The smell of fresh-cut grass permeates the damp morning air. Warm sunshine filters through a stand of towering Douglas firs. Gazing down a wide-open fairway, you unconsciously tighten the grip on your driver and step up to the tee. Muscles loose and eyes focused directly on the ball, you take a deep breath and execute a picture-perfect swing. Your ball soars
satisfyingly, arcing high against the brilliant blue and green backdrop, but instead of dropping gently among the acres of fertile, well-maintained winter rye, it disappears into the now-menacing second-growth forest. Your stomach tightens and pulse quickens—golf season is back. Despite countless hours at the driving range and putting green, it’s easy to hit a rut on the golf course, whether it’s a pesky slice or the fact that you’re just not having fun. While many invest in the newest golf technology in hopes of getting out of a slump, studies have shown that the average player’s score on 18 holes hasn’t changed much since the days when woods were still made of hickory.
“The National Golf Foundation has indicated that the average handicap for men is 17, and 26 for women, and has been for 25 years,” says Bill Meyer, Bellevue Club member and sports psychologist. In addition to holding an MBA and Ph.D. in organization and human development, Bill formerly coached the University of Washington and Seattle University golf teams and currently serves as president of the Washington Junior Golf Association. Bill currently works with individuals and groups to help maximize their potential, either in the business arena or on the links. He’s also a scratch golfer.
Rather than working with players to develop the perfect swing, Bill focuses more on the psychological aspects of the game. In terms of today’s competitive golf, Bill was a late bloomer. Growing up in Everett, he didn’t pick up a club until he was 16. Playing high-school football, basketball and baseball, Bill got serious about golf the summer before his sophomore year and naturally gravitated toward the mental side of golf. “Being vertically challenged, I always had to think a little harder and control my thoughts whether it was football, basketball or golf,” he says. After one summer on the links, Bill earned a spot on Everett High School’s state championship squad, beating out stronger and more technically sound golfers. Others were more gifted in their knowledge of the swing and the sport, and had more opportunity to play or practice so I had to rely more on the mental side to be competitive,” he says.
KNOW THYSELF According to Bill, mastering the mental aspect of golf starts well before tee time with introspective questions and honest answers. “What do you want to achieve by playing golf, and why is it important to you?” asks Bill. “It’s really helping you realize both what the targets are, whether it be a college scholarship, breaking 100 for the first time, not being embarrassed when you go out and play in a company tournament, or just to enjoy your time on the links. “Planning and preparation includes establishing some targets about what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it, and then doing some assessments and honestly addressing where we are now in those areas,” he says. Along with setting realistic goals, Bill also says knowledge of your natural tendencies is important both on and off the course. “Some people are fast-paced, some people are slow-paced, some are more analytical, some are more social and others are more flexible,” he says. “For example, if a person knows they’re
fast-paced, then they need to control that tendency and not let it control them, or they can get very impatient and it can show up in many ways. A social person is going to play their best in a comfort zone with people they enjoy playing with and when they’re having a good time. They’re not going to play their best with people that aren’t verbal and enjoying the social part of it,” he says. Knowing your tendencies and managing them typically results in less stress and lower scores, Bill says. “The whole key is that the mental side of golf requires an understanding of the mind and how it works—and condition it the way you want to be conditioned,” he says. For most players, Bill prescribes a greater focus on the positive as a way to improve. “The number-one way to improve would be to really find ways that they can make golf fun and be realistic about that,” he says. He likens most golfers’ mentality to a grade-school test.
“Golf tends to be a red-pen sport. If you get seven right and three wrong, the seven don’t get circled with a blue pen—it’s the three wrong ones getting circled with a red pen. Over time, there becomes more teachers than players because everybody can point out something of a red-pen nature, either in their own game or someone else’s,” he says. “Build confidence over time, by focusing more on the positive things a golfer does, rather than always trying to perfect a weakness.” Bill also points to off-the-course distractions as a huge hindrance on the course.
“A lot of times, somebody will have a big business meeting or a lot of things on their mind at home. They’re at the golf course, but they’re mind isn’t really on the golf—it’s on the business, home or relationship issue,” he says. When Bill gives a seminar, he spends time focusing on these issues off the golf course. “I teach some time-management skills to help them get control of their time and focus in decision-making,” he says. “When students are peaceful and under control off the course, it transfers to their golf game.”
