“No Shot Is Easy!”

 

Here I am recently driving my tee shot over a large water hazard in Granby, Colorado. Don’t be tempted to label this or any shot “easy” or “difficult.”

No doubt, you’ve often approached a shot and thought to yourself, “This shot is easy.” Or “This shot is so hard!” For a long time, I know that I have. You may want to reconsider this approach; there’s a better one.

An old pro once told me that in golf, “Bob, no golf shot is easy.” That’s not quite what I expected this grizzled veteran to tell me. As I would later discover, labeling any shot as “easy” attaches both a level of expectation and assumption to it. Expectation infuses the shot with more pressure while assumption tends to make you more careless. Though you may well execute to your satisfaction these so-called easy shots, you set yourself up for missing the shot and worse yet, beating yourself up for it if you do. This is why we blow rounds and tournaments – the stuff of gnashing of teeth!

The game is executed best when “played” and not “worked.” Labeling any shot gets your conscious mind more activated. The resulting chatter takes you precisely out of the flow throwing you off of your natural rhythm and coordination. You see it all the time even at the professional ranks. Ideally, you want every shot regardless of your perceived difficulty or lack of previous success to be the same automatic process with minimal self-talk. Every shot deserves equal attention, intention, preparation, and execution. Your assessment of difficulty really adds nothing to its execution.

An “I can do this” feeling in which you only focus on “I’m prepared to play this shot” is more appropriate. Detach from the outcome realizing that not all shots go as intended, but rather that you are ready to make every shot!