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Introduction -

THIS BOOK CAN BE THE START OF YOUR GOLFING IMPROVEMENT
by
Cary Middlecoff

Nobody who has ever thought about the game of golf seri­ously can doubt that the psychological factors involved are tremendous. Certainly I have never doubted it. On the con­trary, I have often wished—yearned, even—for a better and deeper understanding of this science of the mind as it applies to golf and golfers.

Preface - The objective of this book is to reduce your scores as quickly as possible, by teaching you to apply simple principles of the science of psychology. Throughout the history of golf, there has been much said about the important part that psychology plays in the game, but very little has been written. Cary Middlecoff brought this deficiency to public attention recently, and suggested that the remedy might have to await the work of someone with experience in both golf and psychology.

01. Begin To Improve - The first secret of golf betterment is an emotional one. You must have or develop the desire to improve. The strength of this "want" will determine one's persistence, and persistence is the secret of success. Fortunately, the reader has already dem­onstrated his desire to improve, or he would not have bothered to read this far.

02. Past Experiences - It was a source of irritation to me in high school geometry when the teacher insisted that we figure each proposition out for ourselves. Many of my classmates memorized the proof, but I tried conscientiously to arrive at the answer. As a consequence my grades were not what they should have been. My final conclusion was that if it took civilization some million years to discover that parallel lines cut by another line had certain peculiarities, I could not be expected to discover them overnight for myself.

03. Practice - The greatest pleasure in golf comes from continuous improve­ment. This can only come about through correct practice. For those who aspire to creditable play, practice is doubly neces­sary. "Creditable play" implies a competitive element, in that one's ability becomes "creditable" if it is more skillful than that of others. Other things being equal, the practicer has the advan­tage

04. Overcome Inertia - The next secret of golf is to overcome inertia. Muscles have a mind of their own, and do not like to make any move unless impelled to do so. Once they begin to move, the muscles do not seem to care. We must harness this tendency in ourselves to continue doing what we are doing, and may have to take rather sly means of shifting our actions toward practice. Once shifted, the muscles, like Newton's law of motion, prefer to continue golfing unless acted upon by some outside force. This is what we mean by overcoming inertia.

05. Time and Place - After inertia has been overcome, attention should be directed toward modifying your environment so that learning is auto­matically stimulated by your surroundings. The earlier this is done, either by accident or design, the more learning will take place.

06. Emotional Drive - The characteristic approach to the game by those who suc­ceed involves a fixity of purpose which comes from emotional drive. The drive comes from what psychologists call "goal ten­sions," and this goal tension comes from the decision of the player to disregard the possible pleasures of the moment for the pleasures of final important achievement. However, the strength of this decision is apt to fluctuate from time to time and, to avoid its weakening, there are ways by which our drive can be further stimulated by conscious effort. Here are some of those methods:

07. Kill Interest - When I was a freshman at college, our class was given a talk on recreation. The speaker gave us advice which has proved itself so sound in my case that I would advise young men to heed it. He urged us to select hobbies that we could engage in for the balance of our lives. I chose bowling, chess and golf. They have worked out very well for me as a permanent solution to the problem of recreation. One of the additional advantages of the selection was that I did not disperse my learning over many games.

08. Stimulate Interest - An enduring method of obtaining maximum satisfaction out of golfing, which in turn creates maximum interest, is to have your own golf crowd. Some people are emotionally unable to "get up a game," and very often their interest dies out because of false ideas of rejection—a sort of self-pity that develops because they are not always invited to play.

09. Self-Competition - An enduring method of insuring continuous progress is to stimulate interest by competing against yourself in practice. There are a number of ways in which this can be done.

1. With putts: Putting practice on the average practice green is very tiresome, primarily because so few shots are hit in comparison with the length of time one is on his feet in playing one ball from cup to cup. A method I have found to be more effective is to practice when there are few people around. Select a hole which does not give a level putt and scatter 25 balls around the cup at a distance of about seven feet.

10. Maintain Interest - When the same muscles are used continuously in the same fashion, fatigue results. With fatigue there comes a loss of in­terest. This creates more fatigue. The same is also true if the same thought pattern is continuously repeated. If we vary our physical and psychological approach to the game, interest can be maintained at a high pitch.

