Golfers are players who have many habits, those habits are subconscious thoughts or mindsets. Subconscious mindsets are basically reactions. 95% of what you do each day is correlated and directed by your subconscious mind. That means 95% of what you do each day is subconsciously directed by a past habit that you have used and continue to use.  Imagine how often that happens to you on the golf course each time you play.

In golf this means that your subconscious mind is basically driving the bus as to where you’re going and your round of golf or the practice time you have on the range. You are a creature of a habit and your subconscious is that habit. So when you practice a new technique or swing principle, or simple acts of chipping and putting you may be trying to change and improve your technique. Thus you are consciously trying to change the habit that you have in your swing that you don’t like. That habit is formed and completed and directed by your subconscious mind.

Now that we have that established, we need to further examine how the subconscious is correlating and directing your mind when you play golf. Specifically, let’s look at how your subconscious mind has been trained by you, the golfer, to react certain ways in certain circumstances.

Let us suppose you were on the third hole of a golf course. It is a par 3, 165 yards uphill where you cannot see where the ball will land. You can see the top of the flag, but you cannot see the surface of the putting green.  There is a wind swirling around you and you are not sure what direction it’s going. The green is uphill 30 feet from where you sit on the tee box. You believe the pin is sitting on the front of the green which is in your estimation, then 154 yards;  not taking into account, the hill and the wind.

Now, you must summarize or guess as to the overall distance to the shot that you face in front of you. After close assessment, you determine the overall distance you believe the distance of the shot to be taking into account hill and wind will be 161 yards. Thus you take out the appropriate club that would travel that distance, you have made a conscious choice for the shot that is needed at this moment.

You then go through your pre-shot routine, you have selected the club, that you know, or believe, will reach the destination at the desired distance. As you step into the shot, you have a good visualization of what you believe the shot will create how it will look and we will land. You make the swing and the shot is off and up in the air.  You have created a reality of the shot by your actions and now you must face and see the outcome. The question now is, how will you react to what you have just created?

The reaction golfers have when they play has a lot to do with their energy, Mo, Jo, direction of the round that they are in the middle of. Basically, when you make a shot you are then going to see the outcome that you’ve created .  

Will it be a positive reaction, or negative reaction? Here is when the golfer who has a very strong-willed, mind will step in and balance the situation, no matter what the outcome. What does that mean?

To answer this, we need to look at two different situations as to how the shot you just created or manifested in front of your eyes. We will look at scenario A and then scenario B.

Scenario A is the shot landed approximately 157 yards near the pin and released to the middle of the green, leaving you a uphill putt of 25 feet.

Scenario B is the ball went longer than you expected, because you hit it low on the face, it had very little backspin, and the ball released to the back of the green. Now you are faced with a 70 foot putt up a small incline green to a pin that sits on the ledge at the edge of the green. If the ball goes too far or slightly past the pin, it will slip down the slope, down the hill and end up 50 yards from where the pin is. Certainly, this is a conundrum.

In scenario B, many golfers will react to this situation, in a very negative manner. They will play the various cards such as and not limited to; I am the victim, the ball rolled out too far. I am the victim. I hit the ball thin and now I pay the price because I’m on the back of the green. I am the victim because I don’t make good shots and I don’t normally see good outcomes. I am the victim because I couldn’t see the pin, and that I didn’t know where the ball would go.

As you can see, golfers, have a tendency to become the victim in many situations, literally this is how they label the situation. I am the victim.

As you can, guess, if you label the situation that you are the victim, that would be a very low energy and low vibratory feeling. Basically, the victim  would be upset, unhappy, and not very thrilled about the golf you were playing.

However, what golfers don’t realize is that many times when these things happen it is their subconscious habit that is creating this reality over and over again. Basically what I’m stating here is that when a player hits a poor shot, that they have may have seen before, they re-iterate to themselves or repeat to themselves, woe me the victim .

This victim mentality is a subconscious habit that many players have. It is easy to find yourself in the situation at any time of the round, no matter what your handicap or how long you’ve been playing golf. Amateurs and tour, players alike, both find themselves placing their minds in these positions. The reason they do this is because they are subconscious habits that they were used to.

Players who played extremely well at a very high level consciously choose to do something else!

In these situations, superior players and competitors will use the will of their mind to consciously decide that the situation they face on the back of the green is in their favor, or at minimum is not in their dis-favor. Basically what I’m saying is the situation they face they see as opportunity. They look at it as a challenge. They don’t look at it as if it was a bad situation, a bad break, another "always  me" victim reaction. This is happened to me again. I am always the victim.

You see great players, know that any situation they face they could label one of two ways. Opportunity to perform and show off my skills, or I am the victim, and I am at the mercy of the situation; the chips will fall where they may.

As you can imagine, any top player on any tour, men or woman, you would not expect them to be stating that they would see their situation as the victim, and they are the mercy of the situation

However, as you know, and many times, and in many ways, when you play golf, you have exactly labeled yourself in the situation, the certain ways. Your back is against the wall, you label the situation as hopeless, I am the victim, the course is against me. I’ll settle for bogey or double bogey. Par is almost out of the question. I can’t wait until I get to the next hole because again this  golf course screwed me.

