In the now

In On Golf, speaking about attitude towards short putts, Bobby Jones wrote; "Hit the putt as well as you can, and do not allow worry over the outcome to spoil the stroke."

On first reading, this seemed so obvious that I skipped right past it without thinking. But on a second reading, and with reflection, I concluded that this is a profound piece of advice.

I've always stressed over the short putts. Those 3 to 5 footers are knee knockers to me. But Jone's statement made me ask myself why, and my conclusion was this; because I think I should make those putts I get nervous about missing 'em, knowing I'll be upset if I do. And that thought itself is what makes those putts so hard!

Another way to look at what Jones was saying here is that we need to stay "in the now" in order to play our best golf. As soon as we start to think about the future (the outcome of the stroke) we can stress ourselves, and that will usually affect the actual outcome of our stroke in a negative way.

Coincidentally (or maybe not?) this is the main theme of another book I'm currently reading - Fred Shoemaker's Extraordinary Putting. In fact, I've come across this theme in not only these two books, but in several GolfSmarter podcasts of late.

Somebody, somewhere, must be tryin' to tell me sumpin!

So... last Sunday I took this thought to the course. While my full swing ball striking was less than extraordinary, this might have been the most enjoyable round of golf - putting wise - that I've every played. Because my putting was simply extraordinary. Extraordinary in this way; every putt I stroked all day long was stroked perfectly. I wasn't nervous about a single outcome, and so I was able to concentrate totally on the mechanics of the stroke.

But by "mechanics", I don't mean that I had 30 thoughts crossing my mind before and during each stroke. My only thought, (and I'm not even sure it was a conscious thought), during my stroke was to putt into the hole, (or close to the hole - with the longer lag putts.)

And the results were simply amazing. Oh I didn't make every putt, but I didn't miss any putts due to a poor swing. Every swing was perfect. I missed when I misread the putt - that was it. I didn't stress over a single putt, or get upset at a single miss.

Because, if you read the putt, stroke it perfectly, but it turns out that you misread it and missed.... well how can you get upset at yourself for that?

All you can say is; "Great job Mr. course architect. You fooled me... this time. "