Background to Golf Psychology

Background to Golf Psychology

“Golf is a game of confidence”. Dr. Bob Rotella, Sports psychologist.

Dr. Bob Rotella has worked with some of the greatest golfers in the world from our own Padraig Harrington to Davis Love, Nick Price, Trevor Immelman, Brad Faxon, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite to name just a few.

“Golf is 20% physical and 80% mental”. Arnold Palmer.

Arnold Palmer is one of the greatest players in the history of golf with 62 PGA Tour wins and 7 major championships.

Over the last five years, I have had a particular interest in what part the mind plays in the performance of the greatest athletes of our time. During my degree programme with the PGA I studied Golf Psychology. I have completed several golf psychology programs with renowned sports psychologists and also have read countless sports psychology books in depth. Consequently, I have adopted some of these techniques in the golf games of my clients and they have improved tremendously.

The majority of the world’s elite professional golfers will tell you that Tiger Woods is where he is for one reason. Yes he has a great swing and yes his short game is superb but his thinking when he is on a golf course is second to none. He doesn’t dwell on bad shots (like nearly every golfer we know!), he just remembers the great ones.

Remember you will not always hit the shot you wanted, there are going to be days when you will be super confident over the shot but the ball flies to the sand, the water, to the trees, misses the hole etc but as Dr. Bob Rotella says:

“Golf is a game played by human beings. Therefore, it is a game of mistakes. Successful golfers know how to respond to mistakes”.