The Imaginary Putt is a favorite exercise Dr. Jackie Odom, Ph.D. and I have conducted during our Positive Golfer classes and seminars.\u00a0 Try it and see how you do:<\/p>\n
Close your eyes and imagine a 12-foot putt.\u00a0 The putt is a downhill left-to-right breaker and the greens are fairly fast, but manageable.\u00a0 You get a good look at the putt and\u00a0take your stance.\u00a0 You give it the eye one more time.\u00a0 You take the putter back and strike the ball.\u00a0 It is rolling……\u00a0OK, open your eyes.<\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
If you are like approximately 70% of our students, or others we try this on, you missed the putt.\u00a0 It could have missed a variety of ways:\u00a0 just short, rimmed the cup, blasted past, stubbed\u00a0the putter, hung on the edge of the hole, etc.<\/p>\n
The point is, IT IS YOUR IMAGINATION\u2026\u2026.<\/strong>you can do anything you want to.<\/p>\n If you are missing imaginary putts, what then, are you doing with the real deal?<\/p>\n You have probably heard that golf is 10% talent, 10% hard work, and 80% mental \u2013 or some other related message.\u00a0 While those percentages may be off depending upon which studies you read, there is no doubt that once you have worked hard to learn a repeating, functioning swing, the only element remaining is your mental strength.\u00a0 That is where the percentage chart is skewed in favor of the mental game.\u00a0 Obviously a beginner cannot shoot 80 armed with only a positive mental attitude but it will help and they\u2019ll improve faster than a novice with bad thoughts.<\/p>\n The courses are full of great players with marvelous swings.\u00a0 The problem is, they can\u2019t play up to their potential when the bell rings and the tournament is on due to the mental demons clouding their brains.<\/p>\n The next time you play, take note of your playing partners\u2019 comments about what they expect to do.\u00a0 If they \u2018always\u2019 hit the pond on this hole, or \u2018always\u2019 hit their drive in the bunker on that hole, or \u2018always\u2019 have at least 4 or 5 bad holes, think about what their expectations do to create self-fulfilling prophecies.<\/p>\n But please, don\u2019t follow their lead.<\/p>\n Make your prophecies positive ones:\u00a0 focus on where you want the ball to go.\u00a0 Your brain doesn\u2019t translate \u2018don\u2019t\u2019 as in \u2018Don\u2019t hit it in the water\u2019.\u00a0 It only hears \u2018…..the water\u2019 and makes immediate\u00a0plans to allow your body’s movements to help you\u00a0visit there.\u00a0 Think instead \u2018hit it left center fairway\u2019 or \u2018middle of the green\u2019 or ‘in the cup’ as you may have read in\u00a0my article, ‘How To Get A Hole in One’<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 When it comes to putting, remember that the ball always has to end up somewhere.\u00a0 Why not in the hole?\u00a0 Sometimes when I am standing over a\u00a0long putt and announce my intentions to can it, people are a bit skeptical.\u00a0 When I tell them I’m focusing my brain on the task at hand and that, quite often, I do<\/em> make putts, you can instantly see the shift in their thinking.<\/p>\n Your imagination is a wonderful invention.\u00a0 Use it properly.\u00a0\u00a0 And by the way, I always <\/em>sink my imaginary putt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"