Finding Your Trigger

2 days ago I shot 72, yesterday I shot 79. The difference?

Focus.

I striked the ball well enough, I putted better yesterday and my short game was okay but I only shot a 79. I couldn’t focus. The focus that I had was not there.

I knew it too.

I remember lining up a shot thinking, man I need to focus more on this but I just couldn’t be bothered.

The focus was gone…

Now looking back, I’m wondering how to get into that level of focus that I had 2 days ago. What can I do to get myself there?

One thing I really liked having was pin-placement sheets, it gave me something to focus on right off the first tee. Instead of just guessing where the hell the pin was (there’s no indicators). Having to do a little subtraction to get the distances to the back of the green and the sides, automatically put me into a focused mode. It told me, “okay we have to play now, it’s time to focus.”

I think without the placement sheets, it’s hard for me to get into the game. My mind can’t seen to differentiate between playing golf and practicing / messing around. Which was a problem I certainly had yesterday. I just couldn’t take the round seriously enough to shoot a decent score.

The pin placement sheets are nice but you can’t get them everywhere (especially at my level) so I need to figure out some form of trigger to get my mind into a focused state. When I think of this problem I think of Ben Hogan who had to block everything out in order to play well, which gave him the nickname The Hawk. It’s tough to block everything out though, especially when the people you’re playing with want to be friends and talk. I’m a social guy so it’s tough to just quiet up but when I do, I usually play well.

I remember reading something about being able to drop out of focus when you are walking but then focus and get down to business when you are approaching your shot. Maybe I should try something like being my normal self when I’m playing with members but then when I get about 15 yards from the ball, everything fades away and I focus intensely.

I don’t really know.

What I do know is that I have skill and I can play a great game but my biggest issue is my focus. I need to figure that out.