All golfers have many opportunities to react in many different ways to each situation the face on the course. The point of this blog is to let you know that many times you play the role of the victim. The ball has bounced a certain way, and you have no control over the situation. You have consciously determined that you have no will in your mind to overcome the situation.
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This is because your subconscious is used to reacting to Golf in the certain way. Now I am sure in your every day life or in your profession that you work in;  you do not look at life that way. You see a challenge and overcome it. When you overcome the challenges, you are consciously deciding that this challenge has no bearing on your situation, and you will prevail and win in the long run.

However, as you know when you play with your friends, many  if not most of the players you play with will yo succumb to the situation they see.  In their subconscious mind they have a full storage of files like you would see in a computer on your desktop that regurgitate the same response over and over and over. This is subconscious programming. That is the habit that golfers have.

Exceptional golfers, who win and lower the handicap and overcome obstacles and adversities they see on the golf course.  They have learned over time that their conscious mind can overcome the situation they face

Basically, the better player has determined that no matter what the situation they face, where the ball sits i.e back of the green, or in the rough; they will not succumb to the situation

The better player instills their will upon the situation to consciously override what their subconscious has been in the habit of doing over and over. They  have determined that no matter what the situation is, they WILL overcome the situation they see

These decisions, better golfers make are ones that reflect what I call, polarity and rhythm of a golf round(explaining that will take another day).  For now it is important to understand that golfers are a creature of habit, that habit has been installed or instilled within the golfer for months and years.

It will take time to override these habits, but, as we know any habit can be overridden, or overcome with clear, intention, purpose, and fortitude.  It is your choice to play The Victim Card......or not.

The pre-shot routine is of course very important.  It is also easy to get lazy in it as all golfers know.  So how do we 'sharpen the routine up'?  How can you really create a stronger intention for the shot at hand while at the same time not overwhelm your mind?

A small review is needed about the pre-shot routine.  As you know it is designed to create intention, and takes assessment of the shot at hand and then the decision of how to proceed?

So I thought I would take this situation that Alvin (one of the players in our PDP) and the shot he faced while we were in Palm Springs in January.  He is on the 17th hole a short par three at Indian Wells Resort but one that has bunkers around it, a lake to the left and OB on the right.

The hole is about 135 yards that day and very little wind.  A decision has to be made from you the golfer as you would face this shot.   How far is it over the bunkers? What is the distance to the front of the green, the pin and then the back of the green where that back bunker is?  With that data in hand from your app or range finder you must decide the club selection and type of shot you want to hit (hi, low, draw, fade).

However here I wanted to introduce to you an additional idea for the shot facing you and I label it Parameter of the shot.  In the above picture you can see I have placed the words Left (left parameter) and Right (right parameter) .  As you can see in assessing the shot you do not want to go so far left as to bring the water into play and to the right you do not want to hit it further right of the right bunker since the ball could bounce right and go OB.

So far your mind would easily accept these parameters that are suggested.
In playing rounds of golf with players they generally look at an entire green or fairway and some of course see the pond left and go into fear.  But you are not like a typical player, you know the ins and outs of pre shot routine , confidence, intention, etc.

Also in the picture you see two yellow lines in the middle of the green.  Notice this parameter ( as I term it ) is much smaller than the first one I suggested.  Thus I label this parameter The Primary Parameter.  Obviously this new parameter is much narrower than the first and it brings your eyes to a sharper focus on the shot that you would face.  In this particular picture the flagstick is stuck way right as a sucker pin.  You have to look hard to see the flagstick but is behind the word Right in that picture.  So although I have targeted a smaller parameter I did not place it near the pin, just the middle of the green.

Now we have 2 overall parameters to play a shot with.  Why is that important?
The reason is because mentally golfers tend to beat themselves up and can bring  in some very negative emotions and thoughts and feelings if they do not hit a really good shot.  A statistic one of the players in our PDP group sent me last week stated a scratch golfers it involved how close to scratch golfers hit the ball to the hole?  From 75-125 yards they hit it to 39 feet.  From 125-175yds they hit the ball to 45 feet.  From 175-225 yds they hit it to 82 feet (all of these are averages).  

If you look over those three simple statistics you would be shocked to see how far they hit it from the pin.  Everyone thinks shots should be much closer.  And in general if a golfers thinks that and emotionally has that belief and they do not hit it close enough then mentally they become very negative at times and that can tail spin in to more negative thoughts, emotions, etc.

So my above Parameter of the shot is pretty wide and even if I go for the Primary Parameter but miss it somewhere in the original parameter my mind will just say; "ok that was pretty good since I am inside the original parameter.

I have started to use this in Parameter of the shot concept in several lessons lately and it is bringing dramatic results to players who are not even in the PDP program.  When I play with them I show them the wide parameter of the shot I face and then the primary one.  Many times I hit the primary parameter but even if I do not it will generally be in the larger parameter.  Then I tell them, look I am still in my original parameter area.  They have this aha moment and want to try it themselves.  

Of course this can be used for tee shots, 2nd shots on par 5s and approach shots to any green.  If you take it further you will see it can be used in pitch shots when you miss the green.  Saving par or bogey usually always requires you to get up and down from inside 20 yards and your goal for this should be 75% (which is not easy).

When a normal student try this exercise they begin to see a tighter target but more importantly they see the entire parameter that they chose.  As you know most would not even have one....of course you here in the PDP program have something like what I showed in the picture in regards to left and right.

So although it is a holiday weekend you may be getting out to play tomorrow Monday and this could be a good opportunity to take on this idea?

