The challenge for golfers is to make the game as consistent as they can through mental and physical understanding and training. Is your pursuit fun or frustrating?

Life and golf are natural processes of ebbs and flows, ups and downs. Life and golf constantly present challenges for us to learn and grow. Everything that occurs, that has occurred, is occurring, and will occur in the future is the outward physical manifestation of your innermost thoughts, choices, ideas, and determinations about who you are and who you choose to be.

Golf is a metaphor for life because it has the same perpetual challenge of not being able to achieve perfection. The only constant is change. Every golfer who has experienced their peak performance wonders what happened when they couldn’t sustain that level of great play. As your golf game improves, the lows of the cycles will be shallower, and the highs will be greater. When your game is at low ebb, that is the time when you are challenged to grow, to learn more and to move toward greater improvement and bigger successes.

We see the world as we perceive it. Your perception determines whether you see a four-foot putt for par as easy or as scary. Your success on the golf course and in your daily life is determined by the way you perceive and handle the challenges, frustrations, excitement, failure, and success. Your golf game reflects your inner self. It mirrors the way you deal with performance anxiety, pressure, honesty, and responsibility. The game will show you how disciplined, focused, relaxed and in control you really are when it counts.

While some golfers have more athletic ability than others, every person can benefit from developing mental skills to improve their lives and their golf games. Some of the organizational skills for quality of life and improved golf are goal setting, discernment, adopting positive attitudes and beliefs, relaxation techniques, decision making, and enjoying life/golf in the moment.

When you hear yourself repeating a negative thought from your past, change the thought in your mind to a positive one. Golfers play golf because it is a challenge. Challenge yourself to change your limiting beliefs and behavior to achieve the success you desire. Use the feeling that comes up as a cue for you to know if you are worried about people or course conditions that you cannot control. Replace your limiting thoughts with positive, constructive ones.

For example, if you are anxious on the first tee and usually miss your tee shot because people are watching you, change your thinking to: “I let go of everything outside of me by letting it become fuzzy. I can focus clearly on seeing my target. I feel my swing tempo. I concentrate on my pre-shot routine to prepare my mind. My first tee shot is easy because I use the club in my bag with the biggest head. It is easy. It is fun. I can tee it up and sweep through it. I love to hit the first shot of the day.”

To reinforce these thoughts, prepare in advance by using mental imagery. Begin by putting yourself in a relaxed state by breathing deeply and releasing all mental and physical tension from your body. Create in detail in your mind the first hole. Mentally create the fairway, trees, bunkers, and yourself on the first tee. Notice that you are affirming your good tee shot with the messages above. Observe yourself breathing deeply to become relaxed and centered. See yourself going through your physical and mental pre-shot routine. See yourself hitting your very best tee ball (from your past experience) by visualizing and feeling your own smooth, easy, effortless swing. See the ball land on the fairway where you planned.  Feel the emotion of happiness and success.

Believe in your Self

Regardless of whether you are playing golf now, or not, this is a good time to reflect and decide how you can improve. We are responsible for creating our lives. A good place to start is with a mental training program to improve your life and your golf game.

Tiger Woods has accomplished what he has because he has beliefs in his head that other people don’t.

Tiger seems to have an aura of calm and composure on the golf course only interrupted by his fist-pumping enjoyment of success, and momentary bouts of unexpected disappointment.  Overall, he seems to be immune to the pressure and anxiety and other forms of interference on the golf course.  He attributes much of his mental strength to his Thai heritage and Buddhism. His mother taught him the Buddhist philosophy of letting life happen, rather than the Western way of trying to make it happen.

Tiger’s father taught him what he had learned from his psychological training as a Green Beret. He taught him how to take the conscious mind out of the performance of a task and move into the subconscious mind. Tiger said, “I have learned to trust the subconscious, and my instincts have never lied to me.”  When you are playing at your peak levels, you are also trusting your game to your subconscious mind and allowing your swing to happen automatically.

When you were learning the mechanics of the golf swing, motor skill by motor skill, you had to think about how to do it. Now trust and move from the analytical thinking process into the swing that is more of a reflex action. This is the way you learned to drive a car. After you had learned to drive the car, you no longer thought about your foot on the gas and brake pedals or your hands on the steering wheel. You were then only concerned with reacting to the road.

The more you practice it in your mind using your senses of feeling, seeing, and trusting, the more automatic it will be. Here are three ways to practice mental skills for an automatic swing.

1. Practice seeing, feeling, and hearing your golf swing in your mind. Hear the solid contact of the club striking the ball. Hear the dynamic whooshing sound the shaft makes as it moves through the air. Listen to the rhythm of the entire swing. Feel the easy, fluid tempo of the club moving through the entire arc. Feel your body and club moving in harmonious synchronization.

