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Mental Toughness  Email this Article to a Friend
David F. Wright, Ph.D., PGA PATIENCE Patience is a process of combining focused concentration and redirecting thinking that is unrelated to the present. Patience is a big part of mental toughness. Mental toughness is a trait all peak performers have. When you lose patience, you lose focused concentration. Simply stated, patience is the ability to stay focused, and resist emotional and physical decay in the face of frustration. Sam Snead described a practice round at his first PGA tournament in Hershey Pennsylvania in late 1936. He played with George Fazio and two other tour professionals. He discussed his first four shots. The first two were big slices out-of-bounds into a chocolate factory. His third tee shot went into the water just off the front of the tee. He had hit three shots and none of them were in play. The other three professionals had hit 260 yard drives down the middle of the 345 yard hole. Two of the professionals grumbled about Sam's level of play, but George Fazio calmly and patiently told Sam to hit another ball. Sam's fourth tee shot landed on the green twenty feet from the pin. Sam shot a 67 in that practice round. His point to this story is: "Never give up."i Many players hit a bad tee shot and immediately conclude they have bogeyed, doubled, or tripled the hole; they give up; they have no patience; they lose their focused concentration. Sam Snead summarizes the process of giving up: "In tossing in your cards after a bad beginning you also undermine your whole game, because to quit between tee and green is more habit forming than drinking a highball before breakfast."ii Players not only learn the bad habit of giving up on a hole, they give up on nine or the entire round once they lose concentration. How many times after six or seven holes of marginal or poor play have you thought: "I'll get it back on the back side." As soon as you lose your focus, your play will deteriorate further. Sam Snead cites another example of having patience and staying focused at PGA Tour stop Westchester Open. He said he hit "3 straight drives so far out-of-bounds on the third hole that the Eagle Scouts couldn't have brought one of those balls back." He further adds that he had patience, continued to play a shot at a time, and was carried off the 18th green on the shoulders of the crowd when he won the tournament.iii When you hit a ball out of bounds, into a hazard, or you have a big lead going into the final holes, stay focused, don't quit, don't guard your lead, and play every shot as though it's the only shot you're going to hit that day. When tour players describe the reasons for their wins, it is not uncommon for them to cite patience as a reason. Craig Stadler attributed his 1991 PGA Tour Championship to being patient.iv Jack Nicklaus reportedly attributed his 1972 US Open win to patience. Everybody was three putting due to the conditions of the greens. He reflects that he just had enough patience to finish and win. Patience for the weekend golfer is hitting several bad shots without analyzing his swing and attempting corrections. Don't try to create the shot or analyze why. That belongs on the range with an instructor. Recognize this is the time to practice patience and be mentally tough.
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