How can you perform well during golf tournaments?
I am 14 and I need some tips on how to perform well in tournaments. I have been reading online about how to become mentally tough while playing golf but i would like some more advice. Can anyone help?
My best advice would be to just relax and enjoy the game. When I was your age, I would end up putting more pressure on myself and it cost me strokes in tournaments. Once I stopped doing that, it helped me out alot. You have to trust yourself, your game, and let all of your practice pay off.
My advice to you would be to try and relish the competition and the situation you find yourself in.
Everyone feels pressure when engaged in a competitive round, it is all a matter of how you deal with it.
Learn to revel in the situation and embrace your nervousness, when and not if you hit a poor shot, stay upbeat, put the poor shot out of your mind and try to think “Great, now I have the chance to get up and down from there!”
Tips for improvement.
1. Have a fixed, fast and repeatable pre shot routine.
2. Have a conservative strategy from the tee as this breeds a cocky and positive attitude when executing the shot.
“Conservative strategy = cocky Swing” Dr. Bob Rotella.
3. Don’t let anything anyone else does or says effect you mental attitude on the course.
This is the toughest part.
4. Love to have the opportunity to compete as there are plenty of far, far worse things you could be being forced to do.
It’s a privilege!
5. Get stuck in!
I hope you find this helpful.
Best of luck.
Lie !
Not on the score card, but to yourself.
Mentally, you act different and the next shot goes wild because :
a) you think you are unbeatable or
b) you did terrible on the last shot.
So how do you not go wild?
Lie to yourself and make it business as normal when the pressures of the tournement are at their worse.
There are two things that I find help me to improve my tournament play.
One is to have my fundamentals as tight as possible, so that I don’t have to think about how I am hitting a shot, and just focus on where the best place is to put the ball. If I trust my short game, putting, etc. then I don’t have to worry about if I can make it, I just hit the shot.
Also, I find that repetition of tournament-type stress in practice is the best way to keep my head in the game when I’m under pressure. I use different drills to simulate tournament play and try to induce that stress.