Everyone, no matter the skill level, feels nervousness on the golf course. It’s how players handle it that sets the differing classes apart.
I like the idea put forward by Tim Grover, a physiotherapy and mental trainer for the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, that everybody is nervous and experiences butterflies. His goal is to get the butterflies flying in the same direction.
What happens with nerves is that you’re thinking about what you’re going to do, which for many means the worst-case scenario instead of a positive outcome. Those nerves then turn into fear, and nothing but trouble can follow that scenario.
When talking to great players about what goes on during potential stressful situations, I often hear, “I stayed in my routine.” In a nutshell, that means they followed the system they have in place for handling anything that can pop up during a round.
I remember talking to former NBA guard Mark Price, one of the best free-throw shooters in league history, and he told me he got himself as calm as he could and imagined there was a pin in the middle of the basket, and all he tried to do was shoot the ball to the pin.
Today, my staff and I work with 10 tour players. If you imagine they’re all playing in a tournament every week, by the time the week is over they’ve all taken 270 to 280 shots. Multiply that by 10 and that’s almost 3,000 shots. Some are more comfortable than others; all are nervous because they want to do well. That’s what nerves really mean that you care about your game and want to do well.
Noted Florida therapist Julia Harper says fear is part of life and you can face fear in two ways: You can forget everything and run or face everything and respond. When you respond, you choose to be a master and have more control over your emotions and the situation.
I remember Hal Sutton when he won the PGA Championship in1984 at Riviera Country Club. He got paired with Jack Nicklaus, and Sutton said he was so nervous about playing in a major with the best player in history that he almost topped his drive on the first hole.
Walking off the first tee, he told Nicklaus he was nervous. Nicklaus responded that he was nervous too. That simply means that both men wanted to win. Sutton said that was the best thing that ever happened to him and it allowed him to relax for the rest of the week and win the tournament.
