Do you ever worry about your golf game?  I know, you're saying, "And is the Pope Catholic?" We do tend to angst over this game we love to hate, don't we? Why?  No, I don't mean why do we worry over golf, I mean, why do we worry, period! It has been said that there are only two things we shouldn't worry about--- things we can do something about and things we can't!

Lets look at how that applies to golf. The things we can do something about include CHOOSING to enjoy the playing of the game without depending on score; USING a repeatable pre-shot routine to prepare for and plan each shot; LEARNING the correct techniques and skills of the game; LETTING GO of mistakes and misses; and EXPECTING good outcomes.  I'm sure if you thought about it, you could come up with more things that you can do something about.

But let's look at the next part, things you can't do anything about. I believe we golfers have more difficulty and create more useless worry about these things.  Things like who you are paired with (unless you have your own pre-formed foursome); what the weather might be like; how slow or fast the pace of play is (unless you are causing it!); and here's the biggie---how you hit it and where the ball goes!  Oh sure, we can do something about preparing for a swing/shot and we can do something about planning for outcome, but once we go into our swinging motion, or once we roll that putt, we have no control over the outcome!  And here's the kicker---the more you worry about it, the less brain power you have to plan and prepare. So give it up!  As my friend Ann Casey Johnstone, LPGA T&CP Hall of Fame member and long time college coach says, "just swing hard, in case you hit it"!