Take Full Response Ability

Reacting to Change

It has been fascinating for golf fans to follow the PGA Tour in the first couple of weeks as the players are competing with a significant change in their equipment from recent years. The V-shaped grooves on irons, now required for all participants, has created some challenges for the players who had gotten used to the square-grooved clubs. These V- grooves impart less spin on the ball. What has been interesting for me as a mental game consultant is to listen to and read the feedback from the players who are competing. There is a very distinct difference between how some of the players are quoted as viewing this change. It is not a surprise that Geoff Ogilvie and Ryan Palmer and Robert Allenby have been successful in the first two events in Hawaii. They are all three quoted as looking at this change as something that is out of their control and they all spoke about how they will work to make the necessary adjustments. Contrast that with the quotes attributable to several of the players who have not performed well in the first two weeks. From condemning the groove-changing decision to expressing frustration to simply saying “I can’t chip with these clubs” (Pat Perez), some of these players have made a choice to respond to this rule change in a way that creates an unhelpful internal environment.

As is a consistent theme in my teaching and in my writing, the responses by each of these players are a CHOICE. We all have things happen to us in this game of golf (and in life!) and it is our decision to respond any way we choose. (Response Ability). When these players who are struggling mentally or emotionally with this change realize that they have a responsibility to take advantage of their ability to respond differently, they will begin to look at solutions rather than fixating on the “problem” that this change creates.

So you see- even those who play golf for a living and are very successful at the game sometimes struggle with making quality choices in how they think. The key for young players and amateurs is to recognize how many things occur every day in this game over which we have little or no control (weather conditions, pace of play of our opponents, hole location, etc, etc). The players that will have the quickest success and the best opportunity for growth are the ones who take advantage of the fact that their thoughts create their internal realities and that they can always choose to think constructively and positively.

Frankly, a lot of mental training is as simple- and as challenging- as that!