Mental Golf-How Your Brain Ruins Your Card - By: Norman Stanley

Try to remember when you first took up the game of golf, for me it was as a little sprat at my dads knee. To get me out from under my moms feet he took me to the driving range.

Wow! I could not believe there where places where you could use a stick to hit a ball as hard as you like and not get told off by a 'grown up' It quickly became my favourite place in the world for a long summer.

In the following years I graduated to actually playing golf on a real golf course, with fairways and greens and somewhere along the way the sheer unadulterated joy of blasting a little white ball as far as I could, got lost.

I expect every golfer has the same journey, the pleasure of golf becomes secondary to the desire to win. Even minor competitions assume the importance of the US Open, games with friends became a struggle to do better than them.

Every aspect of my golf came under scrutiny, I read every tip, every magazine article and watched the golf channel to an almost religious extent. I just had to get better, didn't I. I knew how to hit a chip, how to read a forty foot putt and where to place my feet to hit a draw.

I am not on the US Tour, hell I am not even captain at my golf club and my name is not on the roll board in gilt letters. Somewhere and somehow my game was suffering.

John Daly said his best tip was "Take your head out of the game." What a fantastic piece of advice this is.Remember golf is a game and the object is to enjoy it.

By taking your head out of the game you can learn to relax into it and you will play better. The practice, the techniques, the tips and drills are for those times when you are not playing golf. When you are on the golf course do not try to change anything, do not analyse every shot and above all don't dwell on the bad shots.

So we have established golf is only a game. However any game requires a set of skills in order to play well and golf is no exception. In fact due to the complexity of golf the skills required need honing more than most.

Now the first skill to aquire to play golf well is to be able to relax. This is a skill, beleive me, and one that you should spend some time practising.

When you hold a golf club you are forming a link between you and the ball. For this link to function well it must be flexible and not seized up. Practice holding your golf clubs every day whether you are playing or not.

Some golf pro's suggest having a sawn off club handy where you can pick it up at any convenient time and practice your grip. This is okay but it doesn't give you the proper feel due to the weight.

I think you should use a full size club and develop a habit for putting your hands on correctly and practicing holding the club firmly in your fingers but keeping your forearms relaxed, this will help you to swing through correctly letting the hands turn over.

Try this out and see how it can help you.

About the Author

Norman Stanley is a golf nut and fitness enthusiast. Discover the way to Find the best golf wedges.

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