Conference 7.286::golf

    
    
      My concentration is okay, I guess.  But there are things, probably
    pet peeves, that bother me on a course.  One of which are golf carts,
    or shall I  say golf cart OPERATORS.  Just as you start your downswing,
    they stomp on the gas, releasing the hill brake like a rifle shot
    and off they go.  I, of course flinch, and lose a stroke.  This
    is a really a problem with adjacent fairways.  Seldom does anyone
    look before they stomp.

    I agree completely with the base noter.  I also play with an individual
    who must have complete silence.  The biggest problem that I have is
    that he slows down play considerably because he will walk away from the
    ball and wait if someone is talking or even whispering.  I must have
    terrific concentration because there have been many occasions when
    people have apologized to me for making a noise or talking or whatever
    during my shot and I didn't hear a thing.  That's not to say that
    certain things don't mess me up and rude golf cart operators definitely
    fall into that category, as well as people who want to take a practice
    swing behind me while I'm trying to tee off.
    
    Hal

    	I don't mind background noise or movement at all, as long as
    it is not excessive. As previously mentioned, as long as the noise
    is not a sudden blast or something in the middle of the swing that
    will cause a flinch, I don't mind background commotion. After years
    of noise related sport activity; baseball, basketball, soccer, etc.
    I certainly don't mind chatter.....

    
    
    	For most golfers, I don't think silence is necessary. The only
    times I get disturbed is if someone tries to talk directly to me
    during a shot. 
    
    John

    "think WHAT to DO, that's concentration in golf"
    
    						Tommy Armour

    I don't mind some noise, as long as it is not too sudden.  I must
    say that I really don't like to see people in my peripheral vision
    as it breaks my train of thought.  What matters to me is consistency
    of distraction.  If I've played three holes in silence, and then
    come up to a noisy stretch (a hole along a road, for instance) it
    pulls me away from my thought-routine.  The best golfers in the
    world, with money on the line, don't like to be distracted, so wanting
    a little quiet is not a sin.
    

    
      Concentration is difficult to maintain, especially when there
    is a distraction constantly going on in front of you.  This weekend
    we played the first round of club championships.  Our foursome had
    the misfortune of playing behind the last group of the previous
    flight.  SLOW doesn't even come close to describing thier play.
    It was 22 minutes between shots for us on the third hole. By the
    time they had finished the third there were two open holes in front
    of them.  I conceeded my match and walked off the course.  That
    group turned EVERYONE's round into a 5 hour and 45 minute ordeal.
    The tournament committee knew they were the slowest foursome the
    club could put together, the pro knew it, everyone knew it and they
    let them tee off in front of all the other flights.  Amazing!!

    At the DEC WEST tournament held in northern Conn a few weeks ago
    they set up the foursomes by handicap and tee off the best handicappers
    first and so on. The highest handicappers being the last foursome
    to tee off. This worked well. as my particular foursome didn't have
    any waiting. I didn't hear any complaints from anyone else.
    
    
    					Tom

Usually things don't bother me when I'm playing except perhaps
SOME joggers on the UVM track. :-)  Saturday I had an 
interesting thing happen.  I was playing just aweful, I knew
my concentration was bad but couldn't fix it.  Anyway on our
12th hole a butterfly was attracted to my ball when I was in
the middle of my backswing and I couldn't stop.  Yep........
I hit my best drive of the day and except for a double on
long par 3 I played well the rest of the way in.
Silly games eh?


					KO

    
    
    RE; .8
    
       Exactly what our tournament committee should have done, sent
    that group out last!  About early evening.

    
    re .8
    
    You make a decent point, though not always valid.  Just because a 
    player is good does not mean that he is fast.  I have seen some very
    good golfers that play extremely slow, I have also seen some horrible
    golfers play fast. (I have also seen visa versa).  For example, in the
    league I play in, we have a guy with a 4 handicap (for 9 holes), he is
    real slow, most people hate being behind him.  On the other hand, my
    wife, who just learned and shoots 75+ for 9 holes, plays very fast.
    
    We have never had anyone catch us on a course, and have caught others.
    
    So you can't always go by the quality of the golf to judge the speed.
    
    Even the pros get warned for slow play once in a while.
    
    --Bob
    

    Now let me see what was I going to say???? Oh ya concentration. I guess
    the thing is we expect it to be quite. Sometimes little things bother
    me and I will walk off the ball and other times I can play no matter
    what's going on around me. Sudden unexpected noise is the killer. Ya
    know when everything is real quite and you get to the top and someone
    farts. Man-o-man, I have never hit such a bad shot and laughed so hard
    in my life. My brother is the master. After the first time it dosn't
    matter if he does it again I'm lost for the rest of the day. I'm
    laughing my a## off just thinking about it. Oh god, what a crack up.
    
    
    

What is good concentration? Most of the replies here suggest that it 
is being able to ignore external distractions. I disagree. Jack 
Nicklaus is a master of concentration; a close-up of him over a putt is 
a portrait in pure concentration. Yet, I've seen him step away from a 
shot many times because something--or someone--was distracting him. 
The ability to remain unfazed by sudden talking, movement,...or 
whatever, is strictly a matter of filtering. Our minds filter out 
extraneous input. Of course, the mind first has to learn what is 
extraneous. And, as with other mental capacities, some people's minds are 
better at filtering extraneous "noise" than others, and some days our 
filters work better than other days. Being around noise all the time--as 
in arena-style sports--the mind learns to filter it out. This 
filtering process even works with intermittent sounds. Live next to 
the "El" in Chicago sometime. You'll have a hard time getting a good 
night's sleep for a while, but pretty soon you won't even know when a 
train goes by. Filtering can help concentration, but they are not the 
same thing. And, unfortunately, I don't think filtering can be learned 
in any conscious way. The ability is innate.

