Letter From Gail:

I did not realise how busy I have been these last two weeks, until I sat down today to write the personal message for this week's newsletter. Firstly, at long last, my golf blog has gone live – www.golfmindguru.com/blog I have already uploaded lots of tips, and I will be posting daily, so keep your eye on it! Make sure you leave me comments on anything that strikes a chord, how your game is going and share any tips that work for you.

One of my favourite parts is my new diary about my own golf game, which I am updating on a regular basis. This week, I went to Rother Valley Golf Course to a great ladies golf network event set up by www.6degreesevents.co.uk for business women in Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield. Check out their timetable of upcoming events, and I may see you there.

The event was sponsored by Grant Thornton, and it was great to see so many ladies networking for business and combining it with golf – watch out men! I had a really fun afternoon, connected with some lovely ladies, and learned some really great golf tips as well. I went out and played with one of the Golf Professionals, Keith, and a few of the ladies. We only played four holes but Keith was just brilliant. He was so patient and complimentary – two great qualities when coaching five lady golfers!  Read more... (1300 words, 1 image, estimated 5:12 mins reading time)

Post From Gail:

Hi. In this issue I want to share with you some thoughts from a talk I gave last week at Coventry Golf Club.

Although the format is fairly set in terms of content the Q & A session at the end can, and often does, go off in all sorts of directions. One of the questions that seemed to have all the ladies interested was how to cope with 'slow play'. The main issue was that many of the ladies cared more about what the players behind thought of them than their own game of golf. As a result the ladies tended to rush their shots allowing this stressful situation to impact on how they played.

The interesting dynamic here was that out of the 44 attendees at this talk 8 were men. When I asked the men attending if they suffered the same problem there was a unanimous 'NO!' If play was slow then they were still focussed on their own game. They were not concerned what people playing behind them thought of them as they valued their performance more than what others may or may not be thinking of them.

Of course we cannot control slow play and yes it is important to keep the pace up unless you are stuck waiting. This does not mean that you have to rush your shots. You have the choice to concentrate on yourself and your own game.

This issue certainly did seem on the face of it to worry the women more than the men in the audience. It is also impossible to know what other people are thinking so you are basing your thought process on conjecture. Either way the problem with worrying about what others maybe doing or thinking, is that whilst you are over there in someone else's business is it is almost impossible to play the shot you have in front of you. Golf is task-focussed and because of this, you need to be in the present moment in order to execute a shot well. It is so easy to become distracted, especially if play is slow. Slow play is frustrating and something that is not within your control. It seems that ladies struggle with this more than men.

Although this was a small sample there maybe some male readers out there who also empathise with this situation.

It may help you with dealing with such situations to understand how your attitude plays such an important role when it comes to playing well. In this issue's Featured Article 'X is for X-cellence' then the awareness and tip will help anyone who feels they need more help to deal with this issue of slow play.

X is for 'X-cellence'

'Excellence is not a skill it is an attitude'. Peter Jacobsen

It's funny that we are now nearing the end of this A to Z journey and it is almost as though we have come full circle by looking at attitude once more. I began the series with 'A' for 'Attitude' and discussed being in the right state of mind and how to get into the 'flow'.

So does golfing excellence depend upon our attitude?

Noun 1.   excellence – the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree

Definition courtesy of:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/excellence
  Noun 1.  attitude – a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways; "he had the attitude that (golf) was fun"

Definition courtesy of:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/attitude

Of course a positive mental attitude is absolutely necessary if you are going to succeed. In order for you to achieve the level of excellence you seek in your game of golf, then the real importance lies with how you react when things are going wrong. This will determine your success.

You need a positive mental attitude in order to get through any adversity or difficulty; especially when it comes to a poor golf shot. If you want to know what sort of attitude you have then wait until something goes wrong; the ball in the water hazard, out of bounds or stuck in a bunker, and see how you react.

Visit Gail and Download Her Audio CD Series -

 Read more... (1509 words, 1 image, estimated 6:02 mins reading time)

“I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about what I do. I currently write for ‘Lady Golfer Magazine’ on Golf Mind Matters in the UK – you may already have seen one of my articles.

I am also a trainer on the CPD programme for the PGA (Professional Golf Association – UK) and I tour UK Golf Clubs conducting talks on ‘how to play golf with confidence’ to all standards of golfers.

I am sponsored by ‘Glen Muir’ which is one of the leading prestigious golf clothes companies in the UK. I also coach many individual tour golfers including Alison Nicholas who is our ex-US Open Golf Champion and who has just been announced at the 2009 Solheim Cup UK and European Captain.

I have also developed a programme called ‘Confidence Caddie’ which led to me writing my book entitled ‘The 7 Secrets of a Highly Successful Golfer’, which is now currently available as an Introduction to my new E-Course in the products section of the site.

I look forward to helping you to master the mind game of golf in 2009 – don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter on the Home Page.”

Kind regards

Gail Smirthwaite

— Letter From Gail

This is my first newsletter since the Masters and I just wanted to share an email I received from one of my readers:

'Masters thought. How does Kenny Perry on the 72nd hole with a one shot lead hit
driver off the tee and bring the fairway bunker in play. He could hit 3 wood
7 iron and win. I just don't get it.' Richard.

My reply:

Reference to Perry I think the answer to this one absolutely rests with the mental side of his game. His self-talk must have really kicked in to help sabotage the process, and obviously nerves got the better of his rational decision-making process. Hence, this somewhat stupid decision (but hindsight is a wonderful thing) – it seems to happen to so many golfers when the trophy is in sight they mess up on the last couple of holes!

There could be several reasons for this and without talking to Mr. Perry himself it would be difficult to provide an accurate answer of what actually was driving his thought processes. I would hazard a professional guess that Perry's ability to make a rational decision at this stage of the competition was beaten by his emotional responses taking over. Knowing that winning THE biggest accolade in golf was within his grasp tested his nerves and his ability to make rational decisions.

To simplify how the process of decision-making takes place may shed some light on what I mean. Your brain has two routes to take when making a decision; to think emotionally or think rationally. The latter almost always produces the best or safer results; emotional decisions can send you a roller-coaster of highs and lows!

What happens is that 'fear and flight' kicks in as your heart starts to beat faster and your hands sweat – you just want to hit the ball and get out of there as quickly as possible. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as you tense, perhaps make a wrong decision on Club choice and then hit a poor shot.

It is quicker and easier to make an emotional decision than to go the logical route within your brain. We are talking only a milli-second but in prehistoric days this really was a matter of life and death. We have taken this 'gut' reaction with us and when in high pressured situations we still react emotionally and not rationally – hence Perry's illogical decision to do what he did at such an important stage of the competition.

If you want to know more about this then I give a full explanation in CD 2 'How to Overcome First Tee Nerves' -

 Read more... (1676 words, 3 images, estimated 6:42 mins reading time)