8. Game management; your choice of every shot on the course must be aligned to your ability to perform it given the pressure you are under at the time

Pressure is the constant companion of every golfer. Pressure has many different levels. Hitting a golf ball on a deserted practice ground at dawn before anyone is up hardly registers and every player can cope with this situation.

However, let’s turn the screw a notch by now standing on the first tee, still at dawn, when the course is empty. It is possible there could be players with dry mouths and sweaty hands. Now make it mid morning, a number of players hovering round the same 1st tee waiting to start, waiting for you in fact to tee off. A substantial number of players will now be at their threshold for pressure.

Once the round is under way the first tee panic melts away but pressure situations keep coming along with various amounts of intensity. Some players seize up when confronted with water. My father in law has a resigned fear of bunkers. When faced with a chip shot over a sand trap, he calls the shot a NITBY which stands for “Not in the bunker yet.” Sure enough in it goes.

In the general scheme of things a Game management strategy will reduce the pressure on the course. Quite simply your choice of every shot on the course must be aligned to your ability to perform it given the pressure you are under at the time.

Good players are good because they can cope with almost all the pressure that comes their way. I say almost because even the best have their threshold and the game is littered with stories of self doubt in the crunch moments. I read once of Davis Love so overcome with pressure on the first morning foursomes in his debut Ryder Cup that he asked his partner if he cared to drive from the first hole because he had visions of actually missing the ball altogether.

Greg Norman, folding in the intensity of that famous last day duel against Faldo in the Masters is now part of Golfing History as is Ballesteros finding the water on the 15th hole again at the Masters, whilst leading the tournament.

The instances we have made so far are just part of the day to day on course situations but pressure can creep in before we even get to the course. So powerful is this form of pressure that it can, and has, wrecked the potential careers of many young talented players. I have often heard people who should know better say that if you are not playing off scratch by the time you are 15, you will never make it as a Pro. To me it is an irresponsible and uneducated remark coming from people who coach the game for a living. This kind of “conditional” conditioning puts so much stress on a foundation that is still under construction that it breaks the young player’s confidence.
So all you youngsters out there who want to go for the top level, keep applying sound principles, keep focused and remember that while Tiger Woods may have reached No 1 in the world in record time, it took Vijay Singh until he was 41 years old.