I was playing golf with Jack and he mentioned that at the Masters he was speaking with Doug Sanders, one of the most flamboyant dressers in the history of the PGA Tour and the winner of 20 Tour events. He stated that he knew Doug had shot a lot of really low scores, and then asked him, 'How did he go so low so often?'
Before Jack could tell me Doug's answer, I chimed in, 'He always thought to himself that he was a lot less under par if not just even par.' Jack was blown away with my answer and exclaimed, 'That's exactly what Doug said.' I then went on to say that, for example, if I shot 4 under the first day of a tournament, when I started the second day, I considered in my mind that I was starting even par. For that entire round, I treated my score as it being based on starting even par. I maintained that thought about my score at the start of every day of a tournament. I think that way in just playing a regular round of golf.
Can this concept of scoring help all golfers at all levels and handicaps? Absolutely! We play golf in both the conscious and sub-conscious mind. The key is to keep your score on your scorecard, and not dwell on it in your conscious mind. The key is to shoot it, just do it, and not keep thinking about how you are relative to par ' even if you are on track to shoot your best front nine score or even best 18-hole score ever. You have to just keep swinging, and putting, shoot a score and move on to the next hole until you are done. Then, when you sit down and add up your score, then you can allow yourself the luxury of enjoying the moment of shooting a good or best ever score.
While still playing, you cannot allow yourself the luxury of thinking about and, heaven forbid, enjoying having a good round. Keeping your scoring in your conscious mind is like playing 'RUSSIAN ROULETTE' with a loaded gun. Play it long enough and you loose, blowing up your score.
The secret to playing and scoring low is to play in the sub-conscious mind, as far as calculating your score and thinking and knowing where you stand relative to par. You know absolutely where you stand but your only concern and conscious thought is to think about your next shot, the execution of your next shot and so on. You are thinking about playing, and even when you write down your score for a hole, the score, good or bad, stays on the card, not in your mind. You stay in the playing scoring zone of mental activity, not on the actual score. You should do this on all rounds, and especially in tournaments.
Many players from Tour pros and top amateurs shooting a course record, to average to high handicappers shooting their career round, stay in the moment of playing, not calculating or continuously thinking about their good playing that round. They are only thinking about the next shot, making a good swing or putt. They are not thinking about holding on. They are thinking about making one more birdie, and then another as long as there is another hole to play. The last thing they thing about is how many under they are or how many more then need. They just think about making more birdies and going lower.
Most golfers who have been in this 'scoring zone' know that the worst thing that can happen is to be pulled out of the zone. Most often it is by a fellow competitor, whether innocently or purposefully, using gamesmanship, saying something like, 'do you know that you are 7 under par?' Or something like, 'Do you know that if you par 18 you will shoot your best round ever.' Statements like these are the 'Kiss of Death.' They just took you out of the subconscious scoring mode and into the conscious thinking mode where we can, and likely will, trip on over and fall down.
Counting your score as you play, and talking and encouraging and cheering or rooting for yourself to make two more pars to shoot your career round is the wrong way to go low. And, the worst way of all is negative encouragement or cheering where your thought or self comment is a statement like, ' just don't double bogey or bogey this hole or hit a bad shot, or don't 3 putt and you shoot your best score.' Keep score on your card during a round'¦never keep it on your mind!
Going low is a state of mind!
The Surge!
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