Golf Mental Game: You Need A Clear Mind To Play Better Golf For Duffers

Many golfers agree that controlling our thoughts during a round is the single most difficult challenge we face in golf. Swing mechanics, physical stamina are taxing but your mind will have the largest effect on your final score when all is said and done.
There is a lot of time during a round between shots or between holes that our minds have so time to ponder, fret, re-think, worry and speculate over what was and what might be. Then in the twenty to forty seconds while we're in the process of making a single shot we have to deal with so many different thoughts running through our mind.
How should a golfer best cope with all of this scattered mental activity? Can the mind be directed so you can benefit from all this power?
You bet there are many things the golfer can do. The trick is to avoid adding more to think about. If you are thinking about not thinking you have not helped yourself.
The goal here is in fact the exact opposite. We need to minimize the total number of things running around in our head. Instead we want to tap into our inner peace, sense of calm confidence and mental clarity and in the process reduce the noise in our heads.
Your mind is full of noise about swing tips, cures and fixes. They are everywhere on the internet, on the TV and in magazines. If you are trying to implement one or more of those you may be out of your normal swing motion or tempo. Never a good thing.
Playing golf with too much conscious thought about those tips, swing keys and such breaks your normal tempo. Further it interrupts the natural connection with your subconscious mind. This is what is meant when folks say a golfer can't get out of his own way or is over thinking his game.
It is your unconscious mind fueled by your imagination that you want to run the bulk of your golf swing. You are not a machine and playing golf focused primarily on mechanics is not very much fun.
The subconscious mind has stored away every swing, swing tip or thought. It has the ability to re-create those great swings again and again if you will allow it. But if you occupy your mind consciously thinking about swing keys, thoughts and tips you are leaving the subconscious mind totally out of the picture. Your conscious mind will always override the subconscious.
Here is the most important sentence in the article. The conscious mind determines where to hit the ball and your subconscious dials up the swing needed to get the ball to the target. That is the secret to a "grooved" golf swing.
Most golfers can't operate with the subconscious in control. They are thinking about how to control the swing themselves. I suffer from this more than most. I am an analyst by nature and trade with a strong tendency toward control freak as well. I have to work to get out of my own way to play golf well.
So learn to tap into the subconscious mind and trust it to create the best swing for the shot you've selected. The power is there for the asking.
The secret you need to understand here is how to get yourself out of the way and allow the subconscious to do its job. And here is how to do just that.
Use this four step process to balance the work between your conscious and subconscious mind. It will mentally connect the ball with the target. You are on virtual auto-pilot with this four step process of Survey, Feel, Visualize and Aim.
Here is how the process works:
1.      Survey - use your eyes to determine the lie, conditions, target and shot.
2.      Feel - the swing needed inside. Get a sense of the swing and how it will deliver the shot you decided on.
3.      Visualize - the shot. How will it fly or roll? Where will it land? Will it roll out or stop short?
4.      Aim - As Harvey Penick use to say, "Take dead aim". Go for it. Allow it to happen.
With these four simple steps you will eliminate all the mental noise and begin to play golf from the best half of your brain, the subconscious. Now how easy is that?