Meditation is essential to playing your best golf. Don’t agree? Consider golf legend Bobby Jones, who was famously quoted saying “Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course: the distance between your ears.” Arnold Palmer was similarly quoted for saying “Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears.” If your first instinct was to reach for a ruler and a mirror to check their measurements, stop. You’re missing the point.
The point is, your mental game is extraordinarily important to shooting your best scores. Hitting the gym, speed training, taking lessons, and practicing will surely help you improve as well. But your ability to truly get the most out of your golf abilities is found in the space between your ears. Increasingly, golfers are turning to meditation to sharpen those mental skills to play better golf.
The Benefits of Meditation for Golfers
Meditation can demonstrably boost your golf game by enabling improved emotional control, managing anxiety, and improving your ability to focus. With greater concentration, you’ll be able to minimize distractions on the course and focus on the shot at hand. When that shot maybe doesn’t go according to plan, you’ll be far better able to handle the inevitable frustration and maintain the positive outlook you need to stay present in the round. What’s more, you’ll very likely avoid the bone-headed decisions you’ve made on the course that are often emotionally charged and not the result of cool, calm, and collected decision-making.
Swing Thoughts No More
The inner dialog of a golfer addressing the ball can be a frightening conversation. “I need a par here to break 90.” “Remember to turn your hips like that YouTube instructor said.” “I really need to step on this club to get it there.” “The wife’s going to be ticked I’m gone this long.” The cacophony of swing thoughts in our heads can be truly deafening, confusing, and certainly anything but confidence-inspiring.
Here’s the thing: they’re all just thoughts. The true purpose of meditation isn’t to think less, it’s to develop the ability to recognize thoughts for what they are: an appearance in your consciousness like any other sensory input you’re experiencing. That’s it. That a swing thought or point of anxiety will pop into your skull during the round is all but unavoidable. What you can cultivate is the ability to not give that thought more time and attention than it merits. You will eventually learn to stay present and mindful, rather than lost in those thoughts. That is a great start to playing golf one shot at a time like we’re all supposed to.
Learning to Meditate
Off the course, it’s not hard to learn to meditate and sharpen these mental game skills. You can start with something as simple as focused breathing, spending ten minutes a day concentrating on the sensations of your breath. Practicing visualization, mentally rehearsing your shots and their outcomes, is another powerful tactic. To really embrace meditation, download Headspace, Waking Up, or another guided meditation app to really build your mental game.
On the course, a good pre-shot routine will incorporate deep breaths and sensory focus. Use that same sensory focus to avoid letting your mind race and overthink your shots. The same concepts apply between shots, where you can take advantage of the walk to reset from the previous shot, whether it was good or bad.
A golfer’s mental game can be a strength or a weakness on the course. If you’re truly serious about lowering your scores, it’s time to train the mental part of your game as well. Learning to meditate on and off the course is a great start towards developing the mental skills you need to play better golf.