Just like golf in general, there are an endless number of details you can work through in the mental side of the game. But let's simplify things here. The essence of the mental aspect of the game is that you have to focus your attention where it is needed and keep it from wandering to where it is not needed. You can call this "effective concentration", "focusing your awareness", or "how and where you put your attention." You may also hear an effective mental game referred to as being "process oriented" instead of "results oriented", "staying in the present", "playing one shot at a time", etc. Though it is commonly overlooked "the mental game" is just as important when you are learning techniques and developing skills as it is when you are playing shots, holes, and rounds.

The Mental Game in Learning and Practicing
When you are developing your technique (e.g., working on something from a lesson or practicing to improve your skills in various parts of the game) the mental part of the process is about focusing your attention on what you are trying to learn. When you practice, avoid just hitting the ball and looking at the shot to see if it was good or not, and then basing your success or failure, and subsequent satisfaction or dissatisfaction, on the result. Until your technique is well established as reliable habit, the result is the wrong place for your mind to be. If your mind is on the result it will take much longer, if it ever happens, to develop crucial fundamental skills. Your attention should be on what you are trying to do in that swing or stroke and whether or not you do it; disregarding whether the shot is any good. After all, given the fact that there are a number of things that can go right or wrong in each swing -- in addition to the one thing you are paying attention to -- the result is not guaranteed to be good, so you should not be expecting it to be good… yet. You should be focusing your awareness on whether or not you did the thing you were trying to do and basing your success or failure on whether you did it or not. Then, when you have enough habits in place (good solid fundamentals that are working in your swing automatically or subconsciously) you can start to put your attention, more and more, on the result of the shot itself. The classic beginner's example is looking up and hitting the ball thin, or cold topping it. The golfer looks up because their mind is on the result rather than on "staying in the shot" or executing the swing.

The Mental Game on the Golf Course
In terms of playing a round of golf your mind needs to be on each shot. It does not need to be on things like who you are playing with and how they are doing, what your score currently is and how well or poorly you are doing. And in the context of each shot your mind needs to be on the process of executing that shot to your target. Your attention does not need to be on things like how the last shot you hit poorly upset you, fear of a water hazard, hoping you don't slice it out of bounds, thinking what score you might shoot if you just par in, etc. (That's why pre-shot routines are good: they help to keep you focused in the process rather than getting ahead of yourself by anticipating the result.)

So this is the essence of the mental game -- putting your mind where it needs to be. Like all parts of the game, using your mind effectively takes ongoing practice.

Mark Blakemore teaches golf in the East Bay Area of San Francisco in Northern California and is the author of the "Your Golf" instruction book series. For more golf instruction tips, articles and information on how to work on your game with Mark in person visit his popular website, www.PGAProfessional.com.

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Mark Blakemore