Jon Finn - Golf Psychologist
My name is Jon Finn. I am a golf psychology consultant to the Professional Golfers’ Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the inventor of the Pre-Shot Training Programme, and Pre-Shot Golf Psychology iPhone Apps (www.pre-shot.co.uk).
I am going to help you improve your mental game, and turn your golfing brain into your 15th club. I will help you to shoot better scores on the course, and enjoy the of golf even more than you currently do.
To begin, I want you to ask yourself some questions; why don’t you always score as well as you know you can? Has it got anything to do with the way you think about playing? Some of the golfing greats have certainly believed that the way they think on the golf course plays a big part in their performance. Jack Nicklaus commented that,
“A good golf shot is 10% swing, 40% stance and setup, 50% mental”
And Sam Snead said that, “Golf is a game played on a six-inch course between the ears in your head”.
Sam Torrence talked about the mind as, “The golfer’s 15th club”
But how does the way that you think on the golf course effect your performance? Think about the following four questions and write down the answers!
1. When has your confidence affected your golf? For example think about standing on the tee box of the hole at your home club that you can never get a good score on.
2. When has your concentration affected your golf? For example think about when you were playing really well, and then all of a sudden your mind started to wonder and you dropped two shots in quick succession.
3. When has pressure affected your golf? For example think about when you needed to make that putt to birdie the hole or beat your best ever score.
4. When has motivation affected your golf? For example think about when you just couldn’t motivate yourself to go out and work on your bunker play; and then a poor bunker shot ended up costing you the match.
Are you starting to see just how important the way you think about your golf is?
Over the coming weeks and months I will be providing advice to help you re-wire your golfing brain. I will help you to find solutions to the answers that you have provided above, so that you can think more effectively on the golf course and play your best golf more often. I will help you to turn your mind into to a golfing weapon, instead of a golfing hazard. To get the ball rolling I want you to think about all the areas of your game, your strengths and weaknesses. To help you do this I have created a Golf Profile [link to pdf of profile here] for you to complete. This profile will help you to:
a) Improve your handicap
b) Think about all the areas of your golf that are important to you
c) Think about the parts that you are good at, and the parts you need to work on
d) Think about how you are going to get better at the parts you need to get better at
e) Motivate yourself to make a really positive change to your golf
To complete your Golf Profile follow the instructions and have a look at a completed example of a Golf Profile at http://www.pre-shot.co.uk/
If you want this Golf Profile to really help your golf and lower your handicap don’t just fill it in once and forget about it! Pin it up on the wall so that you can see it every day and update it at least every three weeks during the summer season when you are playing lots.
