This story should begin with an apology to Scottie Scheffler for suggesting anything in my tortured version of golf resembles his experience.<\/p>\n
Yet if we can agree all golfers deal with their version of pressure, what Scheffler might have felt over a four-footer in a Travelers playoff on Monday isn’t so different from what I confronted on the final hole of a match two days later.<\/p>\n
To be clear, golfers hit bad shots all the time with nothing on the line, me especially. But mine also was a bit of a choke, and in those moments, the science points to different reasons. Specifically, a 2001 study by Sian Beilock and Thomas H. Carr<\/a> says pressure makes us more aware of motions that normally come naturally. A good way to think about this: imagine you\u2019re throwing a ball of paper into a trash can. The vast majority of the time we don\u2019t think about our technique. But imagine someone said there was $1,000 on the line if you make or miss. Now you\u2019re thinking about your technique more than you ever have, and you feel more rigid as a result. This might explain why I chunked a simple wedge late in my match. It\u2019s the type of shot even a mid-handicapper like me can usually expect to hit solid. But in a big moment, I left it 20 yards short.<\/p>\n \u201cChoking can occur when people think too much about activities that are usually automatic. This is called, \u2018paralysis by analysis,\u2019\u201d Beilock wrote in her follow-up book, Choke<\/a>. \u201cBy contrast, people also choke when they are not devoting enough attention to what they are doing and rely on simple or incorrect routines.\u201d<\/p>\n As Beilock notes, pressure can also produce the opposite problem. Instead of too much attention on a task, you don\u2019t give enough, and that leads to bad decisions or neglecting an important part of your routine. Here’s the cruel part: the solutions for managing pressure \u2014 breathing techniques, self-distancing, taking more club \u2014 are exactly what you’re least likely to remember when the pressure hits.<\/p>\n Given all that, one solution in particular takes on heightened importance. A proven way to better handle pressure is to try to replicate the sensation in practice so you know what to expect. \u201cEven practicing under mild levels of stress can prevent you from choking when high levels of stress come around,\u201d Beilock wrote.<\/p>\n