This month lets set a playing time to go play 9 or 18 holes and take on this concept.  I know you will find tremendous improvement with this technique!!

Looking forward to seeing you on the course in September.

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It has been over almost 2 weeks since I began the topic of Elevated Emotion to accentuate your shots you attempt.

Personally I have found astonishing results with it so far.  It is fun, and if you can let go of control and give the situation over to your subconscious mind amazing things can occur.  The hard part is 'giving up control'.

So I know this is not an easy project but it should be a fun one for you.  I was able to use in during a scramble last weekend and since it was a scramble it is easier to let go of controlling your shot.  I have seen the ability to use the Elevated Emotion in a simulator also.  The screen you hit to would have to be blank with only your target visible (no other shots patterns on the screen).

I wanted to add a possible picture you could use to enhance not only the visualization of the shot going to your target or in the cup but the pictures can add a sense of excitement if you can get in the moment and really let go and truly feel the elevated emotion of the shot coming off just as you want as you stand behind the ball.
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As I mentioned in my previous post about the Elevated Emotion a possible good picture to create might come from some YouTube videos of Rick Shiels golf channel.

The above small slide show can give you a visualization of the ball just approaching the hole, then as it goes in the wave of his trademarked Birdie Sauce pops out of the cup.

https://youtu.be/3_1hxW3VNk4

About 4 min into the above video is his famous Birdie Sauce popping out of the cup.  Every time he makes one on his channel the sauce pops up from the cup.

So I thought this might be a small assistance to you in helping you create the elevated emotion before you attempt your shots.  As a reminder the elevated emotion must be created before you step into your pre-shot routine and get behind the ball to make your shot.

Not sure if this will help you, but I do not think it could hurt!

Here is to more Birdie Sauce for you!

The US Open came to an end last weekend and perhaps it was a surprising winner?  No doubt much of the golf world was pulling for Rickie and Rory.
Then Wyndham Clark takes the show and wins!

A striking statement he made ( or perhaps not too striking) after his win was "It kind of pissed me off walking around and everyone was chanting Rickie  and Rory. I get it, they're fan favorites, but everyone kind of wrote me off".

This was an emotional trigger that helped his performance and it took him many months to learn how to channel that energy.  Previously he would get pissed and it would really anger him.  That lead to a spiral of negative emotions and thoughts that took him away from his competitive inner being.  He has recently been working with a sports psychologist to assist him in tunneling his emotions in a more positive way.  This has led him to winning 2 of his last 4 events he has played in!

For example he loves talking smack to other golfers, challenging them and then that challenges him.  He basically found ways to elevate his emotions to positive pictures and feelings and confidence.  Those positive inner feelings and emotions trigger really good shots.  I am sure not everyone is ready to talk smack to anyone else they play with but that is not the point of this post.  The point of this post is how can you utilize a Peak Performance Trigger to help your golf game?

To do this you have to be very consistent in your pre-shot routine and do it very well every shot.  That skill has been taught to you and since it is the summer months and golf is at its peak of play so should your play be, at its peak.  The summer is not about re-working your swing.  It is about performance!  How low can you go?  How good can your shots be for EVERY SHOT you attempt?

Now just think about that last sentence.  How good can your shots be for EVERY SHOT YOU ATTEMPT?  If you feel into that sentence you can probably immediately pick a favorite hole you play consistently.  Your mind would have a history of outcomes with that hole stored in your memory.  Most better golfers tend to remember the better shots.  So what if you took the history of one of your better holes you played and reviewed each shot from tee to the putt.  The overall feel of the hole was good, probably one shot stood out the most and the others were good to average.

What if all the shots on that hole were AMAZ​ING?  What if you had finished the hole and you got to the next tee and thought, OMG, that was the most amazing entire hole I have EVER played!  That would be a great emotional trigger to take to the next hole, wouldn't it?  How can you create that in your golf game?

The answer here is to reverse engineer your subconscious mind in your pre-shot routine.  An emotional trigger needs to exist Prior to each shot you are going to attempt.  Why emotional?

Because the subconscious mind speaks the language of FEELINGS!  As I described Wyndham Clarks situation he always has feelings when he plays.  He has suppressed them to an extent that his sports psychologist got him to turn his feelings in his direction and not against him.  Talking smack is fine, thinking smack was fine and the smack emotion came from his being able to see and feel and experience his shots before he would make them.  He was encouraged to really feel each shot , what will it feel like to HIM after he hits his amazing shot and what would that smack talk FEEL like to him after each shot?  He always loved the feeling of beating players and winning bets and outcomes but never really understood why or how things occurred.  He has been empowered now to understand that.

So how might this Triggered Emotion idea start for you?  First you would have to connect to a feeling of joy and happiness or excitement about making the shot they want.  Once you have this feeling locked and loaded in place and ONLY then do your pre-shot visualization routine.  So as you assess your shot you face you first must find excitement about the shot, joy and happiness for this next shot.  Then you get into the deeper details of the shot.

The subconscious will respond to these emotional triggers you feed it, like nuggets of chocolate.   And so the subconscious will respond in kind and produce mental images that will result in all what occurs next.  What does that mean?

I want to keep this as simple as possible, so lets take a look at a shot.  You face a shot of 135 yards to a pin that is uphill and you cant really see the bottom of the pin, but you have a course app on your phone or the cart you are in and you know where the pin is.  The shot you create can be triggered to become an even better outcome if you stand behind the ball and begin to connect to the feeling of joy, excitement and great happiness about the shot you will create.

