Shownotes
The principal focus of our discussion centers on the profound insights offered in Gary Christian's newly published book, "Beat the Course, Not Yourself: One Golfer's Path to a Winning Mental Game." This episode excavates the intricacies of maintaining a winning mindset in golf, emphasizing that every shot possesses equal significance and warrants our undivided attention. We delve into the psychological aspects of the sport, elucidating the detrimental effects of dwelling on past shots and the importance of pre-shot routines. Furthermore, we explore the critical nature of alignment and its impact on performance, highlighting the necessity for golfers to develop a consistent practice regimen devoid of reliance on external aids. As we navigate these themes, we aim to equip golfers with the tools to cultivate a focused, resilient mental approach, ultimately enhancing their overall game.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Amazon
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
Welcome to Grilling at the Green After Hours.
Speaker A:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker A:Hi, everybody, it's JT and this is a special version of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef, beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Hill's Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Welcome to After Hours here on Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm Jeff Tracy.
Speaker A:As you probably know by this point, and today we're with Gary Christian.
Speaker A:Gary's got a new book out on Amazon, Beat the Course, Not Yourself.
Speaker A:One Golfer's Path to a Winning Mental Game.
Speaker A:Game.
Speaker A:By the way, this show will actually air after Thanksgiving, so your book should be available then.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker B:Even better.
Speaker A:Yeah, like that.
Speaker A:So give me an overview.
Speaker A:If you're only catching this part of the show, this is kind of a journey of a young man and his pal and his family to some extent, and his nemesis in the golf tournaments.
Speaker A:The kid needs to make a, get, get to school, get a scholarship.
Speaker A:And that's all I'm going to tell you because it's a lot of fun things, but it's also a workbook for you, the golfer.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And we're going to give you a little highlight of some workbook questions here if Gary's up to it.
Speaker A:I'm sure he is because he wrote it.
Speaker A:But let me get my notes here squared away.
Speaker A:And one of the questions is how, how often does your mind dwell on the last shot instead of focusing on the current one?
Speaker A:Well, as a weekend warrior, I can tell you that if I hit a good shot, a really good shot on the last one, I'm all jazzed up, right?
Speaker A:I'm thinking that.
Speaker A:And then I get to my next shot.
Speaker A:And I think you kind of, you don't do it intentionally, but you kind of skip over part of the process just thinking that you can go ahead and blast it out of the rough or whatever you're doing doesn't matter.
Speaker A:And then a lot of times that that next shot is not quite as spectacular as the one that got you there.
Speaker A:So, you know when you're, when you're coaching and you're teaching Gary, what do you tell people about that?
Speaker B:Well, that's the thing.
Speaker B:Every shot has equal importance, and you should devote equal amount of focus to each shot.
Speaker B:And whether it's a double bogey putt or an eagle putt or your five under par stand on the last tee or your 10 over par, we want to try and treat every shot the Same.
Speaker B:And we were actually, we almost called the book Win the Next Shot, which actually would follow on from Kurt's books on baseball.
Speaker B:So it's a similar kind of mindset in that the most important shot is the next shot.
Speaker B:So we want to give ourselves the full attention and the full focus to give ourselves the best chance of success.
Speaker B:But yeah, the more we dwell on the previous shot, the more time that takes away and the more focus that takes away from what it is we're doing right now.
Speaker B:Which is the most important shot is always the next one.
Speaker A:And you talk a lot in the book about pre shot routines.
Speaker A:We talked about it in the regular show when you're, you know, I've actually developed one because a few years ago I didn't think anything about it.
Speaker A:You know, I just try to go kind of line up and do it.
Speaker A:Now I actually have a little short routine that I do.
Speaker A:I'm not sure it makes me a better golfer, but it looks great.
Speaker A:And so in doing that.
Speaker A:But it's, isn't that just part of the stepping stone to getting a good mindset and controlling what you can control?
Speaker A:Yeah, doing that routine and you know, routine is a word that means you do it all the time.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So you want to form a habit.
Speaker B:So you know, to, to go back to that example of, you know, we want to make sure that the habit has been made, that we're going to try just as hard and devote just as much attention to whether it's an eagle part or a, or a bogey part or a triple bogey part, because all we can do is give ourselves the best chance to do it.
Speaker B:Now obviously it's very hard when you hacked it around a hole and you got a 10 footer for an eight.
Speaker B:But you know, you never know when that, that 10 footer might become important where you hold that and all of a sudden the confidence floods back and you, you know, you can turn the, turn the round around.
Speaker B:So I, I, I, it's just, it's a skill that needs to be learned, but it's, it's just something that is going to help your game in addition to everything else.
Speaker B:So, you know, just the same way as if you had worn out grips, if you replace those grips, you would probably hit the ball a little bit better because you had better control of the club just the same way as if you can focus better before every shot, you're going to hit more good shots.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:In the book, Jack talks about tension and the old coach talks about tension and you know, you can feel it.
Speaker A:I think every golfer can feel that tension.
