need help with tournament play

Question
When my daughter plays golf by herself and when accompanied by myself or her boyfriend she plays super usually scoring 2 below par or par on 9 holes or in the upper 70's to low 80's on 18 holes. But when she plays in a tournamnet she bombs scoring 45-47 on 9 holes and 95-100 on 18 holes. She says that she just cant play when someone else plays with her and she doesnt know why. She is a senior in high school this year and we really need some help to get her over this. Can you suggest anything. She has about 3 years of tournament experience.

Answer
Hello,
This is one of the most common and most confusing aspects of the mental game. Rather than talk about it. Go to my website at DRSPORT.com and take the free assessment. Then download the training manual, I will not charge you the usual fee, and read what you can do to make your game consistent.

In short you need to "own" your game and make it independent of where you are or who you are with. Read the training book, use the password "securegolf" to open the PDF file.

You are losing focus and spending time thinking about what it all means. This is called "outcome thinking" and you need to eliminate it when you are in competition. It has no place there and will give you the results that you have been experiencing. You can do it, but it will take hard practice, just like anything else in sports.

Best of luck and let me know if you have any further questions.

Bob Phillips, Ph.D. Sport Psychologist