Believe You'll Knock It In

For most golfers, belief in their golf game means that they believe they will shoot the same score they’ve been shooting for most of their lives.  A lot of golfers don’t even think about the main focus of the game until they are five feet from the hole.

What is the main focus of the game?  Well, getting the ball in the hole in the least number of strokes.  While this statement may seem very elementary, it’s amazing how many golfers forget it.  With this focus in mind, the whole game should change.

As soon as you begin aiming at the flag on any hole, you should be thinking about knocking it in.  Not only should you be thinking it.  You should be believing it.  It’s true that having a hole-in-one on a 142 yard par 3 is, for most, a once in a life time achievement, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still believe that you will make that hole-in-one every time you play.

A lot of players get into the mode of “getting it close”.  “I just want to get this lag putt close,” they say.  Or “I just want to chip this to five feet so I can have an easy putt”.  Nine times out of ten this mode of thinking fails because the player gives himself too much room for error.  If he would simply concentrate on the hole, he would always get close.  He might even knock in a pitch shot every now and then.