Let’s face it, we have all stepped off the golf course and felt the agony of defeat. You may have just been playing a round with a friend and he carded a lower score than you or you could have been playing in a competitive tournament and been eliminated. Either way, you have lost and it is not a great feeling. However, before you start beating yourself up and becoming overly critical of your performance on the course, why not try and look at the positive side of things? Believe it or not, losing at golf can be good for you.
Firstly, if you were winning every time you stepped on the golf course, it would mean you are not challenging yourself and would never improve. So, give yourself a pat on the back for not sitting in the comfort zone and getting out there and taking on better or more experienced players than yourself. Furthermore, use the defeat to take a constructive look at your game. Was there one area of your game in particular which you felt let you down today? Maybe it was not a technical aspect of your game, it was something else, such as your concentration levels. Perhaps you played well and didn’t get the breaks this time or your opponent just didn’t put a shot wrong. The reason for your loss may not be because you did something badly, perhaps your opponent played very well and you could learn something from their game, which would improve yours for next time.
That’s the great thing about a loss, it can restore your motivation. If you enjoyed a run of victories on the golf course, motivational levels and willingness to learn can drop but a defeat will see you eager to get back on the course and play even better. You will become a more resilient golfer having lost, there is no doubt about that. You will not enjoy the feeling of losing but having felt it, you will know exactly what it is like and you will be determined never to feel it again. That’s why it is important to push yourself and play against the best players.
Furthermore, by suffering a defeat on the golf course, it will put your victories into perspective and allow you to appreciate them more. If you constantly play against people you know you can beat, where is the satisfaction in that? However, by challenging opponents who are better than you, the feeling you will get when you beat them will be euphoric, having also tasted defeat.
We all want to win, every time we step on to the golf course but that’s never going to happen. Learn to not only cope with defeat but to use it to your advantage and become a better golfer.
One Comment
beege
Well said, Daniel P. I help people become the best golfer they can be. One of my coaching/.mentoring points is to push yourself to places you did not believe you could go. Play with better players who beat you every time, play from a longer set of tee boxes, in other words challenge yourself instead of going the short cut and you will become better.