11. Avoid Habits - Unhappiness very often creeps up on us in insidious ways. Illness, fatigue, anxiety, and boredom can gradually erode our interest in life. Such things can also undermine a healthy in­terest in golf. In order to guard against these dangers, here are some sound precautions:

12. Keep Records - I have derived golf enjoyment in many ways, but as I look back I find that the greatest pleasures have come from keeping, tabulating, and examining my golf scores and records. I have kept such records for more than 20 years. Here are some of the many benefits I have derived which have contributed to faster improvement:

13. Use Golf Records - The most important records I keep are the golf scores. They are kept chronologically by months. An average is struck at the end of each ten rounds, twenty rounds, forty rounds, and at the end of the year. Here is the record for my play in 1958 on the par 72 Augusta Country Club course.

14. Accuracy - The greatest single principle to apply in the development of accuracy is to eliminate variables. It is the most important single rule for experimentation within the broad framework of the known fundamentals, and it can lead to the discovery of important techniques. This is the only way in which the so-called "repeating swing" can be achieved. The secret is so important that with it, it is possible for a novice golfer to take charge of his own instruction after he has learned the simple fundamentals of grip, stance, and swing.

15. "Golf Bugs" - The basic fundamentals of golf are well known and provide no problems to beginners. Yet, within the framework of these principles, there is enough variation of form among topnotch golfers to confuse us. If we become tempted to model ourselves first after one player and then another, we are headed for disaster. The inherent trouble lies in the "golf bugs."

16. Adjustments - In trying to overcome an error, a person is apt to accept what­ever remedy produces the quickest good results. This often means another error to compensate for the first. As an illustra­tion, a golfer who is slicing will often change his grip by putting his right hand further under the club. But it may be that the slicing is caused by the stance or hip action. He now has two faults instead of one, though he may well correct his slice, and he has made it more difficult to hold on to his game, since there is a probable mathematical limit of improvement for each form and for each combined group of "compensatory" adjust­ments.

17. Golf Lessons Fail - Often a person with a golfing flaw will consult his pro and is straightened out. Later, when he tries his new stroke on the course, it doesn't seem to work. There are a number of reasons why golf lessons fail.

1. The player is concentrating so hard on the new form that he neglects to do the usual golf thinking that has to accompany the stroke. For instance, he may not consider the usual factors of the condition of the green, the putting problem, the distance to the green, or golf management. The answer to this is that the new golf stroke should be practiced until it has been "over-learned.

18. Idiosyncracies - One of the minor vices of some golfers is to believe that an idiosyncracy (a deviation from orthodox form) of a good player is a major element of a successful stroke or swing. Some idiosyn-cracies are really minor adjustments to a flaw in the swing, and are only necessary for a given golfer. Some idiosyncracies de­velop because the owner "falsely" believes that they are essen­tial; by giving him confidence, these then become "genuinely" essential.

19. Faith Work - Success in anything is hardly possible without faith, and this is true of success in golf. One way to develop golfing faith is to study experts.

Such watching builds up confidence that difficult shots can be made and that normal shots should be made. This causes many golfers to improve spontaneously, simply from the psy­chological lift that comes from a change in his attitude towards what can be done. Sometimes the improvement is permanent.

20. No Transfer - In previous generations, it was believed that the mind that was trained in one field would automatically be better fitted to do other things also. For instance, it was thought that training in mathematics would help you with Greek, that a good billiard player would automatically be an excellent putter, and that a polo player would have no difficulty in learning such a similar game as golf. Unfortunately, this is not true. Many experiments have shown that each new type of learning is almost always different from all other types. When there is some similarity, a portion of what one learns in one skill or game will carry on to the next, but this is not usual.

21. Remember - Shots are often missed because of an attempt on the part of the golfer to concentrate on two or more things simultaneously. This produces confusion. It is much easier if we remember things serially. On an important shot, for instance, the "count­down" might be: ball at left heel, feet firmly planted, firm left hand, right elbow close in, head still, straight left arm, and finally, firm hit!

