot change.

    You must modify your game to conform with the weather. Bad weather, such as rain, sleet and hail, is part of the tournament. Our teams have played in sleet, hail, and driving rain in the recent past. We will not suspend play in college golf unless there is lightning, or possible damage to the course. You must live with this on the golf course and not concern yourself with the fact that the host coach has not stopped play on the golf course. You must accept the fact that this is the way it is, and continue to modify your game to compensate for the weather.

    We have had two examples of this in I just the past four years as Cal State Dominguez Hills. Four years ago in a tournament at Cal State Bakersfield we played at Bakersfield Country Club. A driving rain storm with gale-force winds turned into a driving sleet storm. I Itold one of my players to get under a nearby tree until the sleet storm passed.

    No, Coach, he replied. I am going to play through this sleet storm.

    This episode earned him the nickname of, The Bootstrap Man.

    He was forever known as The Bootstrap Man after I told our other players that he was: Tougher than a bootstrap.

    Jeff Ronk was the player who decided to play through the hailstorm and became famous at Cal State Dominguez Hills. He will go down in history as The Bootstrap Man.

    If the wind is a factor also, you must use the wind by hitting high with the wind and low into the wind. For example, you can shoot for the pin on your approach shots, because the wet greens will hold the ball. The ball will not break as much on wet greens, but you must remember the statistics on breaking putts:

    •  85% of breaking hits are missed below the hole

    •  43% of your shots during a round of golf are putts, so you must compensate for the lack of speed and the decreased break on wet greens.

    •  13% of your shots will be chip shots around the green, so you must compensate for the wet greens here also.

    Your shot image is of vital importance to your mental golf game. You should never hit a shot in golf until you have formed a mental picture of the shot.

    The hailstorm at Mission Viejo Country Club in the 2011 UC San Diego tournament did not result in stopping play.

    This was unusual because the practice round the previous day resulted in completion of only 13 holes due to heavy rain. The hailstorm during Monday's 36-hole day did not stop play and there was no damage to the golf course.

    Your shot image not only includes a complete mental picture of the shot but club selection and the weather involved. Your shot image should eliminate all the factors over which you have no control, such as wind, rain, sleet, hail and all the unique features of the golf course. The shot image should be an image of the perfect shot!

    The pre-shot routine should be used as a method for you to enter your comfort zone. The pre-shot routine is the second phase of the track to winning for golf which I have developed over the years. The first phase of the track to winning consists of trusting your swing.

    I am reminded of the research project which we conducted at UCLA in regard to the weight shift during the golf swing. We completed the project at the Los Angeles Open held at Rancho Park, and this became the basis for our development of the T.R.A.C.K.

    ––––––––

    Chapter II  The Track to Winning

    The Track to Winning Golf lies beyond the golf swing on the routes to mental toughness.

    The Track to Winning Golf was conceived as a learning tool similar to Coach John Wooden's pyramid of success. I borrowed some of the concepts from the most famous coaches in history-John Wood en, Head Basketball Coach at UCLA, and Red Sanders, Head Football Coach at UCLA.

    The first phase of the Track to Winning Golf is trust. You must be able to trust your swing. My first research project at UCLA was based on the fact that most players at that time were not aware of how much weight they shifted from one foot to the other during their golf swings. I called the Toledo Scales people and asked them to install two scales on the driving range at Rancho Park. They buried the scales in the ground so the players could stand on them. We asked all the professional golfers playing in the Los Angeles Open to stand on the scales and hit golf balls.  We then filmed them and noted the amount of weight they shifted during their swings.

    It was amazing that they were all different and they all wanted

    us to send them the results of our study. The one exception was Arnold Palmer, who declined to participate.

    Some of the participants shifted very little weight and stayed on the left foot during the entire swing. The point of our discussion about this research project is that you must trust your swing, no matter what it looks like.

    Obviously, trust is the result of intelligent practice and the result of diligent practice. Some of the golf professionals in the l 950's, such as Doug Sanders, practiced until their hands bled.

    I had the opportunity to talk with Doug Sanders when he had lunch with our football coaching staff at UCLA. He told me at that time that this was true.

    I am convinced that Arnold Palmer did not take part in our research project at UCLA in which we conducted at the Los Angeles Open because he had complete trust in his swing. He did not feel that it was necessary to know how much weight he shifted during his swing.

    I saw Arnold Palmer, then the world’s top golfer, take the 12 on the hole where they later placed a plaque to record this achievement . He did not change his swing during or after this hole. This was a tribute to his mental toughness.

    The second phase of the Track to Winning Golf is the pre-shot routine. The pre-shot routine is the phase of competitive golf in which the player can respond to a feeling of being comfortable. When a player returns to a familiar routine in golf, he places himself in a zone which is apart from the crowd noise and the pressure of the shot. Your comfort zone is the result of a familiar pre-shot routine.

