But Not Matching Them When You Compete Will Guarantee Failure
According to our studies of the frequent winners on Tour, they measure the same on 8 of 32 personality traits. Within the frequent winners group, nobody had all of the 8 measures perfectly. Typically they matched 6 or 7 and were close on the other two. These frequent winners are naturals for tournament, stroke play golf. Survival of the fittest selected them into this group without our aid.
If you naturally have all 8 or 6 of 8 and are close on the others, then logic says you should be winning a lot in stroke play golf. Logic would also say that you should win a lot over time. Yet we know the Champions do not necessarily win every year or multiple times each year. Often they do for periods of time and then not for periods of time.
Think Tiger Woods over his career. Or Phil Mickelson or Hale Irwin or Dave Stockton or Yani Tseng. They have all won many times and at times are dominant for periods of time. But not always. And there can be lengthy breaks.
So what takes them out of it? What knocks them off their game or interferes with these 8 personality traits?
For one, your personality traits are not fixed. They are Dynamic or changing. They will effectively change based on major life events. But they can also change through experiences and influences that change the way the player thinks or acts.
Working with a number of these frequent winners over the years, we found that identifying the thoughts and experiences that were pushing them further from the Champion Traits was all it took to get them back on track. Just making them aware of what was leading them astray was enough to allow them to return to their normal way of thinking and operating which is naturally well suited to golf.
They are the easiest clients to “fix”.
Another Big reason is that Golf is full of bad information or information that is not appropriate for you and your personality, for your golf. It sounds good. It is logical. Others claim great results by doing it this way. You are accepting because things are not going as good as you want. So off you go, and your game may never be heard from again.
Awareness of what is appropriate for you, what works for you is critical to staying on track and to reaching your goals.
For example: One of our clients lined up with the 8 Champion Trait scores really well. There were no obvious weaknesses in personality. She had lots of success in her past but now she was struggling. She was a natural for golf but she was a shadow of her former self on the golf course.
What happened? We found that she had become very concerned that her alignment was naturally wrong. Her teaching pro and another guru had determined that she tended to line up left of target. She was also fearful of hitting the ball left, pulling or hooking it, on any shot but mostly with driver.
These concerns and experience led her to working on her alignment and to swing fixes to cure the left shot. She took these concerns and the anxieties created onto the course. This raised her level of arousal and made her more left brained over the ball, focussing on alignment and the swing fixes. This effectively guaranteed bad outcomes. The bad outcomes feed the anxiety leading to more bad outcomes and even conditioning or the yips.
In terms of personality traits; her tension rose above the Champion range, her focus got wider than the Champion range, she became more emotionally reactive than the Champions and more Dominant than the Champions measure. Where she naturally matched the Champions on 7 of 8, she now was off the mark on 5 of 8 traits and her Champion Confidence was taking a hit.
The Eight Champion Personality Traits Summary Profile
Using our tools, just a few sessions and through a couple tournaments the sources became clear, and so did the solutions.
When any golfer becomes concerned with their swing and alignment and then tries to control that swing while playing, they become more left brained, that is less athletic than they really are. The left shot was just a product of her anxiety, higher arousal and attempts to control the swing. No swing change or alignment fix was actually needed.
When she was faced with a trouble shot or a flop shot to a difficult pin, she hit it great. The situation forced her to focus on the shot, not the swing or her alignment. Her thoughts went to where and how the ball would fly, how it would feel and to a total commitment and free execution of the shot. Her athletic abilities were fully available to her and she hit those shots well. You could say her personality traits lined up almost perfectly with the Champions during those shots.
We encouraged her to approach all her shots the same way. To play her shots, not set up the machine and focus on her swing keys.
It took a couple tries but she is clearly on her way back to playing the way she knows she can, to scoring and enjoying competition a lot more. We did not have to focus on relaxing more. We did not have to deal with too much emotions on the course. We did not have to work on narrowing her focus better. She can remain committed to her game plan and not get over aggressive. She did not have to work on her swing and hit lots of practice balls.
This will be self-reinforcing. Now she knows that when she hits it left or struggles, to check her thoughts and what she is trying to do over the ball mentally. When she does the right things she will play well. When she misses she will know why.
Sounds simple but remember she is a natural for golf.
For the rest of us, it will take a bit more effort and awareness, but we can also learn to operate like the Champions when we play. We just have to have the awareness of our thoughts and arousal and understanding of what works for us and where our challenges lie. Following the dogma in golf only works for a few. You need to find your best way.
We can help you do that faster and more certainly with our assessments and tools and experience.
We look forward to working with you and to your success.
Related Article: “There are Eight Champion Personality Traits for Golf”
