How to Beat Top Golfers
The Right Golf Mind by Dr. Barry Lotz
How does your confidence react when you’re not expected to win or place high? Can you still give your best performance despite your low ranking?
On the golf course, your ranking truly doesn’t matter; you’re competing against the course itself. Of course, the challenge is to perform well enough that you earn a tournament victory or a top 10 finish. To do that, you must have confidence. If you’ve got confidence, then it really doesn’t matter if you’re up against the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world; you can still achieve your lowest score. Of course, when you hit a bad shot, if you’re like me, you sometimes lose that confidence. But you have to be able to trust your golf mind and your golf swing.
A participant in our Golf Mental Game Survey expressed his question about confidence as a tournament golfer: “Is there anything I can do to stay confident in tournaments when I’m playing against highly-ranked golfers? I often play my worst when the competition is tough.”
What this golfer is experiencing is a common mental “glitch” among the best confident performers in the game. The golf you play when you feel confident is generally good golf. Confidence is maybe the biggest no-cost, high-reward “swing thought” there is. The mistaken belief that one has a less-than-perfect swing can cause poor performance. If you won the last tournament you played but then went on to play a couple of lower-stakes rounds with a friend, you might somehow not think of those rounds until your next tournament as being part of the recent “timeline” of your game.
When confidence is high, you have the best chance of performing at your peak. Problems surface, though, when you concentrate on your opponent’s seed. You might tell yourself that you just won’t be able to play well because of who you’re up against. In that instance, you’re psyching yourself out, figuring that your opponent will outplay you from the get-go. … So, what’s holding you back from playing as well as you’re capable of? It’s not your ability; it’s the baseless assumptions and low expectations that make you think you’re going to play badly.
You can always perform at your best, regardless of the opponent. Of course, they could affect your game. But if you think of it as an extreme wrestling match in a bar where you maintain an equally high confidence level while you focus only on your own game, well, that’s what Gutschewski did against the top-seed, Blades Brown, in the Round of 32 at the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur. And he won!
When questioned about his way of thinking, Gutschewski remarked that he does not let rank or reward get to him: “I don’t really feel like an underdog at all. I think my game is just as good as anybody else out here. If I play well, I can hang with anybody.” To realize your potential in golf, you must give yourself the freedom to perform. This means staying in the right headspace and keeping the doubt layer off, which keeps you from playing your best.
Prior to a competition, one must ready oneself mentally by contemplating a few essential inquiries: “What will I direct my attention to in order to perform to the best of my abilities?” “What will I make myself think in order to keep my performance at an optimal level?” “What will I do to redirect my attention if I feel it drifting?” It is vital to keep these questions and their answers in the forefront of one’s mind. They are as much a part of one’s routine as practice swings or putting drills.
Barry Lotz, J.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Professional Golf Teachers Association of America. Visit www.facebook.com/PGTAA to see all the latest mental strategies, travel, and equipment reviews. Currently, he also works with between 10 to 12 PGA TOUR players on the mental side of golf.
He is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America and serves both as a consultant and mediator to the golf industry. He is also the author of numerous books, including “333 Best Web Sites for Golfers” and his previous book, “How to Build Business Relationships through Golf,” which is still on the Top Ten Golf Business Book’s bestseller list. His current book, “The Right Mind for Golf,” is now in its 13th reprint and is available on Amazon and at the Torrey Pines Golf Course. Just released in 2024 are his new books, “The Right Mind for Putting,” and “The Right Approach to Golf” Both are now available at https://www.pgtaa.com/product-category/books-and-apparell/