From here you assess the club needed, terrain, wind etc.  Then step into your pre-shot routine and your subconscious will give you new pictures and outcomes that are not preconceived , they are naturally occurring .  Your subconscious feels the emotions of joy, excitement and it will take control.  It will guide you to the landing area, the club to pick, the steps needed for the shot.  It will take control as you then walk into your pre-shot routine.  So here you will feel different emotions and probably have new pictures injected into your mind.  You find those pictures as arrogant, cocky and 'whoa, that is aggressive'.

In many ways good or bad players, tour pro or not usually connect to their subconscious mind in a half hazard manner.  When you a live and healthy connection to your subconscious mind, it will inform you of literally everything you need to make the adjustments necessary to hit the shot you want.

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I wanted to get this message to you before the 4th of July so you can begin to work on this concept in July.  I would suggest you get back to a good basic pre-shot routine on the range and course.  No short cutting things.  

Then on the range begin the above suggest subconscious emotional triggers suggested.  Take it one step at a time, probably start with a favorite club to a target you are familiar with.  I would not start with a long iron.  

The key is create the trigger feeling BEFORE the pre shot routine begins.  The subconscious mind responds to the EMOTIONAL trigger you give it.  So you can obviously see that any negative thoughts as you walk up to your ball are taking you entirely in the wrong direction for the next shot.

Your project is to trigger the positive emotions first.  That will not be easy , I can assure you.  So get used to that first!  That is not easy, but you will feel arrogant , cocky and excited.    Then you move into the shot.

This project is really the big enchilada for this summer mental series.  When I saw what occurred at the US Open I knew this was the time to reveal this to each of you.

This will take a lot of work, there is no doubt about it.  You still have to practice your shots, skill is still needed in golf so you cannot ignore the obvious.  But what I have disclosed above is not obvious either.  

By the end of July we will have performance holes where we have groups of holes you play with two sets of pre-shot routines.  It will be an interesting study to see the results.  But for now, the emotional trigger for your shots is the task at hand!
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All golfers (even tour players) fail several times during any round of golf.  What separates exceptional golfers from the norm is the way they respond to failure.

Golf is a like a petri dish in a laboratory. It is a testing ground for experiments and performance.  Golf is a great way to see how you as the golfer responds to failure.  Just like the chemist thinks he or she has the answer, tests their theory and then they find failure from what they might have been sure would work.

Most of golfers live their golf lives in which failure can be hard to discern.  Unless you lose your job or find divorce most of our days seldom give us the simple way to reflect on clear win or clear loss.  But in golf every day of practice or golf round played golf can give you clarity.  You either won your match or tournament or in practice you are stripping the shot one after the other or hitting inconsistent shots.  Those errant shots are temporary  failures, unlike losing your job that would hit you hard in the face.

So in golf, temporary failure really is a given. No one really shoots a perfect round of 18 under par (54).  Though PGA Tour players and amateurs are shooting low 60's at times, these top players are not constantly shooting 58,59 or 60.  As a golf enthusiast you know that if you see some player on tv shooting 66 they will be in the hunt in the tournament.  But since even 66 is not perfect like the score of 54.  So the best tour players are finding failure at several points in a round.

Even the best players in the world like Tiger and Jack at their peak had one 5-7 tournaments a year.  Their overall average of wins probably was about 2-3 a year.
Today many players are searching for their first win on tour.  Many tour pros shoot 74-79 and miss the cut.  No pay check, they leave and go evaluate what went wrong and work on it.  

No matter what you perceive the exceptional golfers have to learn to be resilient in the face of adversity and failure.

When you are playing well or practicing well it is easy to be in a better frame of mind.  But when things go south it is easy to get in your mind and start looking at what is going wrong.  We all can relate to that view as a golfer.  We may have just hit a great tee shot and then we duff the approach shot, and fear or dismay will set in.  Resilient players see each shot for what it is and the next shot they get back in the saddle take on the next challenge.  They may be upset for a moment but the refocus quickly and determine the best plan of action for the next shot.  If you recall, many people would harp on John Rahm for his being mad and upset for an extended period of time.  Today he is a top 3 player in the world and his resiliency is really showing compared to 2- 3 years ago.

Some players have memories of blocking out of their mind all past shots, like Jack Nicklaus was really known for.  Sam Snead stated later in his career that a key for him after a poor round was to sit in bed before falling asleep and re-play every shot in that days round.  Where he had a poor shot at 2pm in the afternoon, at night, he turned the script to reflect the ideal shot.  He programmed his subconscious mind to see and feel the best shots, right before he went to bed.  He woke up fresh and ready for the next round.  Way ahead of his time, he basically downloaded a different program into his computer ( mind) and re-booted his mind over night!  That is a really cool thing to reflect on.

When you are not playing well and you are missing putts or drives your memories will stick with you like a thorn.  People will ask you ( or you ask yourself) what is wrong?  It is easy to become discouraged and frustrated.

As a golfer your mind can get stuck on a constant film being played in your mind and a constant soundtrack that you hear from yourself about how things are going wrong.  Resilient players will not let those images and soundtracks get to them.  Sam Snead over rode those programs with his imagination and won the most amount of tournaments of any player in history.  Exceptional golfers refuse to remember the bad shots! They are resilient at their mental thoughts and how they focus in the face of adverse or unwanted shots.

