Golf Driving Tips - It's All in the Mind, Or is It?

The title 'golf driving tips' may, at first glance, not seem to fit this article, but if you take the piece as a whole, you will realise that it is one big driving tip - as it solves a problem that many of us suffer on the tee.

Picture the scene - you are on the first tee waiting for the fairway to clear, when up walks a foursome which includes the club captain, the assistant pro, the club secretary and his wife. Oh, my god! Negative thoughts start to enter your head...."I'm gonna fluff it", "I'm gonna hook it so bad, they're gonna laugh at me - especially the secretary's wife". What do you do?

Well, I'm no psychologist, but what you don't do is panic. I understand that this is difficult in situations like this, but you must learn to block out any negative thoughts and focus on your objective - hitting the ball where you want it to go.

What are the ways that we can remedy the situation? Well, you could use a hypnotist (not recommended), or you could employ the services of a qualified golf psychologist (expensive), or you could work it out yourself (both recommended and inexpensive). I used to suffer with this problem and this is how I "thought" myself out of it.

Start by yourself, you can practise your swing anywhere in your own home or garden - you do not need a club in your hands to practise your swing "thoughts", but if you have room, so much the better. Place a ball on the carpet or lawn. Now imagine your favorite par 5 hole (I say favorite because once you play a hole a couple times, you know where on the fairway you want the ball to end up - helps with focus).

• At address, keep your eyes on the back of the ball - not the top, not the logo, but the precise spot where the club face will make contact.
• Look out at your imaginary fairway and concentrate on where the ball is going to land.
• Look down at the back of the ball - the point where the club face will connect.
• One more look at the fairway, then back to the ball.
• Keep your eyes on the back of the ball throughout the swing, do not move your head until you follow through with the club.

You should find that with your mind focusing on where the ball is going to land, and concentrating so much on the back of the ball, all negative thoughts will disappear. This is easy to achieve by yourself, in your own home, but will it transfer onto the golf course?

When I did this, I put in an intermediary step. I took everything that I was doing at home and transferred it to the driving range - same imaginary hole, same focus on the back of the ball, exactly the same routine but now there were other golfers around. This is where I learned a valuable lesson - I still got negative thoughts, but I was able to block them out very easily by focusing on my routine.

The final step is to take this psyche to the golf course, and play better golf.

Like I said, I'm no psychologist, but this worked (and still does) for me.

This is probably one of the more unusual golf driving tips that you will come across, but I hope that it was helpful.

Enjoy your golf.