Addicted Golf

Amateur Tip of the Month

This season I started doing something I've never really done before. At first, it felt weird and almost forced, but the more I started to do it, the more I saw its benefits.

If you're like me, any given round features its fair share of good shots and bad shots. For so many years, I've been trying to hone my mental game around not getting upset over bad shots and bad holes.

In that vein, my mantra this year has been to channel Ben Hogan's famous quote, one that I often find repeating to myself during the round: "The most important shot in golf is the next one."

But this is an amateur tip spot; Hogan was anything but.

If you hit a great shot, especially in a clutch situation or on that hole that always burns you GET FIRED UP. Fist pump, clap, slap yourself on the hip, high five your buddy - whatever it is, you need to acknowledge to yourself that you just hit a great shot!

I've been finding that this has been building confidence, both within round and for next week. Too many amateurs are self-conscious about their game - when they make a great shot, they laugh or write it off as luck. Nothing could be further from the truth. In that moment, you made the shot you were trying to make. That's golf in a nutshell, so acknowledge it.