2. Swing a club indoors or outdoors without a ball, feeling and sensing the rhythm, tempo and feel of the swing. Close your eyes and swing the club while noticing the feel of your body, your balance, and the movement of the club. Give yourself one swing key to anchor your good swing.

3. Practice your pre-shot routine in your mind until it becomes an imprint in your unconscious mind. Then physically practice it indoors until you can repeat it without thinking. Having a repeatable pre-shot routine that you don’t have to think about will give you the consistency you desire.

Like Tiger, you can improve your performance by practicing in your mind away from the golf course. Set aside ten to fifteen minutes a few times every week to practice your golf swing, your pre-shot routine and mentally playing your golf course.

The only place you can practice perfectly is in your mind.

You can do this easily by repeatedly listening to PMI guided imagery self-hypnosis CD’s/MP3s in the privacy of your own home. Order them now at www.pmi4.com/cart  Program your mind with your best intention of what you want to believe about your golf game. Train your brain so you can swing the same on the golf course as on the practice tee.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances 

One-on-one coaching: Call 828.707.5478, or contact Joan by email for a free consultation to learn about mental golf coaching in person, or worldwide by phone. Learn what is missing in your game so you can achieve your peak performances.       

Please share this monthly mental instruction newsletter if it has been helpful to you. Forward it to your friends so they can have more fun playing the game of golf while lowering their scores. Link to www.pmi4.com to download previous PMI mental golf newsletters from 1999-2024 on the Archived Newsletter page https://cutt.ly/kwMY2jXt

If you have a question or need help with your mental game, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net   Also, please share how this website information has helped improve your golf game.

To unsubscribe or change info:  If you no longer want to receive this newsletter, or if you want to change the address to which it is sent, please reply with “unsubscribe” or the details to “change subscription” to pmi4@bellsouth.net

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

This guidebook for transforming your life and golf game available at https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv

All royalties will be donated to junior golf.

April 6, 2024 Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club 

In the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA). University of Southern California (USC) 19-year-old freshman Bailey Shoemaker started the day four shots back of the leader, Lottie Woad, 20-year-old sophomore at Florida State. Shoemaker posted a bogey free course record 6 under 66 to take the lead in the clubhouse with the lowest final round in ANWA history. She then had an interminable wait to see if her score of 7 under would be the winner.

Lottie Woad never gave up. Her birdie putt on 16 to tie didn’t drop. She birdied 17 to tie Shoemaker at 7 under. As is often the case, the winner was determined by the last putt. Woad dropped a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 to win the championship by one stroke at 8 under par for a come from behind victory. Her plan to attack the final round worked in scoring three-birdies in the last four holes for a 3-under 69 birdie-birdie finish. “Good for her, especially under pressure, knowing she had to do it. That’s amazing,” said Shoemaker. 

April 7, 2024 Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club

Eighty girls and boys ages 7 to 15 participated in The Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals held at the Tournament Practice Facility with the putting competition on the 18^th green of Augusta National.

It was exciting to watch tiny 7-9 year-old girls drive the ball over 150 yards, and everyone in this division hit the fairway with both of their tee shots! In the Boys 7-9 group the winner drove the ball 209.5 yards into the fairway. The winning drive in the girls 13-15 age group was 264.5 yards in the fairway! In this division the top four girls drove the ball over 257 yards!

Listening to the youngsters talk about how they won was a litany of perfect mindsets for success. And each of the contestants received acknowledgement of their efforts with a parental hug.

Kipp Madison of Evans took the boys 12-13 division. He said the 18^th green was like putting on glass. “You just need to be positive, even when you hit a bad shot because you can hit one bad shot and think there’s no way I can make it now,” he said. “You can always make it, you might just have to a do little bit better on other shots and just let the ball get to the hole. Don’t force it in. Just let it ride. It’s so fast, it’s so quick. The chipping, whatever club you’ve been practicing with, definitely use that club.” 

April 7, 2024 Sunday at the Valero Texas Open

Akshay Bhatia led the Texas Open by four shots over Denny McCarthy going into Sunday’s final round. McCarthy was six shots back when he started his back nine on the TPC San Antonio golf resort course. He birdied 8 of the 9 remaining holes including the last 7 in a row to card an amazing back nine 28 to shoot 9-under 63. It would have been his first win on the PGA Tour.

And then Bhatia sunk a 12-foot putt on the 18^th green to tie and force a play-off. On the first play-off hole Bhatia hit his wedge within six feet and sunk the birdie for the victory. With this win, he earned the last spot in this week’s Masters’ 89-player field. Ten years ago in 2014, as a 12-year-old, Bhatia was a finalist in the Drive, Chip & Putt competition. He will be the first alum to return to play in the Masters.

