Practice without Nerves Play with Nerves - Golf at its Finest

Practice without Nerve Play with Nerves.  This statement says it all when playing golf.  You see until you place your self in a position that brings out your nerves you will never know what you are capable of.

During practice you don't get nervous because you are able to hit shot after shot and not worry about the outcome.  If you do hit a bad shot, you can work on it until you fix it.  It is like putting on the green and you miss the first attempt and the second attempt goes in because you took all the pressure off.

Have you ever played in the Club Championship or in any competition other than the weekend outing with your friends or fellow club members.  During the play with your friends and club members you aren't nervous because you are among friends and you are relaxed.  You don't worry about your errant shots because you all just joke and laugh them off.  You are only playing for the usual $2 Nassau or Bingo Bango Bungo for 25 cents per point.  There is not much at stake and you aren't concerned if you play bad enough to loose and shoot above your normal score.  You generally play your best with no pressure.

Then you get into the Club Championship or another stroke play competition and everything changes.  Your stomach churns and your thought of if I shank or hit a bad shot in front of people I don't know will they still think I am a good golfer.  Worst yet in front of an crowd of spectators watching everything you are doing and judging you on how you play or don't play.  Now that is pressure and will bring out your nerves.  That is when you will realize how good of a golfer you are or are not. 

What you have to learn to do is to embrace the nervousness and don't concern yourself with the strangers, other golfers, or the spectators.  This goes on not just in golf, but all facets of life.  How do you overcome it.  How is it that some people seem to not have any issues with nerves and they can play looking like they don't have a care in the world. 

I will state that they have learned to keep their calmness in the open and use the nervousness and fear to their advantage.  They practice the shots so often they have the confidence that they will hit it without nerves causing it to shank or chunk it. 

But even with that being said even the best of golfers do not do it perfectly.  You see golf is not a perfect game, you can never perfect it.  You may think you can or you think the highest of professionals have mastered this art, but then you see one of the best Tiger hit a 44 (his worst score on nine holes since becoming a professional) and you state they are human.  The only thing you can do is work on your game and progressively get better.  And at times revert to having no idea on what you are doing only to find your game again.

Until next time, work on making your calmness show and your nerves work for you.....