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Golf is 90% mental - agree or not?

A good repeatable swing and tempo is earned through great effort over a long period time? 90% mental? I'm not at that level ever :ROFLMAO:.

The zone I know very little about... String a few great holes together and think about it and it's see you next forever :confused:

Bobby Jones' famous quote, "Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course — the distance between your ears."

Tiger Woods " quote" A golfer should never make a mental mistake because the ball is just sitting there waiting for you to hit it.
 
wristcock said:
anyone who thinks it's 90% thinks too much and is holding up the rest of us
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I can agree with this. When my buddy is not playing well, he'll set up and you can practically hear the gears turning in his head! He starts to fidget, adjusting this, that, and the other thing! If his Son is playing with us I'll whisper to him, "He's thinking too much!" His Son will just look at me and nod his head. Some people talk about swing thoughts on the course. I don't want "swing thoughts" when I'm playing! IMO, swing thoughts are for the practice range. When playing, I want "shot thoughts". What can I realistically accomplish here? You hear golf commentators mention this all the time. They will say something like, "He's not playing golf, he's playing golf swing!"

This thread also caused me to remember a Hank Haney video that I saw about some of the things he learned being Tiger's coach for 6 years. After warming up pre-round, he would take the Driver out of the bag, remove the head cover, dig out a ball and a tee, and hit a drive. He was rehearsing the first shot of the round. If he didn't hit it the way he wanted, the Driver, w/cover, would go back in the bag. Then tiger would take it out, remove the head cover, dig out a ball and tee, and do it again! He would repeat this until he hit the drive he wanted!

Haney also described a putting drill that Tiger would do. He'd find a perfectly straight putt, no more than 3-4'. He'd set the putter behind the ball and put tees just off the toe and heel, making a little "gate" to putt through. He would make 10 in a row putting 2 handed. He had told Haney that he liked to "feel" like he putted with his right hand, so he would make the next 10 putts with his right hand only. He would do this until he had made 100 putts in a row! And, if he missed, he had to go back to the beginning!

I think having the mental strength and discipline to put yourself through that is a big part of the "mental game"!
 
Buckeyegolfnut said:
I can agree with this. When my buddy is not playing well, he'll set up and you can practically hear the gears turning in his head! He starts to fidget, adjusting this, that, and the other thing! If his Son is playing with us I'll whisper to him, "He's thinking too much!" His Son will just look at me and nod his head. Some people talk about swing thoughts on the course. I don't want "swing thoughts" when I'm playing! IMO, swing thoughts are for the practice range. When playing, I want "shot thoughts". What can I realistically accomplish here? You hear golf commentators mention this all the time. They will say something like, "He's not playing golf, he's playing golf swing!"
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But here is the famous thing with thinking or not while playing. Its the (which came first) chicken/egg scenario. Most anyone will eventually begin to think when playing poorly for too long. And the higher the cap the more the poorer play becomes penal so the situation of poor play becomes dyer. Most cannot go on hitting poorly and not start to think what to do to correct it. Even if not at first but eventually most any would have to.
 
I would say unless you are a beginner and just learning the game then yes, golf is mostly mental.
 
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GoldenBuff said:
There are lots of mental game quotes out there, and I think there is a lot of truth in them. I like to think that golf is 90% mental, 9.9% physical/athletic, and 0.1% equipment. This always makes me chuckle at myself because I like having about 90% of my golf chatter focused on equipment. :rolleyes:

What's your take?
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Wouldn’t say 90%, but mentality is a massive factor.
 
Mental is a huge aspect, no doubt about it but not sure 90% is right. I think it changes as you progress to be honest, because to shoot good scores and improve you need a readily repeatable swing/putting stroke etc. If you just do not have the technique then no amount of mental fortitude is going to save you. Although having said that, you do need the mental strength to grind past that, take lessons, hit the range etc. Once you reach a certain level of actually being able to hit 'good' shots then yes, the mental side comes in allowing you to instantly forget the bad shots, concentrate and hammer out a score even if the swing is a bit waspy that day.

Equipment is a big thing as well, although there is a huge confidence that comes from knowing you're playing gear that was fitted and built especially for your swing. And that confidence I guess counts as the mental side. So is all interlinked, and that is my final answer!
 
