“Where is your attention?”

By: Dave Mahoney

It was a beautiful day in Virginia and Dr. Bob Rotella invited me to come with him to a golf course that neither of us had ever played. After the golf, he was going to give a talk and I was with him spending a couple of days learning how to improve my mind game. I have to be honest; spending a couple of days with this guy was such an uplifting experience. He has such a great perspective on golf and more importantly on life in general. After all, he has helped some of the biggest names in golf reach a level of play that they would have previously only dreamed of. Spending time with Dr. Bob Rotella was what really sparked my interest in what I consider to be the most fascinating aspect of golf… THE MIND GAME.

We were standing on the fifth hole which was this course’s number one handicapped hole. It was a par 5 that appeared to have many obstacles, but Bob didn’t want to see it that way. The man who was playing with us began to describe the hole to us as we stood on the tee. He said, “Well as you can see, there is lots of trouble out there. Watch out for the water on the left, the out of bounds markers far to the right and If you hit too far then…” Right at that moment Bob stopped him and said laughingly, “Whoa, whoa, would you just tell me where I should hit it so I can focus on that?!” The man turned back to Bob and said… “Left side of the fairway is perfect.” Bob remarked… “How about at that red tree in the distance?” “Even better!” the man commented back to Bob. Then Bob got up, went through his brief routine, took a couple of waggles and knocked another beautiful drive down the left side of the fairway. He must have only missed his target of the red tree by less than 5 yards, but none the less, he was perfectly positioned in the fairway.

After the round I really thought about the significance of Bob’s mental approach that every golfer can benefit from. He preaches making sure that your last thought before you hit is an image of what you are trying to achieve. It has to do with being clear and committed. The best golfers in the world focus on what they want the shot to look like and feel like, they do not waste their energy thinking about what they don’t want the shot to look like or feel like. You may have found yourself on the course noticing some sort of trouble and focusing your attention on the shot you don’t want. The result that often follows this habitual thought process is a shot that goes exactly where your attention was. This is how the human mind works, through habit. Going deeper here, when you bring your attention to what you don’t want you are really focusing on what you fear. In golf as in life, when we focus on what the mind fears, the best results don’t come about. As the saying goes “We are what we think.” Our thoughts are our most powerful resource. Learning how to harness the power of the mind and bring our attention where we want it, in the face of fear is a practice that is most rewarding. As with anything else, the more you practice this type of mindset, the easier it gets.