22. Trial and Error - There are certain broad principles of golf which are useful in the rapid development of a sound swing. Such principles have been ably expounded by Bobby Jones, Tommy Armour, Percy Boomer, Ben Hogan and others. I once witnessed how quickly they can be taught. Beginning with a 34-year-old woman who had never swung a club, Harvey Penick set up for her a mechanical pattern which in thirty minutes produced a very good-looking golf swing resulting in many good shots. She began to play almost daily and in three months shot a 39 for nine holes from men's tees.

23. Speed Learning - It has been found that to speed learning it is vital to practice and play with attention. Practice by itself is not enough. If a golf professional has two students of equal ability, the attentive one will develop into a better golfer.

Lackadaisical practice is very inefficient, and can be harmful. If you practice carelessly, an attitude of carelessness may be transferred to actual play. Then, too, unnecessary or incorrect movements may find their way into the swing and, almost with­out our being aware of it, we have added destructive variables.

24. Remedial Golf - In order for a golfer to improve efficiently, practice must be remedial; that is it must eliminate the specific errors which are costing him the most strokes.

To do this, a number of steps are required:

1. He must have a system of locating errors.
2. He must periodically analyze these errors to see which are costing him the most strokes.

25. Practice Strengths - There are a number of errors of practice which lead to in­efficiency. A common one occurs when a golfer practices the very shot with which he has the greatest skill.

How could such an apparently obvious mistake be prevalent? Here are a few reasons:

1. Because a golfer can make a given shot, he derives more pleasure from practicing it than a shot which continually causes
   him anguish.

26. Not Make Perfect - There are times when practice does not show up in lower scores. When this is true, the following causes should be con­sidered:

1. You are practicing shots for which there is little demand on your course. Years ago, I played on several courses which demanded a good drive followed by medium and short irons. If I had practiced with a two iron, it would not have shown up in the scores. Concentrate on practicing shots for which there is much demand on your course. Where most of the holes are from 325 to 370 yards, there is a big demand for comparatively short irons and birdie-length putts. If you are practicing woods, long irons, trap shots, and long putts, there can be only a limited improvement in scoring.

27. Errors of Form - Many players have a golfing error which seems to defy cor­rection. Often they have been told how to correct the mistake but, for some reason, the error persists. One such error is shank­ing. Since it is the worst, it will be useful to use it as an example.

Shanking inspires such fear that it will bring about poor per­formance even if it is only occasional. It is a glaring example of the interaction of psychology and mechanics in golf. Shanking will produce fear, and this fear will then produce more shank­ing

28. Psychological Errors - We have emphasized the need for practicing to eliminate mechanical weaknesses. This also applies to psychological weak­nesses. The method of handling the matter is the same as that used in removing errors of form.

The first step is to keep a record of those shots which are missed for no apparent mechanical reason—shots with which we normally have no difficulty. These shots are sometimes referred to as "jinx" shots. There are also "jinx" holes. For top-notch golfers, there are even "jinx" tournaments.

29. Slump - There are times when one's whole game seems to have gone to pot, and there are times when it really has. What steps should be taken then to come out of a slump? Here are the most important:

1. Determine whether or not you are really in one. It could be only a statistical variation. If the slump is no greater than those you have hit in previous golfing years, it is best simply to ride it out. Experimentation under such circumstances can well lead to a prolongation of the trouble. False slumps may be due to lack of practice, changes in the weather, changes in the accuracy of the greens, or the fact that your competitors may be riding a wave of good golf.

30. Gain Confidence - Golf is a doubly difficult game because you must conquer both physical and psychological problems. One of the latter is how to gain confidence.

Confidence is not something that can be created out of thin air. No amount of confidence will get a ball into the hole if it is improperly stroked. A scared golfer with a good stroke will not play as well as he can, but he will still defeat the confident golfer who has nothing else to back him up. Psychology cannot overcome physics.

31. Handle Anger - What about temper? In the 1945 Dallas Open, played at the Dallas Country Club, one of the leaders hit a phenomenally long drive on number 3, a sharp dog-leg to the left, par 4. His ball carried to about the 245-yard marker and, from the tee, it ap­peared that it was headed right for the green. The golfer strode up toward the center of the fairway, but did not see his ball until a spectator said it was in the rough to the right of the fairway. The ball had received an abnormally bad lateral kick from a hard depressed spot on the fairway.

