Golf Psychology: Assessing Your Mental Game Performance
by Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

As the new golf season gets underway (almost underway in the northern parts of the USA), most serious golfers want to be well prepared and firing on all cylinders when they start the new golf season. Golf provides the ability to test the various parts of one’s game via the numerous statistics that can be tracked. For example, the percentage of fairways hit per round is a general measure of your driving accuracy. The total number of putts per round is one measure of your putting performance. Therefore, you have plenty of opportunities to assess the various parts of your game by tracking your golf statistics (see the February issue of Peak Performance GOLF Insights on setting goals for the new golf season). However, how do you track your mental game performance to see how well you are thinking at the start of the season?

Students have told me in the past that the mental game is more abstract that the physical dimension of golf and is harder to track and work on. This is a dilemma in my work because the mental game components are not as objective or measurable compared to tracking stats such as greens in regulation for each round. Nevertheless, you can track your mental game performance if you know what to track and how. The results are more subjective though as you are the only one that can determine if you were focused on each shot. There is no objective statistic to track a golfer’s level of focus during the round—at least not yet.

I often ask my students to track their own mental game so they can give me feedback in our next session together. For example, if we are working on improving a student’s ability to focus on the process and the ingredients of the task, I need to know how well they can perform this mental game skill. I would like to help you assess your mental game performance on the course by monitoring your mental game skills. First, what are the basic mental game skills you want to assess during a golf round? Second, how will you monitor these abstract, but vital components of your game?

Here are four basic mental game skills you should track early in the season to monitor your mental game performance and make any adjustments:
1. Ability to focus on the process
2. Level of confidence prior to shot making
3. Level of trust during shot making
4. Ability to complete your mental preshot routine

The first mental skill to assess during the first rounds of the season is your level of focus during the 30 seconds prior to any golf shot you play. This is the critical time to be fully engaged with the upcoming shot. I’m sure you have the ability to focus for 30 seconds at a time, but can you focus successfully for 70 to 80 shots during a round of golf? You can monitor this in two ways: right after the shot circle an “F” on your score card for FOCUSED.

The other option, which depends on your memory, is to score yourself after the round by recalling all your shots. Giving yourself an “F” for FOCUSED means you were attending to the requirements of the shot for the entire 30 seconds prior to your shot. If you got sidetracked or distracted (i.e., you thought about the last missed putt during your putting routine), that means you were not focused during the shot. You can then tally up a focus stat for the round based on the percentage of shots your maintained focus.

Want to improve your mental game? Check out Dr. Cohn's golf psychology programs.