On a golf course it is best to treat a failure of any shot as a temporary failure or even an anomaly.  Golfers mishit shots all the time, even the best players on tour.  They hit a shot in the sand or over the green or in the 16th fairway when playing the 18th hole!  The worst thing they could do is DWELL on it.  But if they are a top performing player they will be resilient and let the last shot go, like water running off a ducks back, and take on the next shot and the next challenge.

Maybe after the round they can reflect on the mishit shots and then go to the range and work in the bunker or on the tee.  The technique of the swing is always being watched, but the technique of your mind and how it reacts (good or bad) is just as important.  Great golfers will not beat themselves up although some people think that most top performers admonish themselves to where they create a huge guilt feeling then get up and go practice.  

If you were playing with a teammate in a 2 person scramble and your partner hit several bad shots, one after they other, would you scold them?  No, you would tap their shoulder, tell them "chin up" you will get the next shot.  However if you personally reflect on that simple idea, do you do that with yourself? Do you tap your shoulder and say, he it is ok,  lets stay resilient and do our best on the next shot and the next?  

That is a pretty interesting way of looking at this; isn't it?

Good golfers learn from their mistakes and then would evaluate the process of what they are doing for each shot.  Was their pre-shot routine spot on? Did they evaluate the situation correctly?  Did they account for distance to the green, front of green, middle and back and see the possible 2 or 3 clubs they could have hit?  Then was their choice of club correct?  Did they totally commit to the shot?

Resilient golfers react to a failure of a shot or round or practice session and find resonance with hope and not constant mental words to themselves living in the past failure.

The time to rehash your performance in your round of golf or practice session is after those.  Never during those.  Resilient great golfers are not drudging up on the course the last shot that did not go as planned.  They are not whaling in their mind and getting stuck in the past energy and thoughts that then really will change your vibration, emotions, etc.  Ugh.

Here in June the task is to really learn to be resilient!

This is where you can use your journal just after your round at home and go over the round and write it out.  When you write it out and record it you then can see trends that seem to come up.  Remember, your mind gets hit with a bat in the head when you lose a job.  That you can relate to. However the small things in a round that go off script can run down a river and that river is flowing and you do not realize what you are doing.

So I urge you to journal after your round to see what you are telling yourself, how you react and how long the unwanted shot sits with you?  

Learn to discover secrets for yourself that allow you to get back in the saddle for the next shot.  Learn to be resilient for every hole you play or every 5 shots you hit on the range or putting area when you practice.

Let's get to the course together 2 times in June and really work on this!

Is it possible to imagine several things at the same time for your golf game or should you limit yourself to one desire?

That is a pretty good question I was asked by one of you in the group. I think the answer is not so simple but it would include some 'musts' that would have to be included.  The musts would be the feeling of being ecstatic about your creations you are achieving for your golf game.  A Vibrant and really fulfilled feeling would accompany it.  Also you would Really being enjoying your golf game when you start to see you imagined changes manifest before your eyes.

When it comes to imagining things for your golf game you like any golfer would be tempted to imagine several good things.  Just think of your pre-shot routine for each shot you make?  You are imagining a lot of things with all those shots.  As a side not; each of those imagined shots would have to have the accompanying feelings and sensations with them as if the shot has occurred before you hit the shot.

So for this blog I will take on the idea of something really big for you and your golf game.  Even this big thing will require the small things to fall into place to create the big enchilada or whole package..

Instead of imagining lower scores, consistent shot shape, longer distance or great putting perhaps consider imagining something else?

Imagine being Ecstatic, Thrilled, or Really Excited about your golf game.

You could not be ecstatic about your golf game if you were making bogeys and double bogeys.  You could not be ecstatic about your golf game if you had a two way miss on drives or really poor approach shots to the green.  You could not feel ecstatic about your golf game if you missed those par saving putts or chunked the chips near the green.

If you were ecstatic about your golf game but did not have to orchestrate exactly how that awesome feeling came about golf would be much simpler and more fun.
You could realize that a key phrase you can start to rely on is 'My golf game is so awesome now'!

Do not let your conscious mind and all of its reasoning cloud your mind and insist how or when things will show up and occur.  Trying to orchestrate things to how you think they would occur, step by step is a cruel trick you are playing on yourself.  Do not get tricked into that dark alley.  That would be like me trying to perfectly time when I will hit the scratcher on the CA lottery for $1 million.

When your conscious mind wants to insist on 'seeing' visible results in a specific timeline and it does not show up what do you feel?  Doubt.  Anger.  Rejection.
Hmmm, those are not high vibrations are they?

So a possible way to override the path of creating the things mentioned above would be create a phrase of My golf game is Awesome! 

Release the need to control you are visibly seeing when you practice or play.
Remember, your current golf game is reflecting to you what you feel and think.  Those current thoughts and emotions are what are showing up in your reality when you play.

You have to really get good at imagining the player you want to be.  No more lip service on what you are doing with your golf game.  You have to dig deep, find quiet moments to imagine your golf game.  You are a conscious golfer and your mind is always feeding you something.  So tune out what is not wanted ( like a wayward shot I had on the 1st hole at the Nicklaus course) and only listen or envision what you want to create.  The last shot was a result of your past thoughts and emotions, visions, beliefs.  Get over that.  Fast track to better outcomes away from the course and indeed imagine the better outcomes on the course, no matter what the situation.