HarlettoScara said:
Mental is a huge aspect, no doubt about it but not sure 90% is right. I think it changes as you progress to be honest, because to shoot good scores and improve you need a readily repeatable swing/putting stroke etc. If you just do not have the technique then no amount of mental fortitude is going to save you. Although having said that, you do need the mental strength to grind past that, take lessons, hit the range etc. Once you reach a certain level of actually being able to hit 'good' shots then yes, the mental side comes in allowing you to instantly forget the bad shots, concentrate and hammer out a score even if the swing is a bit waspy that day.

Equipment is a big thing as well, although there is a huge confidence that comes from knowing you're playing gear that was fitted and built especially for your swing. And that confidence I guess counts as the mental side. So is all interlinked, and that is my final answer!
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Muscle memory is a massive factor in repeating the swing.
 
markom74 said:
Muscle memory is a massive factor in repeating the swing.
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To me, it's almost 100% of having a repeating swing once you've got the fundamentals. Hence the reason it's so ****ing hard to ingrain a swing change.
 
I think it’s 80% mental 30% of the time?

What did you expect from me man? Lol.
 
All mental
 
Buckeyegolfnut said:
I can agree with this. When my buddy is not playing well, he'll set up and you can practically hear the gears turning in his head! He starts to fidget, adjusting this, that, and the other thing!...
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If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were golfing with me! :ROFLMAO: That's exactly what I do, and I'm my own worst enemy when it starts happening.

I was thinking about this tonight as I was sitting around practicing guitar. I have a few drills I do and I was running through them working my speed up. It was going fine if I just let my fingers do what they know to do, but as soon as I started thinking about the drill and focusing on what my fingers were doing, I started making mistakes all over the place. I relaxed and just let it happen, and it was smooth again. I thought about how it related to golf - my body knows how to hit a golf ball, I need to quit letting my mind screw with it while it's trying to do it.
 
Certainly your brain has to be working in the background as it always does, but you don't have to think a lot to hit a golf ball. You have to use your brain to play the game and probably more is required to focus.

You swing a club and strike a stationary object toward a target. Maybe there is a level of thought that is required and that is the percentage you are looking for. Unless you are a specialist on brain waves that might be difficult to guess at. :ROFLMAO:
 
I think too many people are focusing on the mental aspect as it relates to swing dynamics... the mental aspect comes down to course management, knowing landing spots, low / high % plays, playing smart enough to lay back and leave a full swing vs pounding driver into the thinnest part of the FW and leaving yourself a 35 yard pitch.... etc etc etc
 
rollin said:
I dont think anyone can ever place any numbers on any of it. We are all different and mental is simply some part of golf period.
I think suggesting golf (or most anything) is 90% mental is only said to bring light onto the mental side and is never any real percentage. Imo there would be no such thing to place any given %.
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I agree that the purpose of the quote was to say "mental game is much more important than most people realize."

And I think it was also meant to apply to tournament golf - especially golf at the highest level. Tiger Woods is exhibit A for how vital the mental game is. Granted, when he first came out on tour, he had physical skills better than almost anyone, but that's not why he won so much. Within a few years, a whole lot of golfers started to have his level of athletic ability, but couldn't win at that pace. You could make the case that Adam Scott and others have as good a swing and the physical gifts to be on a level with someone like Tiger. But what really set Woods apart was his mental toughness, his ability to pull off shots under huge pressure.

Those who posted about a repeatable swing being key & that's why physical is more important: consider why someone chokes under pressure. It's because they can't repeat their swing when they need to the most. And that is not physical, that's entirely mental - that ability to focus, to stop overthinking, to relax and just let your body do what it knows how to do - what you've trained it to do. All mental IMHO.
 
One of my favorite Harvey Penick stories was from when he coached at Texas. One of his players said "This is gonna be an easy win for me! My opponent has a bad grip and an awful swing." Penick said "That's the guy you have to worry about the most - he knows how to score." and sure enough, the other player won.

Penick was a huge and early proponent of the importance of the mental side of golf. His most famous quote implies this: "Take dead aim."
 
