Improving your golf enjoyment has more to do with the golf psychology of addressing the reasons why you play golf at all than with addressing all the things you're trying to fix in your golf swing.

One theme that comes up a lot in my thoughts and in my writing is the idea that one of the main reasons for most people playing golf is the pursuit of enjoyment, both for ourselves and the people we play with. As a golf psychologist, this is also my primary motivation in my working life and it's reflected in my mission, as a hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner, of helping people to do things better and get more enjoyment out of the things they do in life and in golf.

What about the professional golfer pursuing fame and money from golf success? Well, I suspect that the pursuit of enjoyment played an important part for them when they started out and it probably still features high on their list of priorities as a professional. The top 50 players in the world are probably sufficiently well off that money is not their only motivator. Just remember the look on Phil Mickelson's face after that duel with Tiger Woods at the 2009 Masters. The fact that he didn't win didn't seem to outweigh his euphoric enjoyment responding to the challenge. It's a shame that we don't so often see that clear enjoyment coming from certain other golfers when they aren't playing their best. I've talked about these failings from Colin Montgomerie in my recent article entitled "Unlike Colin Montgomerie Do You Enjoy Your Golf and Share That Enjoyment", from Tiger Woods in "Tiger Woods Balances Golf Hypnosis and Temper to Hit Good Shots and Release Bad Ones" and from Sergio Garcia in "Rub of the Green and Anger Management at the Masters."

All this talk about enjoying golf got me thinking about what specifically we all enjoy about golf. That led me to recall what Timothy Gallwey wrote in The Inner Game of Golf about the triangular link between enjoyment, performance and learning - the three main parts of everyone's experience of golf. Although I agree with Gallwey's idea, very few of the clients I work with seem to think about anything apart from their golfing performance.

In my first meeting with new clients, I tended to ask questions about what they want to achieve from working with me, what their definition of success in golf is and how will they know when they have achieved it. When I first started out as a golf psychologist, I had expected the answers to be about things like enjoyment, confidence, concentration and consistency. Instead, I tend to hear about things like how to stop their slice, get out of bunkers, avoid hitting the ball in the water on a particular hole or avoid three-putting.

More recently, I've expanded my initial questions to include asking new clients about why they play golf and what I can do to help them achieve that. This usually provides me with a much more constructive starting point to improving and much more importantly enjoying their golf.

If I look at my own reasons for playing golf when I started at the age of 18, they were relatively sensible. I was looking for a sport that

• I could play, given reasonable health, for the next 50 years or more
• would give me a complete mental break from work
• offered a modest amount of regular exercise
• was challenging and competitive
• allowed me to develop some good friendships
• breaks down social and business barriers
• and would give me something I could enjoy doing.

Given those reasons, why did I spend the next 30 years, until I got into golf psychology, beating my head against the wall of lowering my handicap? Why did I spend all the hours I could spare and more beating balls on the driving range? Why did I spend all that money on golf lessons, books, magazines and practice aids? Why did I have all those days of frustration and anger when I didn't quite play to the level I wanted? The answer to all those questions is "that's why I first got properly interested in golf psychology."

So if you'd like to get more enjoyment from your golf and play better, why not write down your list of the real reasons why you play golf. Then you can make sure that whatever you strive for in golf will help you to address those reasons you listed.

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf" and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25- minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 that goes with this article.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/golf-psychology-focus-on-why-you-play-not-how-you-swing-for-golf-enjoyment-956931.html

I was delighted to see Luke Donald doing so well in the first round of the Jack Nicklaus' Memorial tournament yesterday, with an opening 8-under par 64 to finish the day 3 shots clear of a very strong field. As a fellow member at Beaconsfield and someone who saw his golfing skills develop there, I'm always delighted to follow his successes.

I was listening to his interview after finishing the round and I was intrigued to notice how much golf psychology he's learned. I know he used to work with Jim Fannin up until a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure who he's working with now. Jim still works with a number of golfers on the PGA Tour, including Charles Howell and uses a fairly rigid coaching system focusing on Self-Discipline, Concentration, Optimism, Relaxation, and Enjoyment. Now I won't deny that these elements are included in my own approach to golf psychology, but I prefer a more flexible approach based on the needs of the individual.

So what elements of golf psychology did I notice in Luke's interview? Well, the first one that leapt out was his comment, "I guess all good rounds start with a bogey." That highlights his use of Optimism or, as I described it in my recent article entitled Positive Reframing for Better Golf Performance like Justin Rose. It also took me back to my early days as a competitive golfer with no golf psychology experience. I always felt that if I was one or two over par standing on the sixth hole and was playing well, I would struggle to have a good round. If I was one or two over and playing badly, I then knew that I could only get better and I'd have a good score. It was a shame I didn't apply what I know as positive reframing to both situations, as I could have scored a lot more consistently.

I also noticed that Luke talked about just focusing on each shot as it comes and "staying in the present" when answering a question about how he handled the streak of six birdies from the 8th hole and playing the last 11 holes in 8 under par. Staying in the present or "In the Now", as we golf psychologists like to say, is one of the key's to successful concentration in golf. Focusing "In the Now" helps you to avoid dwelling on the shots you've already hit and planning the shots you have yet to play. That's consistent with Luke's other comment about his run of birdies "It was just kind of a normal, everyday round until I got to the eighth and made a nice putt from the fringe. That kind of sparked off a run of six birdies. I just really got on a hot streak."

The final thing I picked up on was Luke's comments about his putting - he only had 20 putts in the round. Now when Luke started playing on the PGA Tour, he settled into a rank of 144 in the putting statistics and didn't see himself as a good putter. It would be fair to say that it was his only real weakness as a golfer. He's now number 1 in putting on the PGA Tour and it's clearly down to confidence as much as technique. He talked about confidence on the greens breeding confidence, "Once you feel like you're a good putter, then it becomes easier," he said.

I thought that Luke must have done some serious work on his confidence using unconscious golf psychology and I wasn't wrong. Going back to another interview from 2006, I found him using some serious golf psychology language when he said, "Look this confidence isn't natural, definitely not. I've had to work on it." He went on to say "It's just that I have to keep training my subconsciousness (sic) to believe that I can be the best."

So there's some strong evidence of the impact of golf psychology on Luke's recent successes and his magnificent first round 64 at Memorial. Here's wishing him well for the rest of the tournament.

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it is about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that is played in the 6 inches between your ears.

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at http://www.golf-hypnotist.com/ and get your free 25- minute Your Own Virtual Caddy golf hypnosis MP3 that goes with this article.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/golf-psychology-plays-a-part-in-luke-donald-scoring-64-at-memorial-956930.html