The habit of seeing only that which your senses are showing you renders you to become totally blind at what could be created; what we otherwise could see and create!

As a mental golfer you must cultivate the habit of seeing the invisible! So you will have to deliberately disentangle your mind from the evidence that is in front of you on the practice range or the golf course.

The invisible state, your imagination is the KEY to the new door for your golf game.

Get in the habit of mentally feeling awesome and sense what that new player you want to be like would feel like.  Draw that whole embodied picture to you as you go about your day.  Imagine the parts of your game you desire, but absolutely add the awesome feeling that you will have as the whole package..

The whole package of what you desire is what you want to draw your mind to in imagination also.  Several of the things you want to see improved in your golf game now are a part of that package.  The package will always change to new desires and feelings so have fun with where you are now.  If imagining of having a handicap of 3 works now or winning a tournament now is what is needed that is the starting point.  That image can grow to larger things later of course.

So as you proceed in May reflect on what you are creating?  What is the whole package golfer for you for now? What is that ecstatic awesome golfer looking like, feeling like?

Remember you will always ignore what you see if it is unwanted just like I did on my first tee shot at the Nicklaus course.   Here in May strive to push yourself to see the whole package of who you want to be.  Feel that awesome golfer you want to be and do not let go of it.

I was in Palm Springs over this last week enjoying the warmer weather, some golf and solidifying what we will be focusing on in our PDP Level 2 experience.
Concepts are easy to state, challenging to take on.  This was challenging to take on.  But immediate results were found.

However before I get ahead with the project we have to just look at things as they are.  Things show up in your golf game!  Tee shot in the fairway, missed approach shot to the green ends up in a bunker.  3 putt on the last hole..

How do things just show up?

Things show up in harmony with your vision you have.  That sounds all nice and rosy but it is hard to believe if you find your ball in the greenside bunker.  

So how do things show up to begin with?  Things show up in your reality you see on the course based on your current imagination, beliefs and emotions.  We have worked alot on emotions and beliefs and not a great deal on imagination really.

Things show up in reality in front of you because you imagine it, you can visualize it, you can feel it.  The body moves, the world moves and others move and things show up.  Basically you are animating the golf game you see in front of you like seeing it on a movie screen in front of you.  You imagine things into the world you see.  That is how they just 'show up'!

Animation is You revealing what you are imagining.

All golfers have the power necessary to imagine a better golf game, lower scores, record number of birdies per round, winning tournaments.  Operating from 'Awareness' ( the 2-5 second exercise I gave you several weeks ago) is the easiest way to create things from or imagine them into existence.  When your mind is quiet for 2-5 seconds you can access the subconscious mind and creating things is much easier.  

Most golfers do not use a good pre-shot routine, do not quiet their minds and things go wrong for them. Where do thing go wrong?  Golfers attempt to change the circumstances they see in front of them from a physical world perspective.
They see a string of physical events happening to them and they have no control or limited control if things are not going there way . They get Entangled in past poor thought patterns, habits and attitudes.

But everything you see on the golf course started with your images you had of what are going to see. Your emotions and feelings add additional power to each situation.  The reality you see on the course is a REFLECTION of your IMAGINATION.

The center of your conscious creations are based on your Awareness state ( the simple 2-5 seconds) and what you are doing mentally from that empty space. 

It is easy to get mixed up in any round of golf you have with self-limiting beliefs you have, the self limiting habits you have accumulated. The self-limiting reaction of "things are going wrong and I am spiraling out of control".

Golfers unknowingly create poor situations that show up in the form of 'Animated form' (the physical reality you see of the ball in the greenside bunker) out of default.  They think things are happening to them or their swing is off too much.  

Golfers do not really know they have the power to change the reality they see.  They choose to accept the physical reality as fact.  As the victim, They do not realize it is their thoughts and more importantly for this blog; their images in their mind which are reflected as REALITY being ANIMATED in front of their eyes on the golf course.

You as the golfer imagine things into existence for every shot you make!  Your mind is projecting (animating) the reality you see on the course.  We all have been Entangled in this past web and it can get really UGLY!

Your Imagination is consciously creating the reality you see in front of you on the golf course.  Things on the course are occurring because you have brought forward these situations into existence from your conscious mind.

It does not matter what came before.

It doesn't matter about the last hole you played.  It does not matter about the poor green side chip you just made and that shot is affecting your next 10 foot putt you have left to save par.  

That next putt depends on what YOU see it doing!  You must have tremendous powerful imagination when you play.  You cannot let the past ( which is behind you) get you entangled in the present moment where you feel limited, scared, worried and pessimistic about the 10 ft putt.  

You cannot succumb to allowing the past poor chip to take control of your 10 ft putt.

Golfers assume a string of events led them to the current situation they face.  They get Entangled and use the words like fate, it is not my day, that was a bad break, the bunker was not raked.  Golfers see their reality on the course as a series of events that are 'happening to them'.

Here is where I encourage you to reflect on these words:
"Changing the physical circumstances you see occurring can only begin when you understand something.  To attempt to change circumstances before you change your imagined activity you are involved with is setting you up for struggle".

The very nature of what you see is coming from you.  This is because the animated situations you see unveiling in front of you was being imagined by you on the course or the range.  

