Tournament preparation

Pre-shot routine

1. Club Selection

• Determine distance from the hole.
• Consider contributing variables; wind, lie, etc.
• Confirm decision regarding club choice, length of swing, and type of shot.

2. While standing behind the ball, picture the shot to be hit and mentally review the feel of the golf swing to create that shot.

• Either use a practice swing motion before approaching the ball, or
• Mentally rehearse the swing to be executed.

3. Choose your line and select an intermediate target approximately 1 – 5 feet in front of the ball.  Use the placing of the right hand on the grip as a cue that all decisions are complete and you are ready to confidently execute your swing.
4. Approach the ball while focusing only on alignment and where you intend to hit the ball.  Set feet parallel to the determined target line.
5. With confidence, concentrate on your intended target or target line and SWING!

Preparing for an upcoming tournament

1. Take care of all loose ends in your personal, vocational, and/or social lives prior to departing for the tournament.  Bring closure to any items that you may tend to think about while away at the tournament.  If you can’t bring some closure to things, then agree with yourself to put off any decisions and thoughts regarding these unfinished things until you return home.  Create the opportunity for all of your mental energy to be focused on one thing – playing good golf.
2. Balance your practice periods with particular emphasis on building your confidence in your short game. If you are feeling good about your short game, not only will you be able to “go low,” but also you will feel more relaxed and able to swing more freely with your full swing. 
3. Begin increasing the volume of your competitive play, while decreasing the volume of your time on the practice range during the weeks prior to the tournament.  The goal is to get into a “performance” mindset rather than”learning” or “improving” mindset.
4. Obtain the home course advantage.  Utilize practice rounds and discussions with others who have played the course to familiarize you with every aspect of the golf course.  Draw, chart, diagram and take notes of the different features on the course.  Know where the best landing areas are, the hazards, the contours of the greens.  Know the yardages from front, back and middle of each green played that day. 
5. If you know that certain conditions exist at a particular tournament such as fast greens, thick rough or narrow fairways, begin practicing under these conditions prior to leaving for the event. 

1. Leave your practice and learning strategies at the practice range.  Acknowledge that you have done everything possible to develop your skills to their present level and approach the tournament with a “playing” mentality.  Tournaments are an opportunity to demonstrate your skills, not to evaluate each shot and make revisions. 
2. Stick with your daily and nightly routines.  Eat, sleep, and relax in ways common to your day-to-day lifestyle.
3. Warm-up before each round; remember the goal of your time on the range before playing is to “warm-up” not practice.  Spend your warm-up time loosening up your muscles and getting your mind into a “performance – target focused” mode.  Accept whatever ball flight pattern you are producing during warm-up and play with it on the course that day.  Do not attempt to “fix” things on the range; if it isn’t happening naturally, this is not the time to try and correct it.
4. Stay well nourished and rested throughout the tournament.  Bring energy foods such as bananas, power bars and simple carbohydrate foods, and consume plenty of throughout the round.  If you begin to feel thirsty, you’ve already started to dehydrate, so drink water regularly. 

1. Judge your progress in golf by your continuous improvement over time, not your scores from one day or week to the next.  Variance in your scores is normal; what is key is that your scoring average is decreasing.
2. The measure of a champion is how well you make the most out of the difficulties and hardships that arise during a round.  All players cope well with great shots and good play, but champions know how to make the most out of a hole or round when things aren’t going so well.
3. During a round of golf, expend energy managing the variables that are within your control (e.g., attitude, arousal level, attention focus, enthusiasm, outlook, thoughts) and don’t allow variables outside of your control (e.g., score, standing, results, playing conditions) to influence the way that you manage your emotions.  These outside interferences are the mental tests that are inherent in the game.  Learn to look forward to the times that they arise so that you can prove to yourself that you can overcome them.
4. When unfortunate events occur during a round (e.g., poor shot, poor, score, bad conditions), remind yourself that what has happened “has happened” and is not deserving of your attention, energy, or thoughts any longer.  What is important to attend to is the upcoming shot!  As soon as possible, begin planning for how you will play your upcoming shot.  Determine what your best play is without trying to “make-up” for the previous mishap, and continue playing one shot at a time.
5. Remember, a round of golf is simply a number of individual, isolated, quality shots; unfortunately someone in history decided to total these shots after each hole, then 9 holes, then 18 holes, then 4 rounds, just to mess with your head.  Don’t buy into this thought process.  Continue one shot at a time.  Become a champion at hitting excellent golf shots, and let others take care of the statistics. 
6. View all tournament rounds (or better yet, “shots”) as an opportunity to showcase your skills.  Regardless of the situation, approach it with the attitude “let’s see how great of a shot I can play from here”.
7. Suspend all judgment and evaluation of your game until after the round.  Engross yourself so much in the process of making good golf swings that the collective evaluation of several shots or holes no longer deserves your attention during the round.  Remember to leave the commentating up to those who are paid to do so; you are the “performer!”  Simply perform one shot at a time and let the results take care of themselves.