Playing Nervous Golf Will Make You Better
Why Playing Nervous Rounds of Golf Might Be the Best Practice You Can Get
Something I think is really important in golf is to play rounds with strangers, and especially to play with people who are better than you. There’s something about those situations that brings out an entirely different version of your game - and it’s a version most golfers don’t see often enough.
I’ll give you a hint - it’s usually a much worse version lol.
One of the most important things in golf is learning how to play when you’re nervous. When you play nervous, something interesting happens mentally. You kind of forget things. You get taken out of your head a little bit. You stop zoning in so hard on your swing thoughts. You stop trying to consciously control everything. And when that happens, you usually default to whatever your natural swing tendencies are - good or bad.
A perfect example of this is the first tee when you get paired with strangers. If you’ve ever been paired up with a couple of good golfers you don’t know, you’ve probably felt it. You’re standing on the first tee, people are watching, and you’re actually nervous. And in that moment, the only thought in your mind is something extremely simple, like:
“I just want to make contact.”
That situation is a really good microcosm of what I’m talking about. All of your swing thoughts immediately disappear when you’re nervous. Everything you’ve been thinking about on the range - takeaway positions, wrist angles, transition thoughts - it all gets forgotten.
And what you’re left with is your real swing.