Our goal going forward since the sun has returned is for you to learn how to operate on the course from the awareness state.  That quiet space and time allows the imagination to flow, and it will stop the dogmatic habit you have of falling into past poor habits.

You have been doing your pre-shot routine and from what I can see when playing with most of you at times you just go through the motion of it.  You do not really understand the POWER that routine is attempting to give you from your imagination state.  That is ok....for now.

Operating from that awareness state allows you to more easily animate the reality you want to see.  It frees up the imagination and allows you to more easily create on the golf course.

When you imagine consciously the world you see reacts and moves to your demands, not the other way around.

Golfers get entangled in waves and streams of circumstances that string together one after the other that make it seem like you have limited control.

You have to see and understand that what you are seeing on the course is something that is playing out in front of you like a movie or animated experience. You are the cause of what you are seeing.  You are projecting it.

When I went to Palm Spring I said on our App space that I am working on the concept of Entanglement.  This concept when taken to the course was then allowing me to become Disentangled when I play.  

While in Palm Springs I worked in as many situations as I could to observe my entangled states of past poor thought assumptions.  At PGA West I hit my first tee shot on the Nicklaus course on the the 9th fairway!  It was not a pleasant experience, and the 2nd shot I could not see the green. I have played that course only a few times so I did not remember how large the front greenside bunker was or how narrow the green was.  My 2nd shot ended up in that bunker and the guy I was playing with stuck it to 3 ft.  He was there preparing for the So Cal Sate Amateur Tournament this week in PS.

From that bunker, I felt entangled and certainly not happy.  I had hit no practice bunker shots at the course so I was shocked to see how crappy the bunker was.
So that old Dogma Entangled thought popped up, "--itty bunker, wt-?

Ah but I was there on a mission to overcome all that.  So I just had to use past images and feels of bunker shots and imagine the ball near the pin.  It came out and hit the bank of the green and skidded to 18 inches of the cup.  Was not pretty but it was in tight and that was what I imagined.

My entangled past things just showing up began to go away slowly hole by hole course by course.  It took A LOT of mental effort to observe my past old patterns of thought and it was very challenging to see the past entangled thoughts I had.

Going forward we will be working on Disentangling your situations you face with your new animated images.  This will not be an easy project for anyone, and it does not need meditation.  It needs practical time of play and practice and now that it is sunny we can get to work on it!

Phil the thrill has given the golf world something to chat about, other than the past.  Now golfers can chat about the present, like the back nine on Sunday when Phil Mickelson went on a small run to get himself in as the clubhouse leader in the 2023 Masters.

With the main leaders still having 8 holes to complete as Phil was signing his card there was a small hope in his mind he might end up in a playoff.  That did not happen as John Rahm kept the focus needed to maintain his lead on the back nine.  But Phil's performance should be applauded.

Phil's play was the focus of my podcast this week where I went into detail how he stayed present in the moment during his round.  He did not allow the scores around him bother him nor did he allow his missed putts for more birdies hamper his performance on the front nine.

As I mentioned in the podcast Phil had worked extremely diligently at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 to get into the present moment in all parts of life.  He rededicated himself to meditation, completely overhauled his diet and changed his fitness focus to be top priority so he would not lose distance as he was 50d years of age.

Phil had found many items to focus on for his golf game.

The rainy weather is over (finally) and now it is easier to get some on course time in to play better golf.  If during the 3 months of deluge you worked on your game less because of rain, then that is on you the golfer.  The skill of the golf shot is always at the forefront of your game.  After all, your job is to train the motor pattern to one of consistent efficiency so you can take that to the course and then open the gateway for you subconscious mind to take over and let your skill shine.

The sun is back so now what are you going to do?  Prioritize what you need to do so you can accomplish your goals.  What does prioritize mean to you?  Prioritize means Get Focused.

Your focus could be sharpen your driver.  It could be improve your short game.
It could be you get down and deep and look at the metrics of your game; GIR, Fwy hit, total putts per round, 3 putts per round or percentage of getting up and down from 20 yards off the green to save par or bogey.

From the above paragraph you would be focused on the skill set of golf.

Once on the course how is your performance coming along?  Is your pre-shot routine as Sharp ( like a knife) like you had it at the end of Level One of the PDP?
Perhaps you are just giving it lip service as you stand behind each shot?

Can you clearly visualize each shot in that pre-shot routine?  Is this a consistent habit where you are dialed in AND connected to that vision of the shot you are attempting to create?  As I mentioned in my podcast on my front 9 yesterday I only did that on 2 shots on the front nine.  I was helping a player learn Balboa Park 18 for the first time playing it.  Lots of things I was doing in order to assist that player understand distances to a bunker off the tee, should you carry it? What distance to lay up and what distance to carry the bunker? What is the risk reward.  How the course tends to slope back to front and tends to take the break of the hills it sits on.  Lots of things going on.

However what is going on with you when you play and when you practice?

If you do not use your journal I have suggested you use since level one you are spinning your wheels.  I journal every idea I have for podcasts and when I do that I can clearly see what mental things I should improve.

To become focused on your golf game this spring you are going to have to become accountable for you actions.  Lip service is really easy to give, like I did for 9 holes yesterday.

I am aware of my areas I need to work on.  Since working strength with a conditioning coach over the winter each iron goes 5-8 yards farther and because my base is stronger my shots go straighter. My hybrids are 15 yards farther and 3 wood and driver each 15 yards farther.  That was my winter focus.  

