We can learn to think like the world’s best players, but as sports psychologist Dr. Bhrett McCabe explains, there are numerous landmines or mental errors we often make on the course that cause our scores to suffer. McCabe joined us for Golf Digest Happy Hour, our live webinar series with golf experts, offered exclusively to Golf Digest+ members. This Q&A, selected from the hour-long interview, has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Many of us get frustrated when we can’t bring our shooting game to the range. How do we fix that?
McCabe: One of the most important concepts I teach is called ability. We’re all capable of something. Scottie Scheffler and the touring players have great abilities, but when they go out there, they’re not going to have 100 percent of their tools. They might be tired, or they might have a group they don’t like, or they might be hitting so well that their yardage is more than three yards and it’s disconcerting.
If you could put your finger on a scanner and it said, “OK, you’re at 78 percent of your skills today,” most people would say, “Oh, man, I hope I have my driver.” Most players are trying to find the missing 22 percent.
As a result, they are tinkering with their swing and trying to find a rhythm. The best players focus on the 78 percent they have, so they make adjustments like slowing down to find the fairway off the tee.
McCabe: Fifteen years ago, some professors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business wrote a paper titled “Is Tiger Woods Lose-Averse?” They found that Woods made more par putts than birdie putts from the same distance after controlling for all factors.
A few years later, I challenged a statistician to figure out why this was the case. He found that players tend to miss short birdie putts. It is natural for the mind, as it approaches a 12-foot birdie putt, to think: I would like to make a birdie, but what I don’t want is to have a three putt.
When you have a par putt, what are you thinking about? I’m doing this motherfucker or nothing. You tend to get inward-looking and reduce the number of options available to you to make a decision. Now, if you could look at a birdie putt the same way you look at a par putt, then you would have cracked the code, but we can’t. Is a three-shot putt worth the risk to make a birdie? It’s a tough decision to make.
McCabe: What do you feel on the first tee? I need to get off to a good start. I need to get everything done. I don’t try to suppress those emotions. I let them in. We experience them and then we let them go. Identify what you’re trying to do and choose your go-to shot to find the fairway. Pick a clear goal. Accept how you feel and verbalize the shot you want to hit. I don’t want you to feel calm. I want you to feel connected to your process.
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