Instruction
Get your right brain in the game
You’re sitting at home watching TV, you hear a buzzing noise and see something whiz past your face. You look around to survey the room, then watch a fly land on the wall — what do you do? Chances are, you find the nearest magazine, newspaper (do they still make those?) or TV guide (…kidding), roll it up, creep up on the pesky insect, reach back and take a mighty swing. SPLAT!
What just happened? You swung an object in the direction of a moving object by channeling your RIGHT side brain. You didn’t think about straightening your arm, unwinding your hips before your shoulders or shifting your weight — that would be left-brain thinking, which we use way too often in golf.
The greatest athletes in all sports naturally use the right side of their brain and turn off the left side during their performance. That’s because they are reacting to a object in motion rather than something stationary, like a golf ball. Let’s think of golf like we’re swatting a fly instead of working out a calculus problem as we dive deeper into this line of thinking.
Your brain has two sides — left and right.
The left side controls important types of thinking such as language, logic, critical thinking and reasoning. The right side is much better at creative and expressive tasks, such as reactive movements and motor skills.
In golf, being reactive is not as natural as it is in other sports. That’s because the ball sits still and waits for the player to engage in action. This allows the left brain too much time for analysis. In sports like baseball or hockey, the left side of the brain is active, but not fully engaged. It is the right side that calls the muscles to fire and create the motion we need to contact the ball or puck. Our left side engages with the target and the right responds with the motion to send the ball to that destination. When the left side of the brain tries to cause this motion, it is not doing the job it’s built to do. That is the right side of the brain’s job, and we must become more reactive to play our best possible golf. The trouble here is that we have too much self-chatter due to the time we have to accomplish the task of hitting a golf ball.
How many times do you get over a shot and talk to your inner demons?
- Don’t hit it in the woods
- Stay out of the bunker
- What would happen to my score if I hit it out of bounds?
Or have more mechanical conversations with yourself?
- Keep your head down
- Start back inside
- Stop short of parallel
Many of us do this and the results are rarely favorable. We need to quiet the mind and let the subconscious do its job. That is the right side of the brain. We need to learn how to turn on the right side and turn off the left before we sole the club behind the ball, and the best way to train this is through mental exercises. We can do these exercises right at home and take them to the range once we’re ready. Before long, the exercises will become second-nature, and you’ll be channeling your right brain naturally throughout a round of golf.
So let’s look at the first step toward turning on the right side of our brain and letting go of our conscious thoughts during our swing.
This exercise is much like meditation and needs to be done in a spot where you can get comfortable. Choose your favorite easy chair and settle in. Once you feel cozy, pick a point to focus on — maybe on the wall or floor. I like to place a ball mark on the floor and just focus all my attention on the mark. Inhale deep through your nose and blow the air out through your mouth. Focus on the sound of your breath and allow your eyes to only see the mark. Quiet your mind and if a thought passes through just let it. Don’t dwell on the thought, but concentrate on the mark. Be aware of any outside sounds that may be going on around you. That might be a car going by outside or one of your kids watching television in the next room. Try to focus only on the sound of your breath and let the other outside noise fall into the background This will take practice and this exercise should take about 5 minutes total.
Do this each day for 5 minutes and soon any outside distractions will disappear during the exercise. Five minutes will seem like a very long time at first, but with practice you will get use to it. Once you get good at it, take this same exercise to the range.
Once on the range, the exercise will only be for about 5 to 10 seconds. Do your pre-shot routine as normal — this engages the left side of the brain. Then focus on a point in front of the ball to engage the right side of your brain. If you want to place that same ball mark you used in your exercise at home, go right ahead. Focus on the mark and let your mind go to the place it was when all you heard was the sound of your own breathing. Once you get to this point, let the club swing and hold your finish until the ball lands. Once the ball lands, feel how relaxed your body and mind is. If the result is poor, there’s no need to worry. Let it go and move on to the next shot. This will help keep the mind quiet once it is time to hit the ball again.
In no time, you’ll be treating golf balls like flies, and you might just have a little fun while you’re at it.
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Adam Kingsbury
Nov 2, 2014 at 9:32 pm
While I appreciate both the sentiment, and the effort that anyone puts forth taking the time to write an article such as this, I feel that it is necessary to advocate from an actual scientific perspective. Overall, this article is a gross simplification of complex neuroanatomical/psychological processes, with either no evidence, or pseudo-evidence suggesting that what is being said is actually true.
The problem with folk-psychology tidbits such as this is that there are tons of misconceptions about how the brain actually works. While one could argue that you don’t need to have an accurate understanding of the inner workings to take benefit from it, I find that it is far more effective to assume that most people are smarter than we give them credit for.
Statements such as the following are perfect examples of misleading statements, that don’t really even contribute to the overall message of the article (which for the record, I think is good).
… it is the right side that calls the muscles to fire and create the motion we need to contact the ball or puck …
… the right side is much better at creative and expressive tasks, such as reactive movements and motor skills …
Motor control is completely controlled by both of sides of the brain (your left motor cortex controls the right side of your body and vice versa).
