Golf Temperament Tendencies – Think in
terms of playing with positive energy throughout the round. David’s competitive and determined
nature significantly impacts his golf temperament. He looks forward to competing against
the course, other players and his own expectations. This competitive style
works in his favor except when he tries too hard and creates excessive
mental and physical tension that hurts his performance. David might set goals such as getting
his scoring average to a certain level, qualifying for a particular
tournament or achieving some other milestone for his game. These types of
goals reinforce his feeling that golf is an ongoing competitive
challenge. David might do well to
focus on just one or two goals at a time and develop specific action steps
for accomplishing them. The more specific the action steps, the more
consistent he will be in implementing them. With David’s strong competitive
temperament, he is quite results oriented and might be rather quick to
anger when he doesn’t produce up to his expectations. When anger gets the
best of him, it adversely affects his concentration, physical abilities and
course management judgment. At his best, David takes the more productive
path in dealing with frustration by giving himself a “get with the program”
mental pep talk to clear his mind and turn anger back into positive mental
energy. (Related
strategies are on pages 14). Make notes on key points that
have a positive or negative impact on your game.
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