The Mental Game: How To “Psych-Out” Your Competition
By Chris Dorris

It’s summer tournament time again. Many of you have already played in some events and some of you are just getting ready. Everyone who’s ever played in a tournament knows the feeling involved in competitive golf. Some of those feelings work FOR you, some of them work AGAINST you. The ones that work for you include: confidence, preparedness, anticipation, desire and excitement. The ones that get in your way include: doubt, extreme nervousness (a little nervousness is actually a good thing, but a lot of it tightens muscles and clouds thinking), hopelessness and intimidation.

One of the values of training your mind for golf is learning how to strengthen the feelings that help you get closer to your dreams, and how to get rid of the feelings that take you away from those dreams. You’ll learn a little today about how to do that, but if you read very closely, you might learn a lot about how to fake it until you learn it for real.

Part of competitive golf has to do with what goes on in the mind of your competitor. If they think you’re an emotional basket case that falls apart at the seams the second you hit an offline shot, then you’re done. They automatically have a tremendous confidence advantage over you. If, on the other hand, you look like Nick Faldo did during the 1996 Masters, then you’re going to have them shaking in their alternative spikes.

You see, “psyching-out” your competitor involves controlling what they think you’re thinking. (Stay with me on this. Read it again if you need to, this is good stuff.) All you have to do to psych-out the other player is learn how to make them think you’re totally confident and in control. The trick is to make them think that, even when you’re not feeling like that at all.

Ever play poker? Poker involves bluffing. In fact, it’s a huge part of the game. Poker wouldn’t be poker without good old-fashioned bluffing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, bluffing is when you try to look like you have great cards in your hand when they stink, or when you try to look like you have stinky cards in your hand when they’re great. The reason you would do this is to throw them off.

It’s almost the same as psyching-out the competition in golf. Of course, you would never want your competitor thinking that you were feeling scared to death when you were feeling as confident as ever. But you definitely want them to think you’re feeling confident as ever when you’re feeling scared to death.

At this point, let me add a word of advice. Keep this stuff friendly. Psyching-out the competition does not mean screaming insults and threats at them. In fact, what I’m talking about is just the opposite.

The best way to ever psych ‘em out is to do so with silence. Silence is incredibly powerful. It’s often much more intimidating than words. Trash-talking athletes don’t understand that, and they often get in lots of trouble during competition.

Classy athletes know full well that they’ll never get into trouble for keeping quiet, AND remaining silent. They make the competitor wonder what’s going on in their heads.

This is especially true when you stay cool after a not-so-great shot. Think about it. It happens to me all the time. Unfortunately, I hate my fair share of offline shots. But, fortunately, when I do, I keep my head on. In fact, sometimes I even smile a little bit for a second or two like you do after you hear a so-so joke. That almost always confuses my competition, and gets them wondering. It makes me look in total control and automatically I have the advantage of the mental edge. Poker face! Remember it.

On the flip side of that poker chip, don’t overreact to great shots either. Certainly, permit yourself to feel pumped and let yourself celebrate the great shots a bit. I repeat, A BIT. If you get ecstatic or start jumping up and down screaming, “Yes, Yes! Yes!” your competition is going to think either you’ve never made a great shot before in your life and probably never will again, or that you’ve gone off the deep end and you’re not coming back any time soon. And in both cases, you’ve given them a strong mental advantage.

Think of a small range of emotions that goes from controlled excitement after great shots, to simple curiosity after offline shots. That’s all you want to show. Even if you haven’t learned yet that anger and golf go together like matches and dynamite, and you find yourself stewing after a less than pristine swing, don’t let the rest of the field know it. Keep that between you and the golf gods, and do some more work on the mental game. But for that moment, fake it, and make it look like you’re in total control. Then let your bluff do its thing in the minds of the competition.

Psyching out is part of golf strategy, but only when it’s done respectfully and within the honor of the game. Remember, this is a GAME. And it’s played for FUN. Don’t ever let winning become more important than that.

If you find yourself thinking that you must win at all costs, and you find yourself psyching out the competition by insulting them, I recommend you take a break from competition, and play a few casual rounds with friends to remind yourself that golf is a wonderful GAME. It is a game that builds character and strengthens integrity when you respect it. It is a game that humiliates and demoralizes you when you don’t. Keep it clean, and have fun!

Copyright © 2003, Chris Dorris