When you are into competitive golf, a lot of money is at stake. You just cannot afford to go wrong by allowing your silly emotions to get the better of you. Either you manage your emotions or let it control you. And know what? It’s difficult to focus when you lose your temper, and you can’t play well when you have lost your cool. Going temperamental can wreak havoc with your concentration. A player with bad temper does not only hamper his own game, but also makes others to lose theirs. Whether you are playing the golf courses in Dallas, Texas or Tampa, Florida, the picture is same across the US. With their cursing, club-tossing ways, hot-tempered golfers entertain onlookers and feed on the gossip-mills at the cost of ruining their own game. Handling emotion is extremely important, yet as any passionate golfer will testify, keeping your anger in check can be tough on those days, when all shots and putts go wrong, balls tend to fly away toward infinity or slow play seems to be the only destiny. Here are a few ways you can rein in your rage:
Defuse the Fury
The British monarch King George V once said, “Golf always makes me so damned angry.” However, a wise ruler as he was, came up with a remedy as well and that is, “Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance.” All it implies is, allow some time to relapse as you feel anger welling up inside you following that less-than-ideal shot or putt. These valuable few seconds can go a long way to tone down your frustration and come to terms with your not-so-good performance. Practice back-counting and deep-breathing to calm yourself.
Recognize the Triggers
What makes you angry on the green? Is it a single bad hole, a blunder made by your partner at par three, a slow-moving group ahead or is it a game-spoiling folly that you repeat time and again? When you are able to figure out what infuriates you the most, you will be on your way to avoid a rage-burst.
Trim Down Expectations
Along with his great golfing, Tiger Woods is also known for his spitting, swearing and club-throwing ways on the greens. Golf experts point out that the iconic golfer sets an extremely high standard for himself. His frustrations find expression through these ‘tantrums’. He teaches us a lesson – you cannot expect to hit every shot perfectly. It is next to impossible to achieve the target scores for each round of game. Setting a high target will only disappoint you when your scores fall short of your expectation. Therefore assess your skills honestly before setting your goals. Learn to accommodate a bad performance, which is also a part of the game.
Take a Positive Approach
As they say, failure is the pillar of success – every bad score provides you the opportunity to make improvements. Use a disappointing performance as a scope to analyze your shots, to learn from your mistake and to work toward rectifying them. More importantly, be careful not to repeat the same mistakes. Take an objective look at what went wrong. Was it a strong wind that made your ball veer off the intended path? Was it a wrong choice of the putter that cut the flight path short? Or was it your urge for overswing that led to the scoring disaster? An honest processing of the information will help you avoid many future mistakes.
It’s not just about a few disapproving looks, a professional golfer may lose substantial amount of dollars in lost wages for not behaving on the course. Characteristically, a golf course in Dallas, Texas may be different from its counterpart in New York. But, what remains constant is the rule of the game and the etiquettes you should follow. Your inability to control your temper will earn you a bad name in the golfing circles, besides affecting your personal scores. Therefore keep things in perspective, relax and enjoy your game.