67. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to our golf performance; for a start, we over complicate the technique, then we try too hard to make things happen and finally, we beat ourselves up when we under-perform

There can be no doubt that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to our golf performance. For a start, we over complicate the technique, then we try too hard to make things happen and finally, we beat ourselves up when we under-perform.
We can help ourselves enormously if we change our mode of operation in the three areas mentioned above. We need a simplified understanding of the technique to produce a repetitive effective swing. We need to understand that the correct notion of trying at golf is not the "bull at a gate" approach but rather what seems a contradictory state of "trying without trying". To put it simply, most players play their best when not under pressure; we all hit our best shots when we are not trying to. The harder we try, we more we find ourselves moving in the opposite direction so what do we do, try harder and before you know it we are on the downward spiral. To achieve a state of golfing nirvana then, we simply have to take all the pressure of ourselves and not try, even when playing in club championship. Sounds easy doesn’t it.)

Finally, we must stop beating ourselves up when things get rough. To help do this you must re-define the meaning of the word FAILURE. There is no word in the English language that makes you feel down and dejected like failure. (This subject comes under the science of Neuro-linguistic programming or N.L.P. for short.)

Being called, or thinking yourself, a failure makes anyone feel wretched. It certainly made me feel that way until I read the story of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. He never looked at his1000 attempts as a1000 failures. If he had, he would have given up the quest and you would now be reading this by candlelight. As many people know, he looked at it different by saying he had simply found a 1000 ways of how not to do it. He looked upon each attempt as just another tick in the process of elimination.  There is a great quote that says "If you want to double your success rate, double your failure rate." Calling yourself a failure and making yourself feel "bad" is not the best state to be in when you are trying to move forward. Rather think of Failure as Education

Back in the early mid /seventies, Tom Watson lost a couple of "Majors" from a leading position and the American press started a campaign of calling him a "choker." (Choker is American for failure) Did it worry Watson? Not one bit. Once he learnt how to win from a winning position, he became the leading player for a decade. If you found yourself leading a major for the first time with 1 round to go, you would be entering new territory and this territory is in the mind. It is a fortunate person who can find his or her way round this new location upon their first visit to it or even their second. If Watson had listened to and believed what the press wrote about him, he would have become a "choker." I think the fact that he holds a degree in psychology proved important. So tuned in to the head game was Watson that he once quoted as saying,
"The only person I fear during the last round of a tournament is myself."

book link NLP training