My short game of pitch and chipping is always in need of help.  I really need to improve that.  My lag putting is pretty good but reading greens is still iffy to me. 

Next week I am off to Palm Springs for a week to play in a Callaway event so I will have to work on some things before that.  Thankfully grass driving ranges and good short game areas are easily found so I can work on set up of each shot, short game and a very solid pre - shot routine that I can take to the tournament next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Every golfer in the world knows the start of the golf season is Masters weekend.
People host parties for it, blow off work on Friday to watch it.  But by Sunday the nation has the golf bug deeply rooted in each golfers body.

Those golfers are generally gung-ho to get out and practice some and play.  They may have some focus of what to do.  But the true golfer is VERY DETAILED things to work on mentally and physically.  The chart analytics of performance and the constantly monitor those statistics.

If the woods are filled with slicers off the tee then the poorly focused golfers would be seen as those that under achieve in their golf game.  The woods are filled with slicers.  Golfers who look at Youtube to improve their games are non-committed players giving golf lip service.  They are the golfers lost in the woods.

My challenge to you is determine are you just a lip service golfer or are you really focused to improve?  It is April, it is sunny.  Are you prepared to play good golf?

If not, find the focus points that you need to improve and go after them.

The time for lip service is OVER!

Here we are 3 weeks into the Level 2 program and the weather is really testing our resolve.  It is challenging for everyone to find  the stars to align to find good weather and your calendar be free to play or practice.

My latest three podcasts have been focused on how the subconscious really is the gate-keeper to you playing your best golf.  The latest link for the podcast can be found on the PDP App channel that I posted there today.

Since the weather is not cooperating with practice time or play it is even MORE important to work on our game mentally and get a leg up on your competition. 
If you have been listening to the latest podcasts I am encouraging you to get into the habit of Mental Rehearsal for play; beyond the pre-shot routine.

The reason I am dripping these tidbits to you is to help you shape your Self Image of who you are as a golfer to a better version of you.  Your mental Self Image you have of yourself when in meditation or day dreaming or just mentally rehearsing playing the course or mentally rehearsing your practice session is literally changing your subconscious mind to create a new Self Image of yourself.

You probably are not really aware of this but it is happening.  In today's podcast I mentioned your subconscious mind is most affected by the most recent thoughts and emotions.  Thoughts and emotions are what drive the subconscious mind.  What the conscious mind feeds it, the subconscious will really not dispute it.

Thus the Self Image you are working on now with all this rain is literally like hitting buckets of balls or playing 9 holes or 18.  By taking the time to mentally rehearse your shots you will face at your favorite course the next time you play it you basically are playing the course at your home while it is raining outside.

In today's podcast I mentioned to be very specific about your mental rehearsal.  Imagine not only the shot from each tee box or fairway or the putt you face and also bring into your imagination the sounds, smells and feels of the course.  It is slightly like self hypnosis; which is programming the subconscious mind also.

These Mental Rehearsals are creating the NEW YOU!  These rehearsals are creating the Self Image you are giving to your subconscious.  With the rain coming these next 2-3 days I would really encourage you to get more into Mental Rehearsal.  These rehearsals could be you on a range, on your favorite course.  The rehearsal does not give you a Get Out of Jail card from Monopoly so you do not have to work at the skill of your craft as a golfer.  The physical skill is always needed to be honed and monitored and improved.  That is being a human, living in the physical reality.

But as you know from Dr. Joe Dispenzas books your mind is really a big part in shaping the reality you see every day of your life.  So this Self Image is really important to first understand and embrace.  Then create the better image of your performance step by step. 

Mental rehearsal should involve adverse conditions because we all know we are going to face adverse situations.  The real test mentally for most golfers is how are you going to react to those adverse situations.  In Level one you worked at  optimism and not pessimism, opportunity with a challenge verses you are in the trees and your hole is over.  Now here in Level 2 you can see more and more how the subconscious mind can be programmed intentionally in your favor!

The Self Image you had before of the victim of a bad shot or the victim of a double bogey in the middle of 2 par holes was very detrimental to your advancing to reaching the higher level of the shelf in front of you that you face.

If there are 10 shelves in front of you and you are on shelf 4 and want to be shelf 5 or 6 then what would that Self Image be doing on the course?   What kind of shots would you make? Where would your tee shots be landing?  How many one putts would that player on shelf 6 have or how many up and down saves from off the green?

The ball is your court, what are you going to do about it? Who is the new improved version of you?  What Self Image are you projecting?  As I mentioned in today's podcast your subconscious mind is most effected by your latest thoughts and emotions.   The past situations you had are still there but you can override those with mental rehearsal and a better Self Image.

It takes time and effort to do it so just take it step by step.  Here is where you journal things and this journal is also setting the subconscious to see the new image of you.  It helps to read back in your journal to see the old you and then see the new you.  When you see the newer version of you in the journal you are validating your work and also making it easier to see yourself get to higher shelves on the wall in front of you.

The new better image of you is creating better shots, bringing you better feelings, better emotions.  If you wait for the rain to leave you are wasting time that you could have improved your game just through these mental suggestions I am unfolding to you.  

The time taken to work at it does not have to be a lot, so take what time you can with it.  Make it real and feel and sense you are on the range or the course.  Build the new you image by image.  Your golf game is like watching a movie of yourself playing.  Why not write the script of the movie in YOUR favor with your new Self Image?