If you must think while playing, do so sparingly.

How many times have we all heard that one? I don’t think it’s ever more true than on the golf course.

How often have you been playing with someone who’s having a good round and they say, “I’m playing out of my head,” or “I wonder when the wheels are going to fall off.” With that kind of thought process, you won’t have to wait long.

I was playing with one of my members who’s about a 12 handicap. He’s a pretty competent player - he just gets a bad attitude sometimes. He pars the first two holes, catches his wedge a little fat on the third and dumps it into the lake and makes double bogey. On 4 with the same wedge from about 120 yards, he catches the ball right in the forehead and sends it about 180 into the Pacific Ocean. The wedge receives a verbal lashing finished with, “I hate this club and it hates me back. If I wasn’t so far from the clubhouse, I’d quit right now.”

On the fifth tee his normal fade turns into a snap hook, OB, heading for triple bogey. He says, “Since I have to walk down 6, 7, 8 and 9 to get to the clubhouse I might as well keep you company and finish this 9 - then I’ll quit.” I love watching this - it’s great entertainment and I have a pretty good idea of what’s about to happen.

Sure enough, after committing to quitting the game, that wedge he’s not on speaking terms with knocks it 18 inches from the hole, birdie. He makes another birdie with that same awful wedge, followed by a bogey and a par for a 42 for that side. Not bad for a 12 handicapper. All of a sudden he wants to play the back 9 because, as he puts it, “I’ve found the secret. Without those couple of bad holes I was 1 under that side.”

You can imagine how the back 9 goes. The “secret” lasts about 3 holes and by the time we’re on 14, as far as you can get from the clubhouse, he vows to quit again: “And this time I mean it!” He finishes with 3 pars and a birdie, for a 42-40, 82 on the day. The secret is back, and he can’t wait to get to the clubhouse to see who’s playing in the morning so he can show somebody, anybody, his new-found “secret.”

I think we’ve all lived this experience; the key is to learn from it. It’s when you think you become mechanical and mechanical just doesn’t work. What happens is when you decide to quit golf, you quit thinking. Your brain gets out of the way and your body does what you’ve trained it to do.

Think on the driving range. If you must think while playing, do so sparingly. Trust your body, and remember the mind is a terrible thing to waste - especially on the golf course!