“I’m just going at my own pace, focusing on myself, keeping the blinders right in front of me. I look at that all the time because you can get caught up in a lot of things out here” he said. “If I’m just kind of doing my own thing and trying not to let outside stuff bother me, then I just can focus on myself and whatever the outcome is, it is.” 

What do you believe?

The ability to focus your mind is all-important in achieving a successful performance. You will get what you focus on, but you must believe that what you desire is possible.

For most people, concentration constantly shifts from outside you between shots to inside you for the actual shots. Watching an engrossing movie, your attention is focused only on the action. In the same way, executing your golf strategy, or planning a golf shot can be just as engrossing. Being completely engrossed in the process of performing a shot is known as being in the “flow” or “in the zone” where peak performances occur.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

Please share this monthly mental instruction newsletter if it has been helpful to you. Forward it to your friends so they can have more fun playing the game of golf while lowering their scores. Link to www.pmi4.com to download previous PMI mental golf newsletters from 1999-2024 on the Archived Newsletter page https://cutt.ly/kwMY2jXt

If you have a question or need help with your mental game, email Joan at pmi4@bellsouth.net   Also, please share how this website information has helped improve your golf game.

To unsubscribe or change info:  If you no longer want to receive this newsletter, or if you want to change the address to which it is sent, please reply with “unsubscribe” or the details to “change subscription” to pmi4@bellsouth.net

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

This guidebook for transforming your life and golf game is available at https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv

All royalties will be donated to junior golf.

February is the month of love. The feeling of love comes from your heart. The feeling of hitting a perfect golf shot resonates in your heart. Discounting that feeling by judging the result keeps you in your thinking mind.

When you love something, you don’t have expectations. You just enjoy the experience.

It took Billy Joel 30 years to regain his love of song writing to produce a new song this year. Find your joy and resultant success now by loving to play golf.

Golfers experience this feeling of love on the golf course when they let go of trying to make things happen, stay in the present moment, and experience the joy of being “in the zone.”

Love is who you are. Whenever we disengage the great filter called “self” and lose ourselves in play, we shift our focus from survival pursuits into larger patterns of connection with unlimited possibilities.

Love is a state of peace inside where you are focused in the moment. There is no worry, fear, doubt, indecision, humiliation, feelings of self-doubt, unworthiness, inferiority, or superiority.  Any impulse to aggressively control your game will move you into these feelings of self-judgment.

When you let go of judgment and evaluation, what is left is awareness. Awareness is the key to all change. Develop your awareness by using your imagination and intuition to discover your authentic self.

Love is a force. It is also the pure essence of being. Even after you have stopped playing golf, you will remember with feelings of love the experiences you had that were so exhilarating. We know with our minds. We believe with our hearts. When you play from your heart, you are free and your possibilities are limitless, especially when you least expect them.

Your life and your golf game are miracles waiting to be fully explored and discovered. Only an open heart can unlock the treasures that wait for you. Love is what makes the world go around. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is the feeling of the utmost high. To play golf well is to love playing golf.

Self-Judgment of Lack & Limitation

One of the mental keys for successful golf is to let go of self-judgment. When you think about how you are doing, or how to do it, you are judging yourself, and your performance under the guise of helping your game. When you judge yourself, you are likely to feel anxious, guilty, embarrassed, or angry. These feelings will ultimately sabotage your golf game, lower your self-esteem, and keep you from being successful.

In the rounds of golf where you are in the zone and everything seems to flow in perfect order, your heart rhythms, blood pressure, and brain waves are entrained, or in sync. When you have a passionate love for what you are doing and are playing at your peak performance level, you have bypassed the fears of the ego.

The power to do this is in the heart. By activating feelings of the heart, you gain powerful insights that we call intuition, or inner wisdom. You intuitively know what to do.

Your mission is to discover and embrace the real you, not the person you think you must be to be loved or accepted. Your hopes and dreams are waiting for you. Claim what your heart already knows and turn your dreams into reality. Love is the intuitive knowledge of our hearts. Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned about limiting our belief in ourselves. When we release the self-limiting and self-sabotaging thoughts, we free our minds and can return to love.

Change Your State from Fear to Love

Everything in the universe is connected by love. We are disconnected by fear.

By 1965 Arnold Palmer had fallen into a prolonged slump. He said, “I suddenly got to worrying about disappointing everyone. For the first time in my life, I guess I was afraid.”

