Welcome to 2011, the Chinese Year of the Rabbit! Rabbits are sensitive and instinctive creatures so I felt it very fitting to write about just this – how to use and develop your intuition.

Every poor shot you play is as a result of incongruence - not believing in the outcome of the shot you have chosen. For example, you might walk up to a shot feeling strong and confident with an intuition that says “Full 7 iron”. You haven’t even checked your yardage or landing areas so don’t know whether that would be a good percentage shot to play. What do you do?

Do you :

1) Trust your first instinct - go for it with the 7 iron?

First instincts mainly use the right side of the brain, working with creative visualisation and feelings. They use a lot of information, more than you can consciously be aware of, and therefore provide you with crucial information to make the best decision. The downside of ONLY using this is that you may be swayed too much by raw emotion and ignore the logical left side of the brain – the facts...

2) Trust your logic - calculate your yardage, throw some grass in the air to check the breeze, picture the landing areas and work out that a three quarter 6 iron is the more “sensible” shot?

Logical analysis uses the left side of the brain and is used to think, assess, calculate all of the variables to “compute” the highest percentage shot – in theory! The downside of ONLY using logic is that it is your body that plays the shot – not the mind. So even though on paper a three quarter 6 iron might be the “right” shot, your body is all pumped up ready to go for it with a 7 iron so you may step up to the ball not feeling congruent to play a 6…

3) Trust your SECOND INSTINCT - instinct, logic, then check instinct again

The only way to be truly congruent is to use both sides of your brain – instinct and logic TOGETHER. To do this, acknowledge your first instinct, then check out the logical shot. If the two are the same – EASY! If the two are different (eg first instinct says 7 iron, logic says 6), what then? Once you’ve had your initial reaction and your logic, you have all the information. To make the decision, go back to and check your gut for a SECOND TIME. If it still says 7 then 7 it is. If it says 6 then 6 it is. Simple. Either way, you can make a decision you can fully commit to. Any % point less than 100% commitment robs you of giving a single congruent instruction to your body.

I hope you find my mental golf tips useful in helping you achieve your goals for 2011. If you have questions about developing your instinct or other aspects of your own golf psychology, I’m more than happy to give you ideas. Also, I’m giving away audio mental golf tips through a series of six free tipcasts to help you through the toughest parts of the game. Sign up for my newsletter now if you would like to receive these.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Golf Coach