    Some players, in addition to the pre-shot routine, add another routine to their agenda. When they walk off the green after a bad hole, they take their cap off and then put it back on to signal the beginning of a new stretch of good play to replace the old bad play. In some cases, they will put their glove on and then take it off to signal a new start.

    My personal experience with the pre-shot routine consisted of intense pressure in a golf match arranged by my head football coach at UCLA, Red Sanders. It was early in my career as a golfer—and I was still learning the game-when I got a telephone call 'Johnny, we need you for a foursome at Bel Air Country Club today, he said.

    I readily agreed without giving much thought to who would be in the foursome. When I arrived, I discovered that my partner would be Bud Wilkinson, the head football coach from Oklahoma. He had just won the national championship at Oklahoma and had been named Coach of the Year by the Sports Writers of America.

    We had also won the national championship in football at UCLA under Red Sanders and I had been an assistant football coach on his staff. Coach Sanders had also been voted Coach of the Year by the Sports Writers of America.

    The fourth member of our foursome turned out to be the club champion at Bel Air Country Club.

    As soon as I recovered from the initial shock of meeting Coach Bud Wilkinson and the club champion, I was told that we would be playing match play. Coach Red Sanders and the club champion would be paired against Coach Bud Wilkinson and me for a lot more money than I could afford. This was pressure, needless to say.

    We came down to the 18th hole with my team down one hole and I had hit my second shot into the bunker in front of the green. I knew I had to make par on the hole for us to win it and tie the match.

    I went into my pre-shot routine before I hit the ball out of the sand trap to eliminate the pressure. I hit the ball two feet from the cup, tapped the putt in, and tied the match, as a result of my ability to use my pre-shot routine to overcome the pressure .

    The use of the pre-shot routine serves to put the player in familiar territory and lessens his fear of choking under pressure.

    I had practiced that shot for hours in the sand trap which Red Sanders had built on the UCLA football practice field. Each time I hit the shot on the practice field I went through the same pre-shot routine . I knew I could hit that shot and the pre-shot routine put me in my com­ fort zone.

    The third phase of the track is 'attention Span." This also includes attention to detail.

    It is impossible to sustain the attention span for the four and one­ half to five hours which are required to complete a round. The player is required to turn his attention on and off Once he turns his attention span on, he must also observe every detail which will help his game. Attention to detail is extremely important on the golf course. For example, Ben Hogan, when he was at the top of his game, would often decline to shake hands with all of his well-wishers before a match. His concept was that his hand swelled as a result of constant pressure from the many handshakes  and it was disastrous to his putting touch.

    I experienced a melt down in my ability to pay attention to detail during my round at St. Andrews on the Old Course when I took a 16 on the 16th hole. I hit the ball into a bunker in front of the green

    on the 16th hole. I realized that the side of the bunker toward the green was so steep that it went straight up. I was confident that I could make a difficult bunker shot and land it on the green, even if it was necessary to hit the ball straight up. I failed to do this, but I kept attempting to hit the ball straight up. I finally hit the ball out of the back on the bunker and then pitched it up on the green.

    "I missed a short putt for a  15,'' I replied, when asked how I could possibly take a 16 on the hole.

    Your attention span must start before your pre-shot routine when you take a look at the shot and all of the possibilities. You must block out all of the outside distractions such as water, wind, trees and sand traps, plus out-of-bounds and other hazards.

    The fourth phase of the Track to Winning Golf is Confidence . Jack Nicklaus won 18 major tournaments and still holds this record . When asked if he thought his opponents felt that he always had confidence and would beat them, Jack's reply was that he did not always feel like he would win, but his opponents thought that he always felt like he would win. He exuded confidence in the presence of his opponents. His most astounding record is that he not only won 18 major tournaments but he finished second in 19 more.

    Jack Nicklaus reinvented himself when he lost a lot of weight and he changed his image. I remember the first time I saw him before he had lost all that weight. He was playing in the Los Angeles Open and I was there as the guest of Ted Makalena, the Hawaiian professional who later died in a tragic surfing accident in Hawaii.

    I was astounded at how Jack Nicklaus appeared to be overweight and he was not really playing well. He later lost a lot of weight and became a legendary figure in golf, along with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

    Coach John Wooden's definition of Competitive Greatness ,'' the top block of his Pyramid of Success, is Be at your best when your best is needed."

    Jack Nicklaus was always at his best when his best was needed; and, as such, he holds the all-time record for wins in major tournaments. Arnold Palmer burst onto the golf scene as everyman playing gol£ He was the athlete playing golf and his ''Arnie's Army" became the

    most famous fan base in the history of golf—even greater than Tiger’s!

    The fifth and last phase of the Track to Winning Golf applies to course knowl edge and your knowledg e of your own game.

    My experience at the Old Course at St. Andrews is an example of the importan ce of course knowledge .

    We were at St. Andrews at first light in the morning. I was giving my friend, Don , a playin g lesson. I had spoken to the starter the day before and asked him wh en we could get a time and that I was a golf coach from Cal State Domingu ez Hills.  He said that only foursomes were permitted to make starting times. He

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