When I first started playing golf, my mind was so crowded with instructions it almost hurt. Keep your head down. Don’t sway. Relax your grip. Turn your shoulders. Don’t forget to breathe. Every shot felt like I was trying to remember a 10-step dance routine and it would have been thumbs down for execution.
Over time, like many golfers, I simplified. One or two key thoughts were enough to get me through a round. But then came the inevitable dip in form when everything seems to unravel. And that’s when the real battle began, not just with my swing, but with my mind.
Mid-backswing, a thought would shout at me. This grip feels wrong. The club’s too high. Something’s off. A little jolt of negativity that instantly stole my commitment. I’d decelerate through the ball, steer the clubface, or worse, pull up and top it. And every golfer knows hesitation mid-swing is not a place where magic happens.
Other times, it was the opposite. My mind would go completely blank. One moment I was taking the club back, the next the ball was skidding across the turf. It was like I’d spaced out for three seconds. And in both cases, the noise and the silence, the result was the same: inconsistency, frustration, and that sinking feeling of another wasted shot.
After all I’ve said it won’t surprise you that I’m a chronic overthinker. On and off the course, my brain rarely switches off. So, I decided to give myself a different kind of challenge. Instead of chasing perfection, I would focus back in on one simple swing thought, a thought I could return to no matter what.
This time, my mantra was: “Stay in the shot.” Not “swing plane” or “release” or “keep your head down.” Just: stay committed, stay present, hit through the ball.
It sounds simple, but for me it was revolutionary.
Hesitation never makes a golf shot better. You can second-guess at setup. You can rehearse on the range. But once you’ve pulled the trigger, half-heartednessness nearly always kills the shot. Commitment, even to a less-than-perfect swing, produces a better result than trying to rescue something halfway through.
So I tested it out. I played a full round with just that one swing thought. In the beginning, it worked beautifully. My shots weren’t perfect, I’m a 27 handicapper,…
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