If you take a close look at the picture you'll see the control tower for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) located in the background. The only thing separating these golfers on the 12th green of Westchester Golf Course and runway 25L is the six lanes of traffic on Lincoln Blvd that run between the course and the airport. LAX is the third busiest airport in the country and the number one destination for "heavies" like 747s and the new Boeing 777 flying hotel.
The whine of turbo-fans, the smell of burning rubber from hard landings and the general sense of foreboding when one of the monsters misses the runway and is waved off, just don't bother me. What bothers me is someone moving while I'm trying to putt. What bothers me is someone talking when I'm on the tee. God forbid someone puts a cart in reverse while I'm addressing the ball and that beep, beep, beep just goes on forever.
We've all experienced the distractions, and if we're honest with ourselves, we know that distraction is an internal response to an external action. Why doesn't the airport noise bother me? To me it's just ambient sound and has nothing to do with me hitting the ball. Now if I'm not bothered by four engines being thrown into reverse thrust no further than a three wood away, how can I be distracted by someone putting there club back in their bag? It's a head game and it's all about focus.
A sports psychologist suggests that there are a few tricks to keeping the focus. The first is show up at the course well hydrated, well fed, and rested. If you are missing any of these three basic requirements of staying alive, then your body is going to focus more on resolving the those shortages than on making a putt. Get plenty of sleep, drink water not soda or beer and throw away the donut and eat a sensible breakfast.
Another tip involves an old breathing exercise. If you've lost the focus and can't get it back, take 10 deep breaths. Breath in through your nose for 5 seconds and then exhale through your mouth for 5 seconds. This is known as a cleansing breath and your wife might be familiar with it as she probably used it during child birth. I've not used it on the golf course but I can tell you it works great when sitting in traffic jam and you only have 15 minutes to your next appointment.
One note of caution. If you are an older golfer like the two 81 year olds I play with, tell your partners what you are going to do before you do it so they don't mistake it for a seizure and dial 911.
Okay this one is a little over the top. Again the sports psychologist came up with this. Take a ball and fill in one of the dimples with a black sharpie. Extend your arms out even with your shoulders and interlock your fingers with the thumbs pointing up. Place the ball between your thumbs with the black dot facing you. Now stare at it. This is a field expedient means of meditation and should help you restore your focus.
The psychologist suggests you do this in the cart while your partner drives. Now I don't know about you, but if I saw some dude riding in the cart with his arms out staring at a ball, I'd be on the cell to the starter telling him he had a drug problem on the course.
These tips have a place in your game, but really they are only treating the symptoms not the core problem.
Imagine arriving at a busy construction site where you see a carpenter preparing to drive a nail into a board. He draws back his hammer and then suddenly stops. "Someone moved" he shouts. Then he draws back again and this time screams "someone turn that saw off". Ridiculous? Of course.
That carpenter, using a heavier tool than a club and striking a target much smaller than a ball, drives that nail in over and over without being distracted by the noise or movement around him. He's in the zone. He's done this a thousand times and he knows that if he draws back so far and strikes with X amount of speed that the nail will enter the board straight. He knows it subconsciously which gives him the confidence, and his muscles remember allowing his body to perform it.
So the next time you're ready to tee it up, don't think of yourself as a golfer, think of yourself as a master carpenter. Stay within your game. You know it works so all you have to do is do it. Someone moving, someone talking or a freaking cart beeping in reverse can not physically affect the flight of your ball or the roll of your putt. See the carpenter, be the carpenter, drive the nail.
Grasshopper, get me my clubs.
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