I'd include course management & strategy as another aspect of the mental part of golf, and that's where most amateurs (& especially high handicap players) are really bad. One of my friends I play with consistently adds a lot of strokes to his score each round because he refuses to make the smart play. For example, he hit a drive which sliced into some trees right of the fairway. Instead of hitting a low punch shot back out to the fairway, he tried (and failed) 3 times to hit a hero shot over & through the trees. And he did it again on 2 other holes.

I'd argue that players with a better mental game also know how to practice better. They have a goal and a purpose to each swing on the range. People with poor mental approach to the game never think about what they're doing & just pound driver on the range, or maybe imitate what they see a pro or other good player do but have no idea why they're doing it.
 
At the highest level golf is certainly more than 50% mental but for a golfer who doesn’t have a repeatable swing, poor fundamentals are the main reason for their struggles.
 
Grins said:
I'd argue that players with a better mental game also know how to practice better. They have a goal and a purpose to each swing on the range. People with poor mental approach to the game never think about what they're doing & just pound driver on the range, or maybe imitate what they see a pro or other good player do but have no idea why they're doing it.
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I agree with this. Many of us who struggle think too much on the course and not enough on the practice range.
 
I am a retired psychologist (Ph.D) but I do not consider myself expert in any way in this field as I have had no training in sports psychology. I have had some pro tournament players ask me for help and I tell them to "See it" (visualize the shot), "feel it" (get a sense of how the swing will feel for a great shot) and "do it" ( execute the shot without any thought of mechanics).
 
Grins said:
I'd include course management & strategy as another aspect of the mental part of golf, and that's where most amateurs (& especially high handicap players) are really bad. One of my friends I play with consistently adds a lot of strokes to his score each round because he refuses to make the smart play. For example, he hit a drive which sliced into some trees right of the fairway. Instead of hitting a low punch shot back out to the fairway, he tried (and failed) 3 times to hit a hero shot over & through the trees. And he did it again on 2 other holes.

I'd argue that players with a better mental game also know how to practice better. They have a goal and a purpose to each swing on the range. People with poor mental approach to the game never think about what they're doing & just pound driver on the range, or maybe imitate what they see a pro or other good player do but have no idea why they're doing it.
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I wouldnt and couldn't ever debate that managing is not mental. I mean making choice is certainly done with the mind so it of course is a mental effort. But just that when I think mental is discussed I think of it much more meant in the sense of its role it may or not have as for how successful or not we are at swinging the club in general.

That aside....managing decisions (good vs poor ones) are certainly enormous towards better (or not) played rounds just as you suggest.
 
Golf has gotta be the most mental sport there is. Which is not my forte. I got used to using brute force in most sports I played when I was young. Banging around the rim in basketball. Knocking around people in football. Throwing fastballs in baseball. I really sucked when I played those finesse games at carnivals. Could never hit those balloons with the darts. Give me the baseball and beer bottles to break. Its no wonder golf is so hard for me.
 
Glftips said:
I am a retired psychologist (Ph.D) but I do not consider myself expert in any way in this field as I have had no training in sports psychology. I have had some pro tournament players ask me for help and I tell them to "See it" (visualize the shot), "feel it" (get a sense of how the swing will feel for a great shot) and "do it" ( execute the shot without any thought of mechanics).
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That last part is true when you've got the muscle memory built up. But it ain't as easy for me. I forget one thing and its a bad shot. I can't tell you how many times I started poorly only to remember something a few holes in. I'm like "Dang it, I forgot to (fill in the blank)". I do know when I'm doing good its all about the feel. If I can feel it all the way through the swing it usually turns out better. If I can replace the mechanics thought process with the feel process I know I can improve.
 
charley48 said:
That last part is true when you've got the muscle memory built up. But it ain't as easy for me. I forget one thing and its a bad shot. I can't tell you how many times I started poorly only to remember something a few holes in. I'm like "Dang it, I forgot to (fill in the blank)". I do know when I'm doing good its all about the feel. If I can feel it all the way through the swing it usually turns out better. If I can replace the mechanics thought process with the feel process I know I can improve.
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Another indication that being a champion golfer (or just a successful competitive golfer) is more mental is listening to Tiger describe some of his wins - those when he "didn't have my A game". It's not always who has the best physical tools & swing on that week. It's often who can do the most with the swing they have that day.
 
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