You will have your share of heartache on the golf course, but it doesn’t have to be negative. See it as another vitally important experience that is useful to learn from. Then bring your awareness back to your heart to remember why you love to play this intriguing and seductive game.

Every thought and emotion you have produces chemicals and affects your central nervous system. When you are frustrated on the golf course and your body produces adrenaline, there is an easy way to use imagery to bring your state back to peace and calm. All you need to do to access this state is to move your thinking from your head to your heart. Holding the feeling of love for thirty seconds will balance your hormonal system.

To change your state and move into your heart, think about someone or something you love. For example, think about your pet. Imagine your pet giving you its unconditional love by jumping up and down, being excited to see you, licking you and wanting to play with you. With this easy imagery, your heart is filled with love, and the frustration you experienced moments ago dissipates.

When golf becomes too serious, the fun vanishes from your game because it is no longer just a game. Examples of this would be wanting to beat your opponent or to shoot your lowest score. The research about being in the zone/flow state shows that the fun is gained from the pure purpose of experiencing the game. If your motivation to play is dependent upon the prizes or praise, and you don’t get them, your amount of enjoyment fluctuates depending upon how many external rewards you receive.

You have probably experienced the separation of mind and body and heart and called it indecision or doubt. It is when you know in your heart you want to choose a certain club, and your rational mind talks you out of it.

You will be creating at your highest level when the electrical patterns of your heart and mind are entrained. This is done by creating positive attitudes and beliefs in your mind and by feeling emotions of love and fun and in your heart.

Remember why you love the game of golf. All great athletes play their sports from their hearts. They “know” how to enjoy using their talent and skills to perform for their own enjoyment. In their hearts they “believe” they deserve to be the best and win. Use your imagination to visualize and feel yourself enjoying playing at your personal best.

Being in the flow or zone happens when a golfer is totally engrossed in the process of playing. Happiness is experienced in the heart, not in the circumstances. The fun happens when the golfer’s mind and heart are entrained in the challenging activity that matches the person’s skills. You forget about yourself and are one with the feeling of euphoria that comes from being in love with playing the game. The mystery is then solved, and you want the feeling and game to go on forever!

Play “in the zone” with Joan

      Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances

Additional newsletters on all aspects of the mental golf game are available on the Positive Mental Imagery website at www.pmi4.com Archived Newsletters.

To train your brain for improving and trusting your short game, listen to the Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery self-hypnosis CDs/MP3s in the privacy of your own home. Eight different empowerment audios are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If these golf tips are of value to you and you would like to improve your mental golf game, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation. She can be reached by phone at 828.707.5478, by email at pmi4@bellsouth.net or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to the joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

This guidebook for transforming your life and golf game is available at https://amzn.to/3jEMVuv

All royalties will be donated to junior golf.

To all who love to play golf,

Thank you for being a part of my blog community and for the trust you have placed in me.  Please accept my warmest wishes for this holiday season, for the happiest and most successful of New Years, and for an abundance of joy, peace, love, happiness, prosperity, radiant health, and whatever else your heart desires. Be well, be safe, be healthy, and may abundance come to you soon in many, many ways.

With my heartfelt wishes for you,

Joan

As a charter member of HeartMath, I learned years ago that the human heart actually possesses the equivalent of its own brain. HeartMath calls it the heart-brain which interacts and communicates with the head-brain. The two brains continually exchange critical information that influences how the body functions. Your heart is the 15^th club in your bag and is surely the most important one. Playing from your heart is always going to be more meaningful than playing from technique.

Anyone who has ever played the game of golf knows that it is different from all other sports and games. The golf ball waits for the club to hit it. The golfer also waits for his/her turn. In this waiting period the mind of a golfer conjures up many negative scenarios unless the brain has been trained to focus in the moment on a predetermined strategy. That strategy is to love playing the game regardless of the circumstances and outcome.

The real creation of your golf game and swing are in doing it and feeling it. Your body is what gives you the good feeling in your heart of hitting a perfect shot. There is a big difference between thinking about the golf swing and feeling it. The happiest person is the person who is enjoying life. The meaning of life is feeling. When you let go of all outside distractions you can feel in your heart what is inside.

The mind can be convinced but the heart has to feel it. Play with the simplicity of the heart of a child; no doubts, no questions, just feeling. You still have the heart of a child, but it’s been buried under so many rules. It is time to let go of all the self-limiting rules and let the heart of a child perform. In the feeling of a full heart, time stands still (the zone state). Let your heart be your guide. Let go of the mind and return to your heart.

If you base your success on the outcome of the shot, you have made a judgment. You have ignored the feeling by thinking it was good or bad. If you are constantly thinking about what you didn’t do perfectly, your game will not improve. I was told early on in my golf career that when I took a lesson from the club pro, ask him what I was doing right, and to practice making that better.

