In 2022, Mito Pereira stepped to the last hole of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills with a one-shot lead, his first time contending in a major. Then everything got quick\u2014his takeaway, his follow-through. His ball went into a creek, as did his major championship hopes.<\/p>\n
Compare Pereira\u2019s finish with how Cameron Young navigated the 72nd hole of this year\u2019s Players Championship. Tied for the lead on the final hole of a tour event for the first time in his career, Young\u2019s tee shot featured his signature pause at the top\u2014a brief hesitation he relies on to maintain proper sequencing\u2014which this time resulted in a 375-yard drive and a one-shot win.<\/p>\n
One golfer moved too fast and stumbled; the other slowed down and won. If we were just talking about the tempo of backswings, there wouldn\u2019t be much more to discuss. But experts say golfers\u2019 pace extends to ways that often lead to hasty mistakes. More than just quick at the top, they make rash decisions, even walk too fast\u2014all in moments when they really need to take a beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who\u2019s ever played a bad round is aware that everything speeds up because you\u2019re either trying to fight it or flee,\u201d says Dr. Stephen Ginsberg, a sports psychologist based in Denver who works with golfers. \u201cYou\u2019re just trying to get through it as fast as humanly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
When explaining his final tee shot at TPC Sawgrass, Young said he committed to a specific line before hitting. According to Dr. Scott Wylie, a cognitive neuroscientist and the co-founder of S2 Cognition, that strategy is important beyond simply picking a target. When golfers study a hole and visualize the shot they want to hit, they create a \u201cmental map\u201d that gives the body instructions on what to do. The more vivid the picture, Wylie says, the easier it is to swing athletically. Conversely, the more distracted our focus, the greater variability in how we move.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling pressured and your thoughts are scattered, speed is not going to be helpful,\u201d Wylie says. \u201cIn fact, you need to slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even a golfer\u2019s pace between shots matters. Rory McIlroy said he used to bolt ahead and then wait when a playing partner found trouble. But he learned that disrupted his rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just tried to hang back, so I could get to the ball and go through my normal routine and not be waiting up there for what I would feel like is forever,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
Another subtle tactic is eating or drinking, which players continue to do even late in rounds. It\u2019s not because they\u2019re hungry or thirsty. Since our stress responses were designed largely to thwart physical threats, eating or drinking communicates we\u2019re not in imminent danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number one job that we have in moments of perceived stress is to signal to the body that we are not under siege,\u201d Ginsberg says.<\/p>\n
MORE MIND GAMES <\/p>\n
This video series explains mental game topics and tactics. Search \u201cMind Games\u201d on Golf Digest\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2022, Mito Pereira stepped to the last hole of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,36416,85],"class_list":["post-918459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-how-to","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}