To Care or Not to Care

To care or not to care, the situation that I have to deal with almost every time I play in a golf match. Other than the negative confidence I used to have, another problem was when I would give up or "care" for the game. It always gets to me when I start getting bogeys and double bogeys (not a good thing in golf), all of the negative thoughts arise. For example, in my district match to get into state, my day started out rough, getting bogeys and such. It wasn't the bogeys that made me play worse, it was thought that if I don't play really well now, then I won't be able to make it to state. This turned into the thought of not caring, and I was at the point where I was so frustrated, I just didn't care. That ended up being the worst round I had played in 2015, and it was because I didn't care. In the book Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent, he says that the word "care" is usually misunderstood and turns into unwanted problems. Care could mean "have interest in" or "worry about". He knows professional golfers do not worry about misses. The common golfer usually confuses these two meanings, and try to act as if they didn't care. This causes careless shots and sloppy golf. And they know that they do actually care, and you wouldn't be playing if you didn't care (143-144). He says this to convey the commonly used word when golfers want to find an excuse. From my personal anecdote, this relates to me very closely, and now have put thought into my mental attitude every time I play golf. And as you can tell, my mood before in golf can change from "care" to "not care" fairly easily. Once I start keeping the care motive (I have always cared or else I wouldn't be playing), my confidence will stay consistent throughout the whole round.

I have been working rather quickly with my confidence levels, and caring is still a main problem with my mental golf game. I end up either worrying about my score, or not care (I still care it's just that state of not caring). Dr. Joseph Parent states, "You can care without worrying. If you care in the sense of being interested, you'll be focused and go through your process and trust your routine, and the stroke will be smooth and free." (144) I have never really put any thought into whether I cared or not. But it turns out that it really does affect my golf game when I worry. This weekend, I have made a turn for the better. I have been a lot more confident being not as worried as I usually am and have improved my score as well. I'm glad to say I feel that I am only improving from here on.

Is confidence an issue for yourself, whether it be a sport or in general?

Parent, Joseph, Dr. Zen Golf. New York: Double Day, 2002. Print.