The Mental Side of Your Animal Spirit

[ChetSteadman]

The article linked below popped up in my Yahoo Finance feed the other day and I found it very, very interesting. Basically, it compares golfers to investors, and points out the similarities between the two. Golfers really hate bogies (and worse). Investors really hate losses. They both love wins (birdies and gains). Because of our innate psychology, we tend to subconsciously work harder to limit losses than we do to earn gains. Some interesting quotes from the article:

A study of over 1.6 million putts shows that professional golfers are significantly more likely to succeed in sinking a par putt than a birdie putt of equal distance and difficulty.

Why is this? Do we work harder/concentrate more on the par putt, knowing a miss will result in a plus score? Is it a case of thinking “Oh, I can 2 putt this for par and still be in good shape?”

Remarkable but true: If the average top golfer putted as well for birdie as he puts for par, he would make an additional $1.2 million a year.

Wow…just wow. But then think about a guy like Jordan Speith. He seems to make everything within 10 feet, regardless of whether it is for birdie, par, or other. He’s easily visual proof of the theory and stats. He just made a few more putt than everyone else (last year) and won 2 majors.

Like the rest of us, professional golfers are affected by what John Maynard Keynes called “animal spirits”: the feelings of the primitive creatures who lie within us. Hating the prospect of losses, golfers focus intensely on avoiding those bogeys, and often succeed.

Though I’ve never thought about it in this light, I can think back to multiple times over nearly every round I have played when I was in the mindset of “get it close to the green, and get up and down for par”. I had completely given up on a gain and was instead only focused on limiting my losses. Sometimes that is the “prudent” thing to do, I know, but golf is constantly changing your mindset. I guess that’s what makes it so mentally draining. A goal of mine for this season will be to see if I can actively change work on this – try to get more aggressive and to focus on the gains and not limiting the losses.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pro-golf-explains-stock-market-164149432.html

 

[JB]

Interesting stuff there.

 

[T2GRN18]

That's pretty interesting. If I could only have that mindset one shot earlier on the hole. Maybe I would make more birdies.

 

[emart2173]

Very interesting. I think most golfers have a mindset of if I miss the birdie putt I can still make par where as with par they are thinking I have to make this because I don't want a bogey. I wish I could focus more on the birdie chances I get.

 

[RNG]

Seems to me it just comes down to doing something you didn't expect to as an amateur. We expect to make pars and bogeys but birdies change our expectations and we put more pressure on ourselves to succeed which in turn causes us to fail more often. IMHO