Zen: Isolate the Bad Shot

I’ve read the Zen books on golf and putting by Joseph Parent a few times. My scores didn’t improve at all. Great ideas that resonated with me, but when it comes down to counting strokes, it didn’t work. I’m not an expert on Zen or golf, but I’ve tried almost everything. I’ve read enough to know it’s probably not the fault of the book, it’s more likely about my mental state.

I’ve found one item in another Zen book that is easier to apply to my golf game. It relates to when one bad shot leads to several bad shots. The book is Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss. Don’t get me wrong, I barely comprehend Zen (nor the I Ching by Wu Wei). But some ideas really give a freeing feeling.

 

 

One of the first ideas is that anything that happens to you is the best possible thing that could happen to you. You’ll have to read it yourself, since it can’t easily be paraphrased, but here’s how it helped my golf game. Ever hit a bad shot, then follow it up with a few more bad shots just for good measure? Have you ever flubbed a chip shot, then hole-out the next chip? If you feel every outcome of every shot is the best possible outcome, you’ll stay on that “birdie” feeling.

The feeling you get when you’re “in the zone” is one of “I can’t fail”. That feeling is a self-created feeling, so why not keep that feeling no matter what happened on the last shot? Why feel like crap and ruin the next shot, when you could feel on top of the world instead? I know it’s easier said than done. But it’s important to keep the right attitude and not let what you can’t control (that last shot) impact the next shot.

That poor lag putt puts you in the position to make that tough down-hill slider for par. The best possible outcome! Not easy, but something to think about.