Is Someone Else Playing Your Golf Ball?

        Nobody, in my opinion, plays golf totally for themselves. As human beings we are simply hard wired to seek approval from our peers. We like to fit in, we like to feel appreciated and – above all – we like to feel worthy. Yet some of these powerful unconscious drivers could be wrecking your scores, giving rise to a huge amount of frustration with your game – and no amount of swing instruction will be the answer. I don’t think that you will ever totally free yourself of this but let’s take a closer look at exactly what happens out on a golf course, at some of the behavioural traits we can recognise. Maybe you will identify with one or two of the personalities and then, perhaps, decide to act differently in the best interests of your game (and your sanity!).

     I am sure you would agree that we all take on certain ‘personalities’ depending on the context that we find ourselves in. For example, your personality is surely not the same in a corporate meeting as it is when you are having a drink in the pub with your mates. Similarly, our personality will be a bit different with a brother or sister than it would be with our grandparents. Of course our basic character is intact but we all adapt somewhat depending on the environment and the context we are in.

"If we can play the game and become absorbed in this task at hand we can lose ourself and create the possibility of entry into that special place called

‘the zone’. We get ‘lost in action’."

Reproduced with kind permission of Golf International Magazine