32. Golfing Masochism - A person who derives a perverse pleasure from self-in jury is called a masochist. Some players tend to be golfing masochists. Some break golf clubs. Others will deliberately cost themselves additional strokes.

A very fine golfer hit his second shot into water in front of the green on a par 5. Instead of moving up to the water's edge and lobbing the next shot to the hole, he perversely hit several more balls into the water from a range of about 250 yards. By a narrow margin he failed to place among the leaders, and this cost him an invitation to appear in the Masters the following year.

33. Harness Compulsions - In order to become skillful at anything, the great requirement is persistence. In order for persistence to maintain itself, emo­tional drive is necessary. Some people have more of this drive than others. Some have it so highly developed that they are possessed by the drive instead of possessing it. One form this takes is that of the compulsion.

34. Golf Thinking - At the 1959 Masters Tournament, Hogan stated that he was hitting the ball as accurately as he ever had, but was not doing as well with his "thinking," since he was not playing much tourna­ment golf and had not been practicing this phase of the game.

A reporter said, "But, Ben, I thought once you learned how to think in tournaments, you always knew how to do it."

35. Particulars - It has been said that the mark of the thinker is one who can develop universals out of particulars. Applied to golf this would mean that if we discover something about hitting particular shots, our learning can be made more useful if we can express it as a general rule.

For instance, our principle of "eliminate variables" makes it easier to determine the value of techniques we may wish to try. Another "universal" or generalization on a particular course could be "all putts break toward the river." The more such gen­eralizations a golfer has, the easier golf thinking becomes.

36. Golfing Delusions - In golf we must often be on guard against ourselves. We think we are doing one thing when actually we are doing some­thing else. We can have images of our golf swings which do not conform with the facts. We tend to believe we have excellencies which do not exist. Sometimes we believe we have deficiencies which are not there, and even change a swing that is all right to begin with.

37. Gambling Shot - All golfers are faced with situations in which they feel a risky shot should be tried.

Assuming that the need for the gambling shot is clear—the so-called "calculated risk"—what then can be done to give it the best chance of being pulled off?

First, the chances are much better than average if the shot is preceded by what might be called "the surge of confidence." With this, one experiences an almost overwhelming feeling that a given shot can be made. I have experienced this myself a number of times in various sports. It is followed by success that defies the law of averages and seems to approach the impossible.

38. Most Missed - An excellent rule to follow during serious play is never to hit an experimental shot. Of all the shots missed by golfers, this is probably the most costly.

Shots that vary from the norm are generally those during which something new is being tried; or they may be modifica­tions of normal shots. For instance, on number 8 of the Augusta National, one contender on one occasion, and another contender on two occasions, pulled their tee shots close to the woods on the left. From this position, to hit the green on this par five, both would have had to hit hooked second shots.

39. Computing Distance - Many golfers judge distances subconsciously. They look at the hole and "feel" the distance. This is not as accurate as con­sciously computing how far you are from the green. The "feel" can be made much more accurate if it is helped mechanically and psychologically. This is particularly true when you are within pitching distance of the green.

40. Save Strokes - Ego involvement is a Freudian term having to do with what is generally known as pride. We are ego-involved when we use a three iron when we should be using a two or even a wood club. One of the secrets of the phenomenal play of Paul Runyan was that he didn't allow his ego to affect his choice of clubs. If his opponent used a six iron, Runyan would not hesitate to use his four wood if the situation called for it, and tales of his accuracy with such shots are legendary.

41. To Think - We have emphasized the need for conscious thinking, but a great deal of golf is played subconsciously. The upper levels of thought do not have a great deal to do with the actual execu­tion of the shot. The chief functions of upper-level thought should be used prior to hitting. Brains make themselves felt more in learning the most effective methods of practice than in guiding an infinity of muscles through a detailed conscious maneuver of final execution.

42. Pressure - It is a matter of common golf knowledge that "pressure" generally results in higher scores. We recognize that most of us do not play as well in tournaments as we do in casual golf. Too often practice rounds prior to a tournament do not give us a good clue as to who the winners will be.

43. Apply the Pressure - There is only one way of applying pressure to your opponent in head-on play—through your golfing ability. Any form of direct or indirect needling should be restricted to the golfing group in which the relationship is so close that the usual amenities are relaxed.

