Result vs. Process

Awesome day in Colorado today! I was on the range by 9am! No frost, just a little sunshine to keep me company. It was fantastic. Hoping for some more days like today!

When I was working on the range today, I was thinking to myself that if people were watching the drill I was doing right now, they would be thinking to themselves, "what is she doing out there?", "might as well not hit balls". Haha. Well I just laugh to myself because those people are RESULT orientated.

Golf requires practice right? Yes. But why would you practice your strengths? That is what silences people when they criticize someone who isn't hitting it well or not making every putt, especially if they are a "pro". Well this was written with them in mind. If you have read any sort of mental game book they will tell you it is about how good your process is, not how good your result is. You can't control your result! Playing a game on natural surfaces might be one the most inconsistent and frustrating things about the game. However, it is what makes the game truly unique. It can cause a well executed golf shot to go wayward or end up in a hazard. That is simply why being mentally tough will get you to the highest level (along with some skill, no doubt).

So I'm there on the range doing my drill, and laughing at this phenomenon because you go to any proshop in America and there are guys playing cards or having a drink in the pub talking about this kind of stuff. But for any golfer it is not about your result it is about your process. So right now, as you might have guessed, I am working on my process. That's what is required of all good players that want to improve. Working on weaknesses and improving the process. The process is important. It saves you when your mind might be in an uncomfortable place. It has come through for guys down the stretch in majors on the PGA tour and the same with girls on the LPGA tour. Every good player knows that if you are in that unfamiliar territory your process/pre-shot routine will save you....if you have put in that work.

This was one of the hardest things for me to learn as a golfer in college. All I saw were results and before you have that mental turnaround, you are not going to play to your potential. Like I’ve said, I’ve seen it in almost every mental game book I’ve picked up but I don’t think it is emphasized enough. It’s a shame because when you have a round that is not result orientated, it’s so much easier to go out the next day and perform consistently if not better. Being process orientated will get you focusing on things that only you can control and that’s all you can do on the golf course. If you let yourself worry about things you can’t control, you might as well hang up the clubs and take up a new hobby.

For me, it is one of my goals to always stay with my process and perfect my process, not worry about my results.

Michael Jordan, one of the world's finest athletes in his day said, “I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.” It is one of the most solid statements an athlete can hold on to because it’s true.