Anyone who plays or watches golf knows how unlikely a hole-in-one is. Even with a perfect understanding of current conditions, the ideal swing, and experience on the course, it’s still nearly impossible. Still, the rare shot is a major goal for golfers both competitive and recreational.
Odds of Making a Hole in One
It is said that the odds of making a hole-in-one are about 100,000-to-1 for an “average” golfer. For professionals, that number is closer to 3,000-to-1.
In a recent DailyMail article, Ryder Cup star Edoardo Molinari takes on a European Tour challenge that leaves him upset, laughing, and driven round the twist. It was hypothesized that his odds of hitting a hole-in-one were around 2,500-to-1, but he had 500 shots to succeed. Check it out:
The Psychology of Hitting a Hole-In-One
As you can see from the video, Ryder Cup star Edoardo Molinari starts to get frustrated. In this sort of challenge, Edoardo is forced to set a goal that is unrealistic and mostly out of his control. When setting a goal that is uncontrollable, you get more easily frustrated and start focusing on things that aren’t important.
If you continue to have a goal of hitting a hole-in-one, you likely won’t have a positive experience. After the very first shot, where he came up 4 inches long, he was upset about the result since he didn’t succeed. In an actual competition, that’s a great shot. His mindset and expectations of what dictated “success” were skewed because of his goal.
Later, Molinari shows mental strength by stating “keep hitting it like this then it’s going to happen.” Still, he couldn’t stop himself from expressing negative emotions.
If you have a goal of hitting a hole-in-one, try to make it a secondary goal. Don’t measure your success by whether or not you hit the shot, measure it by how close you were. This will allow you to continually improve.
To improve your chances of hitting the impossible shot, you need a great swing and a great mental game.
