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THE RESILIENT GOLFER PROGRAM™ AT GOLF LAB

At Golf Lab, we recognize the importance of a resilient mindset in playing well and enjoying the game. With this appreciation in mind, we have created The Resilient Golfer Program™ to help golfers develop the mental skills to play well and enjoy the game. This program is based upon the work of Drs. Sam Goldstein and his colleague at Harvard University, Dr. Robert Brooks. In their book, The Power of Resilience (2004, McGraw-Hill), Goldstein and Brooks provide a researched based path to stress hardiness, happiness and life satisfaction. The Resilient Golfer Program™ is an integral part of Golf Lab’s teaching methods. Below is a brief overview of the seven-step program.

Accept yourself. We begin by helping you understand and appreciate your strengths, weaknesses and enjoy the game at the level you currently play.
Choose a path to become stress hardy rather than stressed out on the course. We help you examine your mindset and approach to the game, in particular the thoughts and feelings you experience with failure as well as success. We also incorporate a revolutionary new biofeedback method using heart rate variability to help golfers quickly get into the “mental zone.”
Change the words of golf by re-writing your negative scripts. We help you identify your negative scripts or ineffective patterns of thinking and self-talk on the course, providing you with better mental control which then facilitates course management and ball striking.
Stay connected to your goals. We help you develop a program to choose attainable goals and develop the strategies needed to reach them.
Deal effectively with mistakes. The Resilient Golfer Program focuses heavily on helping you embrace mistakes, viewing them as challenges to learn from rather than failures to avoid.
Develop self-discipline and self-control on the course. We provide a series of exercises and strategies to improve your ability to stick with your game plan.
Practice the lessons of resilience. We provide a model to help you constantly re-visit and revise your mental approach to the game.

The road to resilient golfing requires PATIENCE, PERSISTENCE and, most importantly PRACTICE. On the professional level, the differences between scores are as much a reflection of the attitude and beliefs each golfer brings to the game as reflecting a true difference in ability. A resilient mindset for any level of golfer – high or low handicapper – is a key component to enjoying the game and playing more consistently. Below is an excerpt from our self-study manual introducing the concept of negative scripts.

Negative Scripts

Have you ever found yourself engaging in the same negative thoughts, behaviors, or strategies repeatedly on the course with negative results? If you answered yes, you are not alone. Most golfers possess a set of negative scripts they bring to the course with them round after round, with predictable, negative results. It is as if they are actors who have rehearsed their lines and approach to the game and cannot deviate from the script. Such a script can lead a golfer to go for the green when the shot is clearly beyond his distance or chip with a wedge when she lacks the confidence and skill to do so. On the other hand, when we repeat attitudes, beliefs, strategies and behaviors that lead to a positive outcome, we are justified in calling these positive scripts. However, when our predictable behaviors are counter productive or in fact self-defeating to our game but we continue to engage in them, a negative script is operating. For many golfers these negative scripts come to influence most if not all aspects of their golfing experience.

Some individuals remain unaware that they are trapped in negative scripts, even when it is obvious to other golfers. Some blame their equipment, the weather or a mis-guided instructor. To become a resilient golfer you must first identify the ineffective or self-defeating thoughts and attitudes you bring to the game, define your goals, anticipate possible obstacles and select new scripts. Take a minute and consider three negative scripts to you bring to the game and the positive scripts you might substitute in their place. A common negative script that many recreational golfers possess is that they expect perfection (when they haven’t earned it) and by the third hole of an eighteen hole round they have long since forgotten to enjoy the company and the round.

Changing negative scripts begins with changing your attitude. Try this simple exercise. Take a piece of paper and divide a line down the center from top to bottom. On the left side list three or more words you would use to describe the quality of your thoughts, behavior and attitude on the golf course. Then add three or more words you think fellow golfers and friends would chose. On the right side, list words you would prefer to use to describe yourself on the golf course and then three or more words you want friends and fellow golfers to choose. The left side of the page represents your current mindset. The right side of the page represents the resilient mindset you are working towards. To get there requires you to identify and change your negative scripts; that you learn from every drive, shot, pitch or putt. To get there requires that you accept your game and set realistic expectations and goals based upon your current skill level. To do this also requires that you recognize your strengths as well as your vulnerabilities. This requires that you remember the reason you play golf is first and foremost to recreate and have a good time.

To become a resilient golfer requires that you develop effective self-discipline and self-control on the golf course. Most importantly, the ways in which you understand and respond to mistakes and failures on the course are an integral part of a resilient mindset. Resilient golfers view mistakes as experiences for learning and growth. This doesn’t mean you are over-joyed when you make a mistake but rather that you are not easily discouraged, instead, seeking opportunities that might be a by-product of setbacks. Consider your beliefs about mistakes and how changing your negative scripts will lower your scores and improve your enjoyment on the course.