PLAY LIKE YOUR PERSONALITY

Play like your Personality 

(From the opening chapter in HOW TO PLAY YOUR BEST GOLF)

A common theme throughout this book is – to figure out what works for you. Find your style of play, your brand so to speak. There is no one way to play golf, and what works for me may not for you, or maybe it will. The important thing is to figure out what feels comfortable for you on the golf course and build your game around that. Here’s a story with this in mind…

Pro-ams are part of every pro golfer’s career at one point or another. As a young club pro starting out, they were a way for me to make a few dollars on the side while working in a pro shop. Then, after establishing myself on tour, the pro-am became a staple each week to thank tournament sponsors for their support. The Tour event pro-am is the day before a tournament begins, and for amateurs it’s a chance to play on the venue with a tour pro. Golf is unique in this sense because there’s no other sport in the world where this experience occurs. Imagine playing a set with Roger Federer the day before a tennis tournament. Sorry, but it’s never going to happen.

What continually fascinated me during pro-ams was how my amateur partner’s games didn’t reflect their personalities. Calm, relaxed people became incredibly nervous, or angry and frustrated. Confident, gregarious types went quiet and seemed in a daze. I get it, they were out of their comfort zone, but it certainly highlighted this point for me. On the first tee during a pro-am on the PGA Tour’s west coast swing, I looked over at my playing partner. There was a glazed look in his eyes, and he was sweating, even though the weather was chilly. This guy was a heavy hitter in the business world, but at that moment, he was freaking out. I walked over, put my arm on his shoulder, smiled and said, “Hey, just imagine doing this tomorrow?” He instantly laughed and let out the longest exhale. “I can’t believe how nervous I am,” he said, “I’m way out of my depth here”. My advice was simple. Enjoy the day and play like you would with your mates.

It’s easy to get caught up playing like someone else in stressful situations. Golf has a habit of making logic and reason seem like myths when you’re out of your comfort zone. When this happens, self-awareness is the key to help us realize things are spiraling out of control. From there we can direct our attention to the foundation for every shot on the course, the Pre-Shot Routine (PSR). I’ll review these in more detail later in the Mental section of the book but applying your personality to the PSR, and your entire game for that matter, is a good starting point.

For instance, if you’re more of an extrovert, it’s actually a great idea to verbalize what you’re about to do (although it can look a bit strange without a caddie J). It gets you more involved with the process of the shot at hand. For an introvert, the opposite is true. It’s okay to internalize things and go about your business as usual. For visual, creative types, seeing a shot in your mind beforehand is invaluable to get you immersed in the shot. The same goes for analytical, data driven types. Gather all the necessary information, compute the data, and come to your decision. There are various examples of players like all these. Take Lee Trevino. Back in the day, he was the epitome of a reactive-type player who made prompt decisions. Trevino simply pictured the shot and reacted without hesitation. Currently, one of the fastest players on the PGA Tour is Matt Jones, and on the LPGA, Charley Hull. They trust their instincts, step up to the ball and execute. From an analytical standpoint, Jim Furyk, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brittany Lang come to mind. They take their time to do the necessary due diligence, and when satisfied with the data and appropriate conclusion, move into the ball and execute. Some players also like to spend longer over the ball. Jack Nicklaus said he wouldn’t pull the trigger until all unnecessary thoughts cleared his mind. Personally, I can’t do this but obviously it worked for Jack. Of the current players, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, and Danielle Kang seem to fit this mold. All this brings up an interesting topic in golf…

Pace of play.

If you watch golf on TV slow play has become an ongoing issue. I find it’s excruciating viewing at times with players taking longer and longer to hit their shots, both on the men’s and women’s tours. Factoring in every possible calculation (especially on the greens with green reading books) before pulling the club or deciding on a line seems to have become the norm. I’m all for taking in the necessary information for a shot but part of the skill to playing golf is summing up a situation in a prompt fashion. J.B. Holmes has driven plenty of viewers (and playing partners) mad with the amount of time he takes before shots, while Bryson DeChambeau wants to calculate every statistic scientifically possible, much to the chagrin of others. It works for them and until rules officials bring in stricter measures for being slow, players will keep doing it.

As mentioned, it’s important to find what works for you, but please, if you can, do so without interfering with pace of play. On tour, being known as a slow player is never a good tag because people just don’t like playing with you. Fast players have to adjust to the slower ones, not the other way around. If you are on the slower side, one thing I’d suggest is, be ready to play when it’s your turn. Don’t wait for playing partners to hit and then start your calculations. Some of this can be done while they are playing their shot. That way, when it’s your go, you’re already well into the process of the shot. Over the ball, don’t spend too long there. It allows the negatives and extraneous thoughts to infiltrate the mind. As mentioned, Jack Nicklaus did this, but it takes a very strong mentality to play this way.

Experiment with longer and shorter PSR’s by thinking more and less too. Look at how long you spend over the ball, are you stationary or moving about before starting the swing? Go with what feels comfortable as these are your natural tendencies, and when faced with a challenging situation, these tendencies become your safety blanket. This goes for every part of your game and relates in essence to whether you are more an artist, a scientist, or somewhere in between with elements of both. Once you understand what works and feels comfortable for you, the game of golf becomes simpler, and your scores will follow suit.