Speaker A:No matter what level you're at.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:You know, you get there and your shoulders are tight or your neck's tight or, you know, and you're not holding the baby bird, you're holding the machete, you know, in a mezcal field.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:I mean, you're doing that, so.
Speaker A:And it's easier said than done, Gary, to, to relax.
Speaker A:And you don't want to relax like you're plopping on the couch watching the football game on Sunday with a beer in your hand, but you want to relax to the point where you can hit the shot, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:And, and you've got to practice knowing what feeling tension free feels like.
Speaker B:So, you know, when you're, when there's no pressure and you're just swinging on the range, you know, you can have a nice, you know, easy, free flowing swing, tension free.
Speaker B:There's not much strain in the muscles.
Speaker B:You know, you can, you can do what you're capable of doing.
Speaker B:But as soon as adrenaline kicks in and as soon as fear kicks in and as soon as anxiety kicks in, you know, I could have gone into the, you know, into the depths of golf psychology talking about the fight or flight syndrome, where all the blood goes to your vital organs and you lose feeling in your hands and so you grip it tighter just to get the same feeling.
Speaker B:I didn't want to do that in the book because that would be, I think, a little bit too much for the form of the book.
Speaker B:But that's what happens.
Speaker B:You know, we get anxious and, you know, our evolutionary tendencies kick in, and so we want to feel the same as we normally would, but we don't have the feel in our hands, so we have to grip it tighter, which then goes all the way up the arms into the shoulders.
Speaker B:And then you try and release a club head consistently when you're gripping it, you know, with a death grip.
Speaker B:So, you know, I take my players on the range and say, you know, grip this club.
Speaker B:You know, let's just say if one was as light as you possibly could and 10 was as loot, as tight as you could, you know, script this is as a 2 and see if you can hit a big hook and, you know, most of the time they can do it if they're a decent player.
Speaker B:And then I say grip this as tight as you possibly can and try and hit the hook.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:It's very, very hard to do.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Can't release the club head, so under Pressure.
Speaker B:That's why you see a lot of players hit the massive blocks and the low pulls.
Speaker A:Happens a lot.
Speaker A:I can, I can testify to that, actually.
Speaker A:You also talk about alignment, and I think people get.
Speaker A:Again, from personal experience, you get a little tight or something and you don't really notice it, but your alignment is off.
Speaker A:You know, you think perhaps you're lined up, but did you do the routine to actually get your target?
Speaker A:Whether it's the flag or right of the bunker, doesn't matter what the target is, but you got a target in mind.
Speaker A:And do you.
Speaker A:Once you think you've got it, it's just there.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden you, you hit your shot and maybe you had a, had a really nice swing, but it's way offline because you're, you're not even close to the target.
Speaker A:And it's not because you hit a slice or a big hook or, you know, unless you scuffed it or something.
Speaker A:But you know what I mean, it's just it, it's like that.
Speaker A:And I think that's one of the things too, that it's maybe more important on the mental checklist than people give it credit for.
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:You can do everything right, line up wrong, hit a great shot where your alignment sent you and hit it in the woods.
Speaker B:And now all of a sudden you think you're swinging it.
Speaker B:Awful.
Speaker B:And it's, you know, it's a sad.
Speaker B:Actually it's quite a sad thing because it's, it's, you know, kind of like a, an old school kind of almost like a given, you know, you know, when you were starting, you know, who the good players you play with would, you know, line up that intermediate, intermediate target and set their club to it and then set the feet parallel to it.
Speaker B:And, you know, most of the time they were lined up really well.
Speaker B:And you see golfers of an older generation have the ability to line up well way more than their younger counterparts.
Speaker B:And I put that all down to the alignment rod.
Speaker B:The alignment rods are great thing, but if you just have that as sort of like training wheels and you don't really know why it is you're lining up and how to line up, you.
Speaker B:Then you set a pattern, I think, where you think about when you watch people on the range, they have the alignment rod down, that's lined up correctly, and they have a pile of balls to the right, and then they, they scoop a ball over, they hit it, they don't move their feet, and then they move the club again, set up another ball, hit that, don't move their feet, scrape another ball over and hit that.
Speaker B:Well, what they've done, they've just made a pattern of.
Speaker B:You set the feet first and then you set the club after that, which is completely opposite to what we've done for 150 years.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so now when they get on the golf course, most of the time you'll see bad alignment comes from setting the feet first at the target and then setting the club down to three feet to the right of your feet, which now is 30 yards right at the target.
Speaker B:And you, you swing the way you've been swinging, aligned correctly, and you send it into the right woods, or if you're.
Speaker B:You've got good hand eye coordination, you get to the top of the backswing and say, hang on, I'm going to hit this in the right woods.
Speaker B:And then you throw the hands and then pull it way left because you don't want to hit it in the right woods.
Speaker B:But it's all from laziness of.
Speaker B:Not.
Speaker B:Of being so reliant on the alignment rod that you don't learn how to do it without that alignment rod.
Speaker B:And you just trust that.
Speaker B:Oh, well, I do it all the time on the range, so it must translate to the golf course.