What gifts do you have inside yourself? Are you an athlete? Or do you believe you are not athletic? What gifts can you bring to playing the game of golf? Thinking and feeling. What gifts are you over-using? Over-thinking and negative feelings. What gifts do you need to develop? Acceptance, trust, allowing, loving.

The Human Spirit of the Golfer

Golf reflects the journey into your inner self through exploring the mysteries of this royal and ancient game. At its highest levels of hitting perfect shots, and achieving your fullest potential, your spirit quietly soars “into the zone” where you are in a state of euphoria and trust. No longer is your spirit dampened by past experiences of fear, anxiety, indecision, distractions, and self-limitations. The joy you experience is in the moment, and not in the outcome.

When you take the self-imposed stress out of your golf game and regain confidence in your ability, you will be able to enjoy the game as a means of relaxation and a source of enriching your spirit and soul. To do this is to focus on what you love about the game and not on your limitations.

Choose to Balance your Mind-Body-Spirit

Use your thoughts to create your world, and the golf game that you desire. Enlighten yourself with positive visions. See the good in all the things you are experiencing, and you will feel the happiness deep within yourself. Feel it, see it, experience it, and react to the happiness you have created. Feel the shift in perception. You create in your world exactly what you focus your attention on.Here are six mental, emotional, and spiritual attributes to bring you into balance for a more rewarding golf game:

1. Develop a good sense of humor. Think happy thoughts. There are an unlimited number of jokes about the game of golf and its unpredictability. Standing and waiting for your turn to hit has always been a traditional time to tell golf jokes. Perhaps it is a lost art that needs to be reinstated. Laughing is the best medicine for calming the mind and body. When you play and laugh it reminds you to be grateful you are alive.
2. Develop a sense of humility. When you let go of the judgments you have about yourself, golf becomes a game to enjoy. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t take other people too seriously. Don’t take life in general too seriously. Remember that your number one reason for playing golf is to have fun.
3. Accept your circumstances. Acceptance is surrendering to your feelings, your problems, your relationships, your golf game. Before you can change, recognize that this is the way it is right now. Abstain from the struggle. Accepting the situation releases the pressure and brings relief. When you relax, you change your heartbeat, physiology, and energy pattern. Then you are better able to see what to do next.
4. Think clearly and decisively. Do not make choices out of fear. What you fight against enhances what you fear. Use discernment. When you are feeling fear on the golf course, recognize it, feel it, and breathe deeply to relax your mind and body. Step away from the ball and practice swinging your club until you feel the rhythm and tempo you had intended. Then focus on your pre-shot routine.
5. Be kind and patient with yourself.  Acknowledge yourself often and criticize yourself and your game less. Use the Power of Love for yourself, not the Love of Power. You deserve your own self-love. Love creates change.
6. Don’t compare yourself to others. Because of the competitive nature of sports, it is easy to compare yourself with others, which adds to your sense of personal inadequacy and struggle to do better. Life lessons come from your inside world. Focus on yourself and what you are doing. You will become what you focus on. Your focused intentions are the most powerful tools you possess.

Being “in the zone state” on the golf course is the feeling of being in love with what you are doing. It happens when you have given up your ego self by being in love with the game. You have let go of the worries, judgments, and thoughts you have about yourself. You have aligned with your mind-body-spirit by experiencing love for the game rather than fearing the outcome. This is how you create your own personal happiness.

Look for the experience of love in everything that you do. Believe in it and it will happen. It is your superpower.

May the reason for the season bring you love, hope, peace, joy,

and unlimited fun on the golf course.

Play “in the zone” with Joan

      Entrain Your Heart & Mind for Peak Performances 

Additional newsletters on all aspects of the mental golf game are available on the Positive Mental Imagery website at www.pmi4.com Archived Newsletters.

To train your brain for improving and trusting your short game, listen to the Positive Mental Imagery self-empowering guided imagery self-hypnosis CDs/MP3s in the privacy of your own home. Eight different empowerment audios are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

If these golf tips are of value to you and you would like to improve your mental golf game, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation. She can be reached by phone at 828.707.5478, by email at pmi4@bellsouth.net or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.

“THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” explores and explains negative emotions such as fear and performance anxiety, the four Cs of mind blockage, the four progressive stages of learning the supreme intelligence of the heart, and the way to access the zone in competition. It is a player’s guide for developing your true inner self by returning to joy and love of self instead of seeking praise and rewards from the outside world.

“THE HEART OF GOLF” guidebook for transforming your life and your golf game is available on Amazon and Kindle https://amzn.to/2MQzjfq