Golf tips come from all sorts of place. That doesn’t mean they can’t help you chop strokes off your golf handicap. The advice might be from an unusual source, but if you don’t give it an honest evaluation, you might miss a good thing. The important thing is to look not at who the source is, but at the advice itself. When it comes to golf tips, the only thing that matters is, does it work.
Take, for example, Tom Lehman. A five-time PGA Tour champion, the 1996 British Open winner, and the 2006 Ryder Cup captain, Tom had stopped making big putts. Eventually, he started getting advice from fans by mail. He enjoyed reading the letters he got from fans and viewed the letters as sympathetic. After a while, he disposed of them. For some reason though, he kept one man’s letter for three years.
The letter was from a fan some might be consider a most unlikely source. The fan had been following Tom for some time and was trying to support Tom during a difficult time in his career. An amateur player of some note, the fan had been considered an excellent putter. At one point, he had qualified for the North Dakota State Amateur championship. Along the way, the fan had gained a reputation as someone who never choked on a key putt.
Book of Revelation
In addition to the letter, the fan sent a book he had written, published, and sells on his Website. The book’s topic was what the fan called hidden handicaps, those things we unknowingly do and think that handicap our performance, like thinking negative thoughts and dwelling on past failures.
The book was based on the fan’s life experiences as a quadriplegic, the unfortunate result of a car wreck at age 41. The fan had had a tough life since his accident. But despite his injuries, he no longer felt sorry for himself.
One day Lehman met the man. Lehman was in the area anyway and he figured he would stop by and thank the man for the book. Lehman figured that if the man was so tough that he no longer felt sorry for himself, he might have something to offer Tom.
Tom came away from the meeting with a simple insight. The brain can’t process two thoughts at once. Tom had had all these thoughts running around in his head about break, speed, and stroke that it confused him But after talking with the fan, Lehman reduced to one thought and one thought only, roll the ball in the center of the cup. That one simple idea transformed the way Tom approached putting and has been benefiting him every day since.
When it comes to golf, we all have hidden handicaps. Tom was thinking about break, speed, and stroke when putting. The combination handicapped his putting in key situations. But Tom could also have been thinking of all the times he had missed big putts in big tournaments, like the Masters or the U.S. Open. Or, the 19 times he finished second on tour. By focusing on one simple thought, and things we unknowingly do and think that handicap our performance, like thinking negative thoughts and not dwelling on past failures, he eliminated these handicaps.
Focus on One Simple Thought
The fan’s advice applied to putting. But it could easily have applied to driving or his pitching and chipping. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of your swing when you hit a drive, about where your hands should be, and what your tempo should be, think about keeping your take away low and slow.
Instead of thinking about the swing’s mechanics, like what part of the ball to hit, how to swing down on the ball, and how to create a divot after the ball, think just about hitting an on-course target. Instead of worrying about how high to hit a pitch shot and about making first ball contact all at the same time, focusing on one thing: hitting the landing spot you’ve pricked out on the green. Keeping one thought firmly in minds banishes any negativity that might interfere with your shot or putt.
Players of Tom’s notoriety frequently get advice from fans. In Tom’s case, the fan’s golf tip worked. If he had dismissed it because of its source, he would never have learned what he considers a valuable golf lesson. Golf is difficult. There’s no two ways about it. But by remembering that the mind can only process one thought at a time, you can eliminate our hidden handicaps and put yourself in the right frame of mind.