The proper attitude should be that the game is more im­portant than the player, and that the players are more important than the outcome of one's personal matches. The written rules should be upheld; beyond that, golf is a game for gentlemen and requires an extreme consideration for others.

44. Rationalize Failure - An ominous obstacle to improvement in golf is the habit of rationalizing. When a person rationalizes, it means, to put it simply, that he places the blame for his defeats upon outside persons or circumstances. This protects his ego by taking the sting out of failure. It turns painful depression into less painful anger. It tears others down and, by this tearing down of others, seems to raise him in prominence, much like the last survivor of a battle royal who looks like a giant in the ring if everyone else is on the floor. It is bad psychology to rationalize.

45. Be Realistic - Putting is the most difficult part of the game. If one is not realistic in this regard, he will fail to take the steps which will bring about improvement.

Putting is difficult because it is highly complicated, fully as complicated as three-cushion billiards—and perhaps more so. In fact, Willie Hoppe, who mastered billiards, was astonished that he could not overcome his poor putting. This is not too difficult to understand.

46. Confidence in Putting - Year in and year out, the average golfer will miss about the same percentage of putts. However, there is considerable variation from day to day, and from week to week. Many golfers say, "I am putting well," or "I am putting poorly," when nothing other than chance is operating.

The mathematical truth is that it does not make much differ­ence whether the putt drops or not on any given occasion.

47. Direction in Putting - As you may have concluded by our past discussion of putting, the great difficulties with this part of the game arise from its many variables, some of which are not subject to our direct control, such as course conditions. There are two variables that do come within our powers: speed and direction. Anything we can do to improve our ability to gauge distance or to increase accuracy should be done. Unfortunately, by taking measures that improve direction we often injure our touch for speed.

48. Carpet Putting - The chief value of practicing on a carpet is to standardize the grip, stance, and stroke so that the ball will roll straight. This is best undertaken on a uniform rug so that our observation may be more accurate.

Carpet putting should be practiced only until you are rea­sonably sure that the swing will "repeat," as modern lingo says. It will also be of value for sinking short and uncomplicated putts.

49. Putting Stance - There is a considerable emphasis in golf literature about the need for keeping the head still. Many people have gone so far as to advocate, "Knock the ball out from underneath the eyes," i.e., not moving the head until the ball is well on its way. Some have said that if the ball rolls true for the first six inches, you won't have to worry about the rest. These people have advised selecting a target just that length ahead of the ball.

50. Finesse Putting - It is a difficult thing to make the muscles do something they are not trained to do. A common experience of the spectators banked around the 18th green at the Masters is to watch player after player run past the cup on the downhill putts. On the other hand, let the greens be slowed by rain, and many of the golfers will putt short. At the end of the round they can be heard to say, "I just couldn't make myself hit the putts hard enough, after remembering how fast these greens have always been."

51. Putting Slumps - There is no more demoralizing condition in golf than to be in the throes of a putting slump. When the putting is bad there develops a chain reaction which can cause a general blowup. If our short putts are not going down, we make a desperate effort to get the long putt or chip so close that we "can't miss." This adds a pressure variable that brings about flubbed shots. Next we make a great effort to steer our iron shots so that they will land on the green.

52. Longer Drives - Very often, the biggest factor preventing a person from obtaining maximum power is his psychological attitude. If this attitude is not a proper one, he puts an artificial limit on his distance. Since there is a good correlation between one's dis­tance and one's over-all play, he thus also places an artificial limit on his scoring averages.

The first requirement for obtaining greater length is an under­standing of the fact that very few golfers attain their maximum effective distance, and that it is not likely that the reader has. Some day we shall have a test that will indicate the maximum distance for each golfer, but until that time we must believe that there is a good bit of difference between how far we do hit and how far we could hit the ball.

53. Final Secret - In psychology, much use is made of the psychological test. The ideal test is so constructed that individual questions and problems range from the very easy to the very difficult. Some questions can be answered by almost anyone. Some problems can be solved by almost no one.

In this respect, golf as a game is an ideal test. There is a place for every degree of skill, and we can spend a lifetime at the sport without learning it all. This is not a disadvantage.

THE END

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