by Jimmy Patrick

Created on: December 14, 2007

I have played golf for over twenty years and the key, I have learned, to the mental game of golf is that score doesn't matter.

Score matters when you are tallying the results in the clubhouse. Score matters if you are the scorekeeper for the tournament, or the person who hands out trophies to the winners, but score does not matter while you are playing.

If you watch golf tournaments on television, you will be given constant updates as to where the players stand. "Tiger is 4 under par. He needs a birdie here. This is a big putt that will help his round and help him maintain that all-important lead," one announcer says.

All that type of information is useful to us as spectators, but Tiger isn't thinking that way. He isn't thinking about what the putt is for, or what his standing is in the tournament. He is simply thinking about making that putt.

All golfers need to learn to think that way, no matter what level player they are. Making good shots will help your score and bad shots will hurt it, no matter what part of the round you are in.

When I was a kid out playing, I used to think just like the commentators on television. If I bogeyed the first two holes, I started thinking about how I needed to make a par on the next hole, so I could right the ship, maybe make a birdie on the par-five hole coming up.

I was completely wrong in my thought patterns.

If you are thinking about your score all the time, you end up selling yourself short a lot.

Say your goal was to break 90 on a round of golf. You get to the 18th hole and you need a birdie on the hole in order to reach your goal. Let's say the hole is a par-5 with a water hazard in front of the green. Say you hit a good drive in the middle of the fairway. The shot you have left to the green is just out of reach of your three-wood, but you need a birdie.

You think about it and determine your best chance at birdie is to reach the green in two shots, so even though you know you can't reach the green with the three-wood, you try it anyway. You end up short in the water and make a bogey or worse, shooting 91 or 92.

If you would have simply looked at the shot without thinking about score, you would have known you couldn't have reached the green. You would have hit short of the water on your second shot and then hit to the green in three. You might have made a long putt for birdie.

The same can be said for playing just one hole. If you hit a bad drive, for example, don't try to be a hero on the next shot from the trees because

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>