KNOW YOUR OPPONENT “Like in any sport, you have an opponent, but in golf the opponent is the course, the architect and Mother Nature,” he says. “It’s really looking at the architect and the challenges Mother Nature presents shot by shot, and then making some decisions ahead of time to how you’re going to play that hole and what’s the highest probability target for you to be aiming.”
Similar to football or basketball teams watching footage of an upcoming opponent, Bill strongly advocates researching and building a strategy ahead of time. “Try to decide the strengths and weaknesses of different holes and decide on a game plan,” he says. “The more comfortable a person is with a golf course ahead of time, the more relaxed and confident they’re going to be while playing. “When players go to play their own course, they already know the course, so they’re already in a mentally relaxed state,” he says. “When they go someplace new, they don’t know the course, they don’t know the holes, they don’t know where the trouble is and they’re not prepared.” Most courses have yardage books available for tournaments or display their course layout online. “If there’s major trouble where you normally hit your driver, then maybe the highest-probability shot for you would be a two-iron or a three-wood off the tee, and to leave your driver in the bag. Or, if it’s a par-five and there’s water around the green,
maybe don’t go for the green in two, and layup instead,” he says. “It’s like studying for an examination. When you’ve really studied and you’re really prepared, you’re more confident going in.” Bill says a common difficulty for many golfers occurs when they try to transfer skills from the driving range to the actual course. “That’s a very big mental thing in that they’re not preparing to play, they’re really just practicing to hit balls,” he says. “If a golfer knows where they’re going to play and develops a game plan, they can go out and rehearse that. For example, if you go out and hit some practice shots specifically for the first hole at Bellevue Municipal, when you play it, you’re going to be more confident because you’ve been rehearsing that shot.”
THE POWER OF POSITIVE PUTTING “I’ve asked hundreds of golfers to walk me through their pre-shot routine, and they start talking about focus and squaring their hips. Then, I ask them to explain their post-shot routine, and they’ll go ‘what?’” Bill says. “People generally don’t have a post-shot routine.” Bill emphasizes establishing a consistent, positive post-shot routine.
“As a behavioral scientist, one of the key things for people to know is that it’s not what happens to us that’s important, it’s how we react to what happens that’s really critical,” he says. Bill teaches students to look for something positive immediately after each shot. Even if the ball goes in the water or a sand trap, Bill insists that there is always something to celebrate. “You first think, ‘I had good balance’ or ‘I really hit the ball hard,’ and then you say, ‘okay, what can I learn from that shot, was my balance off or my tempo too fast? It’s self awareness,” he says.
Bill notes that players’ post-shot reactions often tend to get worse over time. “Golfers build very high expectations of themselves and their post-shot routines get worse and worse,” he says. “What the brain center remembers is more negative than positive, which gets them in kind of a mental comfort zone or a rut.” Establishing a positive mental image will help a player get through ruts or problems with his or her game. “The real breakthrough is when we accept the notion that there is no such thing as muscle memory. Muscles don’t have memory—memory is in the brain. If you had brain damage, you couldn’t write, you couldn’t speak, you couldn’t lift a cup,” he says. “It’s really conditioning the mind to do what you want the body to do, rather than forcing the body to do what you want it to do.” Besides increasing enjoyment, Bill says he typically sees improvement on the scorecard once a player starts managing his or her mental game and focusing on the positive. “It can improve a person’s game by a minimum of five strokes very quickly.” As golf legend Arnold Palmer once stated: “The toughest six inches in the game of golf is between a player’s ears.”
MENTAL SIDE OF GOLF SEMINAR To learn more about mastering the mental side of golf, the Bellevue Club is holding a special two-day Mental Side of Golf seminar with Bill Meyer on Tuesday, May 19 and Thursday, May 21 from 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Bill is associated with the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy in Florida and is a nationally recognized public speaker and trainer. The seminar teaches key mental skills and strategies that will allow attendees to gain more confidence, have more fun and lower their scores.
To register, call 637-4610 or visit https://members.bellevueclub.com. The seminar is listed under the Recreation Department Adult Activities section. Guests may not register online. The cost is $85 member/$100 guest, $55 student/$60 guest-student.
