Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Upon my return from an extremely enjoyable match in Saudi Arabia I came back asking myself an important psychological question ... would I have putted the winner if I had realised it was such an important stroke.
I was there amongst 75 golfers representing the Royal Golf Club in a match against a team from Aramco. The event was staged at Rolling Hills Golf Club which was in excellent condition and was matched by the very warm hospitality of the Aramco team. Our team was eventually beaten 36-10 (we should have had a bit more practice by the return leg!).
I was paired with Michael Greig whose course heroics later on in the game were instrumental in sealing our victory in a competitive match against our very friendly opponents Robin and Tom.
With six holes still to play we found ourselves 3 down (not a very promising position). Michael's great pressure par on our 17th managed to bring the match back to level, and I found myself with a tricky six footer on the last for the win which I duly dispatched. There was only one problem - our game was played as a shotgun start where everybody had to start on different holes, so having lost track of the number of holes we had played, I thought we had to play one more hole when in fact I had just held the putt to seal the win!
Back to my question. Robin joked that I wouldn't have held that putt if I had known it would win us the match - a good point! There is no doubt it would have had some sort of effect on me. It led me to wonder why people tend to have more success when there isn't a line that says win or lose.
When there is no pressure people tend to be PROCESS ORIENTATED, that is they set up to hit a putt, go through their normal routine, think about holing it, and there is a good chance it will go in.
But what happens when the other side of that putt is victory or defeat? Instead of thinking about their normal routine, thinking about their putt hitting the back of the cup, they produce some vague thoughts of victory, their thought process is completely different to any other putt, they step out of the present and into the future and become OUTCOME ORIENTATED. The enormity of the situation dawns on them! And what happens? They MISS!
When you find yourself in this situation, the best thing you can do is immerse yourself in thoughts of the present; feel the correct stroke on your practice swing, play images of the putt dropping into the centre of the cup, pay attention to your breathing, do all of this then hit the putt. You will find that there is no space in your mind to think about the outcome, and you will have been concerned only with the process, the correct way. Of course there is no guarantee the putt will go in, but you will have given yourself a better chance. Ultimately it is better to judge your performance on whether your process was correct (something we can control), rather then if you only worry about the result (something you can't control).
I don't know if I would have held that putt under pressure, but I would have had a significantly better chance thinking about the process rather than the outcome.
