Despite its obvious importance, golfers are often not trained on the mental side of golf. Many golf professionals have not received formal education in golf psychology and therefore their application of psychological principles within golf coaching may be haphazard and unstructured. However, these mental skills can be learned and need to be developed to support the physical needs of golf. Developing a strong mental training requires a systematic plan where players need commitment, hard work, and patience on mental training and applying it during practice and tournaments. The coping or mental game strategies for emotional adjustment and performance like focus, positive thinking, and building confidence need to be tested during practice sessions and applied on actual games.
Generally, mental issues faced by all amateur and professional golfers are common across all nationals. The main ones that are of great concern are mastering focus, building confidence, and mental preparedness. Accordingly, these situations came about due to a lack of practicing the skills needed to overcome them. There are ways of managing mental skills, but they vary depending on the experience of each individual golfer.
For example, ‘yips’ are common with most golfers, especially during tournaments. Most common stress related are driving yips, short games, and putting yips caused by players under pressure or thinking too much about making possible mistakes. These can cause the tightening of muscles and often lead to poor shots being executed.
One recommended way to overcome ‘yips’ is through the important process of a pre-shot routine. Players must complete the pre-shot routine, the thinking and visualizing of the next shot before the process of setting up. There must be a clear separation between the thinking part and setting up.
Experiencing stress is common during competitions, hence the need for stress coping behavior. The mandatory application of the pre-shot routine is very important. The idea behind this is to complete the thinking process, visualization, and then follow it with the action. If the thinking process is not complete or overthinking occurs during setting up, it can cause tension leading to possible mistakes. All these can be overcome by practice and more practice. Practice gives confidence and can overcome these mental issues faced during a tournament. Golfers have little choice but to put in long hours of practice and lots of deliberate practice. The lack of practice can lead to fear and confidence level lowered when faced with a situation. Developing mental stamina is crucial. Players are asked to practice their mental skills and apply them for more than the usual 18 holes to improve their mental stamina. They need to spend many hours practicing to perfect their mental skills and develop strong mental stamina. Some use traditional meditation and other breathing techniques which are proven to help their mental game.
Again, lots of practice helps to develop strong mental stamina. Top tour players are known to spend long hours (8–10 hours) practicing not only to improve their golf skills but to strengthen their mental toughness. This is a common feature amongst leading golfers.
The need for psychology and counseling is also common. There may be individual psychological needs to help improve concentration and focus to cope with the intense pressure. Role modeling and discussions between players and coaches are common activities that are more informal and relaxing by nature.
A common trend amongst coaches is the mastering of short game and putting. Short games and putting demand a much smaller margin of error, hence the need to develop the skills, the feel, and touch with the hands, thus improving the confidence which can only be achieved through lots of practice. So, focusing on a smaller target is critical and practice contributes to building higher confidence.
Conclusion
Mental game issues are common amongst amateur and professional golfers worldwide. Players need not only to deal with their physical ability but resolve psychological factors that affect performance. Having the right mental approach is an important prerequisite for success.
For example, a general perception that Korean golfers do practice a lot. The phrase "practice makes perfect" is truly synonymous with Koreans. A survey on the Korean LPGA players indicates that hard practice is the most important factor that determines their success. The motivation is so strong on the need to improve their mental skills and train the mind to develop positive thoughts. Also, the training system focuses on discipline and resilience, which has helped to develop exceptionally skilled and determined players. Recreating and simulating pressure situations is an important aspect of developing adequate mental attributes required in professional golf.
Strong culture and traditions are also major factors, where Koreans live in a very competitive environment that drives their inner desire to do better. Parents would get their kids to focus on golf at a very young age once they show potential. In most cases, they invest time and provide full financial support until the players are ready to support themselves. The success of Korean golfers on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour was mainly attributed to their parents’ passion and dedication. Also, role modeling by successful Korean golfers, the likes of Pak Se Ri and K J Choi, is common and provides inspiration and gives confidence to the younger generation of golfers to do better.
Based on current statistics, Korea today has successfully produced many top LPGA players and on the PGA Tour. Also, Korea is a leading producer of golf products and merchandise and has two (2) commercial TV golf channels that promote golf. As a result, most Korean golfers have sponsors and financial support, thus giving them the right mental frame to concentrate on training and deliver success whilst maintaining their world-class performance.
There are no magic formulas for developing mental toughness besides practice, undergoing a rigorous training program, having a strong work ethic, and a desire to be successful. It is also important for players to develop coping or performance strategies that can moderate the effect of anxiety or self-confidence during a tournament. Research also reaffirmed the need for golfers to manage the psychological aspect of the game well to improve their performance. There are other non-performance related elements that play a vital role in the development of young golfers. Government support is important, like investing in infrastructure development, providing golf scholarships, and hosting many top international events. However, mental toughness often has subjective interpretations, and further work is needed to bring a more objective description and model of mental toughness.
