Golf psychology means a lot
As a fellow member at Beaconsfield and someone who saw his golfing skills develop there, I’m always delighted to follow his successes.
So what elements of golf psychology did I notice in Luke’s interview? Well, the first one that leapt out was his comment, “I guess all good rounds start with a bogey.” That highlights his use of Optimism or, as I described it in my recent article entitled Positive Reframing for Better Golf Performance like Justin Rose. It also took me back to my early days as a competitive golfer with no golf psychology experience. I always felt that if I was one or two over par with golf clubs standing on the sixth hole and was playing well, I would struggle to have a good round. If I was one or two over and playing badly, I then knew that I could only get better and I’d have a good score. It was a shame I didn’t apply what I know as positive reframing to both situations, as I could have scored a lot more consistently.
I thought that Luke must have done some serious work on his confidence using unconscious golf psychology and I wasn’t wrong. Going back to another interview from 2006, I found him using some serious golf psychology language when he said, “Look this confidence isn’t natural, definitely not. I’ve had to work on it.” He went on to say “It’s just that I have to keep training my subconsciousness (sic) to believe that I can be the best.”
I also noticed that Luke talked about just focusing on each shot as it comes and “staying in the present” when answering a question about how he handled the streak of six birdies from the 8th hole with golf equipment and playing the last 11 holes in 8 under par. Staying in the present or “In the Now”, as we golf psychologists like to say, is one of the key’s to successful concentration in golf. Focusing “In the Now” helps you to avoid dwelling on the shots you’ve already hit and planning the shots you have yet to play. That’s consistent with Luke’s other comment about his run of birdies “It was just kind of a normal, everyday round until I got to the eighth and made a nice putt from the fringe. That kind of sparked off a run of six birdies. I just really got on a hot streak.”
So there’s some strong evidence of the impact of golf psychology on Luke’s recent successes and his magnificent first round 64 at Memorial. Here’s wishing him well for the rest of the tournament.