So what is concentration? The Tommy Armour quote is close, but too 
narrow. (He wants you to concentrate on applying his technique.) 
Concentration is focusing your mind on a given task. The more 
completely and crisply you bring the task into focus the better your 
concentration. In a sense, it's filtering, too, except you're 
filtering out extraneous INTERIOR "noises." Chances are, Nicklaus isn't 
thinking about what to do, but conjuring a mental image--a feel--of a 
successful shot. He allows no other thoughts to enter.

I've known many a golfer whose game is impervious to outside 
distractions, but who have very poor concentration. You can strike up 
a conversation or produce other loud, natural noises in the middle of 
their backswing, and chances are they won't notice. And if they do, 
they're not bothered. Some will even return the conversation during 
their swing with no apparent effect on the resulting blow. But they'll 
play erratically and miss "important" short putts even under ideal 
conditions. 

The good news is that concentration is like athletic ability: some of 
it is innate, but some can be developed--through practice. Put 
your game into a lot of competitive situations, forcing yourself to 
concentrate, and your concentration will improve. These can even be 
imagined situations. I forget which great player it was, but when he 
was a boy, he set up a little course in his yard and pretended to be 
playing in a championship. Hours on end, for years, he played this 
little course in countless "championships." He not only developed an 
extraordinary short game, he learned to concentrate at a championship 
level.

Curtis Strange, the impetus for the base note as I recall, is a good
example of mixed traits. He's long on concentration, probably average 
at filtering, and short of temper.

Pedantically yours,

} So what is concentration? The Tommy Armour quote is close, but too 
} narrow. (He wants you to concentrate on applying his technique.) 
} Concentration is focusing your mind on a given task.



    "think WHAT to DO, that's concentration in golf"
    
    						Tommy Armour


I see this quote as "focusing your mind on a given task" and nothing
about one persons or anothers technique....

    The other night in the final matchs of the year in league play
    at the club I belong to, I started out par, par, birdie..Fantastic
    start for me..My concentration was right on, having spent some
    considerable time concentrating on concentrating.
    
    On the fourth hole, I sliced a shot OB..Ok, I said, that's my
    one bad shot...I hit my fourth shot through the green into some
    shrubs behind the hole, which is also the next tee area.
    
    I go to my ball with my opponent to ensure the ball is in bounds. It
    was..So I proceeded to hit a real good recovery shot within an easy
    chip to green. Meanwhile, my opponet skulls his ball into a trap.
    Great, I think, I still have a chance to half this hole.
    
    Just as I'm about to hit my chip onto the green (my chipping and
    putting has recently won me a lot of holes) some a$$hole waiting to
    tee says "Jim, isn't that OB?" He must have realized I was about to
    stick my wedge up his patootee because he hid behind this real big guy.
    
    I back away from my shot, because I'm ready to spit nails...Wait a few
    seconds and proceed to put my chip about 10 inches..VERY POOR
    MANAGEMENT. The a$$hole says, "Sorry Jim, I didn't mean to screw you
    up." Thanks...I chip on, one putt for an 8. My opponent gets a 7..
    
    From that point on, my concentration was shot... Lesson learned REAL
    WELL...Oh yea, one other thing. The a$$hole is the team captain of the
    team my opponent is on...Good Job....
    
    Concentration.....
    
    Jim
    

>
>    "think WHAT to DO, that's concentration in golf"
    
    						Tommy Armour


>I see this quote as "focusing your mind on a given task" and nothing
>about one persons or anothers technique....

I see it as "focus your mind on the proper swing thoughts." Thinking 
about the mechanics. In Armour's case, that means moving your right 
knee toward the ball on the downswing and unleashing your right hand 
at the last instant for maximum power, among other thoughts. I loved 
his book. After reading it last winter I was all psyched for this 
year. And I've had a recurring case of the snap-hooks ever since. A 
great instruction book--probably one of the best--but not right for 
this hacker.

Clearly, focusing your mind on what to do is one form of concentration, 
but I don't think it's the only one--or even the most effective one. 
Focusing on a feel or an image can be just as effective. There's one 
hole at my club that I seem to drive the ball well on no matter how badly 
I'm hitting it all day. I've had some success in restoring 
(temporarily) my tempo by imaging that I'm on that tee before and 
during my swing. Most of us have experienced what has been referred to 
in these notes as "the Zone." When that magic overtakes our game (all 
too briefly and all too infrequently) our concentration is pure. When 
I'm in the Zone, I'm not thinking about doing anything; I'm just
locking into a feeling--a feeling that I can do no wrong. 

    re: -1
    
    	The practice range is the place to think about mechanics such
    as moving your right knee toward the ball on the downswing...whenever
    I think about mechanics while playing I always play bad...but when
    I think about "what to do...i.e. I see the shot first then line
    up and make my swing" I always play well and in the "zone"....
    
    The mechanics you think about and practice on the range HAVE TO
    BE learned by your muscles "muscle memory" so they are second nature
    when playing....if your thinking about mechanics while playing
    you don't have that "muscle memory" yet....so better keep practicing