1. Positive Thoughts

Whenever you find yourself in a pressure situation, it’s very important to release all the negative thoughts out and create some positive ones. You have to believe that you can pull off the shot you want to. You have to ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen.” Let’s say you top it, or chunk it. SO WHAT! No one actually cares, no one is thinking

“Hahaha you suck”

“You’re so bad”

Your brain naturally will get nervous and make you start to care about other people’s opinion. It’s very important to realize that you can only control on taking the most confident swing and hoping for the best result. You can do it! You can pull off the shot you want to, just zone in and focus and you’ll be surprised.

 

2. Deep Breathes

Focus on your breath before your shot. If you are feeling nervous or tension, your heartbeat will increase and that could have a negative impact on your shot. Take a deep breath before your shot and let out all the anxiety, fear and pressure. Clear your mind and then zone in on your target and hit the shot. This will help you a lot because when you’re calm and steady the tempo in your swing will be more in sync with what it is normally like.

 

Sometimes when we hit a shot while we are nervous, we tend to hurry up and hit it. Normally that leads to a very poor result. So that’s why it is very important to take a deep breath and release all the tension. This will help you perform under pressure.

 

3. Perspective

If you really understand that your putting a lot more pressure on your self and causing yourself to stress over a shot that you could pull off 9 times out of 10, you will not feel as much tension as you normally would. You have to realize that you put a lot more pressure on yourself then you should. If you end up failing… whats the big deal. Yes, you may be upset and angry, but eventually, you will move on and live your life and so will everyone else. No one actually cares if you fail or embarrass yourself by hitting a bad shot, we tend to think thoughts like

“What will they think”

“They’re gonna think I suck”

“Don’t embarrass yourself”

Eventually, we are going to have to realize that everyone else is focusing on their own shot, and no one cares about the shot we are about to hit. This will help tremendously in a pressure situation.

 

4. Trust Yourself

It is so easy to doubt yourself in a pressure situation or to second guess yourself. However, you have to tell yourself that you know how to hit the shot you want to hit. Just believe in yourself, you’ve worked so hard to perform in situations like this, so you owe it to yourself. Once you gain trust and believe that you can pull off the shot, you will be untouchable.

Every amateur golfer is or has faced the challenge of trusting themselves. What differentiates players who have made it, and those who haven’t? The players that have made it know how to pull off the shot when it matters. So just please trust yourself!

 

5. Preparation

Make sure that before you get in the zone and hit your shot, you have everything into consideration:

• Wind
• Temperature
• Green Speed
• Hazards
• Target
• Right club selection
• Landing spot
• etc

I may be missing some but these should be a part of your thought process before executing the shot you want to hit. The more knowledge you have the less pressure you feel and the more prepared you feel for the shot. All it takes is a little more focus but the result will definitely be worth it.