When a person has any swing-related thought during the actual swinging of the golf club, their performance will likely suffer. Thoughts that are ‘analytical’, or ‘creative’ are still just thoughts. Period. No one side of the brain controls cognition.
The activity described in the final section is called a ‘mindfulness’ exercise, which is really just a catchy way of describing the process of having your attention deliberately focused on the present moment . Distractions don’t necessarily disappear when a person is being mindful. In fact, learning how to pay attention to the present moment theoretically increases the number of distractions that you become aware of.
Mindfulness is an incredibly useful skill for all of us to cultivate in our daily lives. It is a great tool that helps us become more aware of the things we say to ourselves, how we accurately feel, and what is actually happening around us in our environment. There are great resources all over the internet about practicing mindfulness (I encourage you to look it up if you haven’t been exposed to the ideas themselves).
When playing golf, having a better understanding of the automatic thoughts we have, how our bodies feels (e.g., how clammy our hands are, how quick our heart is beating, etc.), and what emotions we are experiencing can eventually help a person discover why they are reacting that way. This is a much bigger question that is always unique to the individual. While they are fun to read and think about, “canned” psychological interventions such as this unfortunately most often don’t offer the answer.
This is not to say that idea expression in this domain isn’t important. I just believe that we need to hold ourselves to higher standards when discussing ideas that outside of our comfort zone.
Jeremy
Nov 3, 2014 at 3:25 pm
Well said. Thanks for raising the bar a bit.
RumtumTim
Oct 31, 2014 at 9:27 pm
I like the concept.
I’ve found that the best way for me to engage my creative/athletic subconscious is to keep my feet moving. A la Trevino, Snedeker, and K. Bradley. Keep moving and pull the trigger a little before I get set.
Bernard Sheridan
Nov 2, 2014 at 8:40 am
This is a great way to shut down self chatter and focus on feel that engages the right side of the brain.
Jeremy
Oct 31, 2014 at 2:52 pm
The left/right brain part might be a bit extraneous here, but I get the point. And I’ve often found that sometimes I hit my best shots – especially with the driver – when I just step up and swing, rather than hovering over the ball, making sure every little muscle is ready to fire, putting a dozen swing thoughts in my head, etc. Just step up and let natural athleticism take over. And I also feel less stress if the shot doesn’t go exactly where I wanted it to. I’m more relaxed and less concerned with perfection from start to finish.
ca1879
Oct 31, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Really, enough with the left brain – right brain myth:
http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/left-brain-right-brain.htm
That’s right up there with the “10% of our brain” nonsense as an indicator of someone that couldn’t tell psychology from proctology.
Josh
Oct 31, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Just like people always talking about “muscle memory” which has already been proved a myth on multiple accounts.
Dave S
Oct 31, 2014 at 2:35 pm
We’ll, the idea that muscles themselves have a memory of movements is false, but I think most people refer to the term “Muscle Memory” in regards to the idea that if you repeat the same motion over and over again, you’ll be able to more accurately re-perform it in the future (because the brain – which causes all the muscles to move – can remember the sequence of neurons, etc. to fire that create the particular movement).
Scooter McGavin
Oct 31, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Agreed. Can we just stop this nonsense? Why can’t we just have an article about the value of meditation, focus, etc. without the inaccurate junk?
Knobbywood
Nov 1, 2014 at 8:00 am
Wow really mr Internet professor? The SINGLE source for your article is almost 20 years old… Also did you even read the article you posted? Doesn’t disprove what bernhard is saying AT ALL… Anyways thanks for trying to show everyone how smart you are compared to us jamokes huh?
Adam Kingsbury
Nov 2, 2014 at 9:50 pm
Sorry Knobbywood, but the article from About.com posted by ca1879 wasn’t 20 years old at all… It actually really nicely summarizes why an article such as the one written here is inaccurate:
So Why Do People Still Talk About Right-Brain, Left-Brain Theory?
Researchers have demonstrated that right-brain/left-brain theory is a myth, yet its popularity persists. Why? Unfortunately many people are likely unaware that the theory is outdated. Today, students might continue to learn about the theory as a point of historical interest – to understand how our ideas about how the brain works have evolved and changed over time as researchers have learned more about how the brain operates.
I don’t think anyone was trying to make themselves look smarter than the rest – just perhaps have more accurate information, that’s all.
Knobbywood
Nov 3, 2014 at 6:05 am
Oh you mean THAT article… The one written by ca1879 the highly qualified “psychology expert” hahaha ok now your much more credible
Adam Kingsbury
Nov 3, 2014 at 8:29 am
I’m not following…
Jeremy
Nov 3, 2014 at 3:10 pm
Dude, what?? ca1879 didn’t write the article, someone named Kendra Cherry did. She cites her sources, which lend it more credibility than the somewhat vague title of “psychology expert,” and go into tedious details of the research behind the conclusion.
But don’t let a bunch of scientific publications stop you from blindly believing what a golfer has blogged on the subject of neuroscience…
Dave S
Nov 3, 2014 at 5:16 pm
dis dood be dum ^^^