Speaker B:It doesn't always do that.
Speaker A:I must tell you that I.
Speaker A:In playing, and of course, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm over 40 now.
Speaker A:I'll barely.
Speaker A:Yeah, barely just right across the line.
Speaker A:But I do see a lot of these young guys that can just clobber the ball.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, whatever I hit, they got it 70 yards further, doesn't matter.
Speaker A:You know, like, that's fine.
Speaker A:I don't, I don't care.
Speaker A:But I do see what you're talking about there, because they come up and they're kind of like.
Speaker A:They set their feet and they're.
Speaker A:It's almost sometimes like they're in a sand trap.
Speaker A:You know, the way they're wiggling their feet like that, and then they've teed up the ball or the ball's on the ground, and then they go ahead and hit it and they, they strike it.
Speaker A:Well, there is no doubt they strike it well.
Speaker A:But I'll be damned if that thing doesn't head for Detroit when you really wanted it to go to St. Louis.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, that's the thing with such high swing speeds that we see now, boy, if you can't line up consistently, you know, and you've got these great mechanics, you're just fighting on Every single.
Speaker B:Every single shot because you're swinging it.
Speaker B:You're swinging it aligned one way on the range, and then you set up a different way on the golf course with the same swing.
Speaker B:The ball's not going to go where it was going on the range because now you're lined up different.
Speaker B:And I see it all the time.
Speaker B:And, you know, I ask players, you know, do you ever practice without alignment rod?
Speaker B:Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker B:My coach says I got to use the alignment rod every time.
Speaker B:I said, but you don't use it on the golf course.
Speaker B:Do you ever think about trying to practice without that?
Speaker B:So you're.
Speaker B:You're used to being without it when you're on the golf course.
Speaker B:And they kind of look at me a lot of the time like I got two heads.
Speaker B:But, you know, sometimes there.
Speaker B:There's wisdom in experience.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Last question.
Speaker A:If there's one piece of advice that you hope people can discern from the book and apply it practically, what would that be?
Speaker B:I would say, I think I've just kind of made it a reoccurring theme.
Speaker B:If you can control what it is that you can control, I.
Speaker B:The mindset that's focused on the shot.
Speaker B:The mindset and the focus of what it is I'm trying to do on this shot after being fully committed, the mindset of being in control of how I line up and how I, you know, get my focus on the target right and then just let it go and trust.
Speaker B:And at the end of it, you don't have regrets.
Speaker B:You said, you know, I did everything I could do, and this is a really, really, really hard game.
Speaker B:And the best players in the world hit it all over the map.
Speaker B:And they're unbelievable.
Speaker B:And they practice eight hours a day, seven days a week, and they've got all the technology and all the coaching that they want.
Speaker B:They still hit shots all over the place.
Speaker B:But if we can just do everything we can do and have no regrets at the end of the shot, I think you can lay your head on the pillow at night and say, you know what?
Speaker B:I did everything I can do.
Speaker B:Game's hard, but you know what?
Speaker B:I hit a lot of good shots, and I'm going to take that and can't wait to play again next week.
Speaker A:Well, I'll tell you, if Gary works in television, I've covered tournaments and stuff.
Speaker A:And you.
Speaker A:If you've never seen a tournament in real life, you've only seen them on television.
Speaker A:You don't see 20% of the errant shots that the players make.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, if it's somebody like Tiger or Phil or somebody at that level and they're in the woods, they always want to show you that shot just to see if they can get the hell out of there, you know, like that.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And it's not that they're everybody spraying balls all over the place, but, you know, this is supposed to be the elite of the elite.
Speaker A:And, you know, that's why I never did appreciate it till a few years ago when they say, well, you know, they hit only nine out of 14 fairways today, or whatever the number was, you know, like that.
Speaker A:And then it kind of dawned on me.
Speaker A:It's like, yeah, and they're not always in the first cut, either.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So it's good.
Speaker A:Gary Christian's new book, Beat the Course, Not Yourself.
Speaker A:One Golfer's Path to Winning A Winning Mental Game.
Speaker A:Gary, thank you.
Speaker A:It's been a real pleasure to talk to you again.
Speaker A:And the book will be on Amazon, should be.
Speaker A:By the time this show airs.
Speaker A:It should be available.
Speaker A:Am I correct?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Well, it's going to be right around there.
Speaker B:So, yeah, go get a.
Speaker B:Go get a gift for Christmas or an early Christmas present.
Speaker B:You know, as I said, for, for.
Speaker B:For young players, for club players, and for parents of young players.
Speaker B:I think it's a really, really good resource to.
Speaker B:To read, enjoy, and kind of find out a little bit more about what's going on in a player's head.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:There you go, Gary.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:We'll be back next week with another edition of Girling in Screen.
Speaker A:Until then, check us out online at Golf Newsnet and Golf Newsnet tv.
Speaker A:You can see some of the episodes are up there already.
Speaker A:Until then, go out, have fun, get Gary's book and play some golf.
Speaker A:Have a good time.
Speaker A:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
