The high experienced when you hit that pure shot right in the middle of the sweet spot cannot be compared to anything else while the lows are full of despair and anger: an emotional roller coaster. The danger, of course, is letting your despair and anger get the upper hand.

“Your mind can be a powerful tool that will help you realize your dreams and aspirations. But you have to control it and use it properly. You have to coach yourself. You have to believe in yourself.” Dr Bob Rotella.

Of course you are going to have disappointments along the way and quite a lot of frustration. However, enjoy the journey, learn to enjoy the process and celebrate your achievements no matter how small.

Having set your outcome goals you need to set or short-term goals or process goals. Process goals can be one or a number of things you can do during your next round of golf. Here are three examples: to perform your pre-shot routine on every shot; hold your finish for an extra five seconds; count to seven after every mis-hit shot before you react (especially if you’re prone to reacting badly).

Keep a separate scorecard and give yourself an honest score out of five – one being that you didn’t do what you were supposed to, and five being you kept your promise to yourself and did exactly what you intended. When the round is over count this score and decide how you played and whether you achieved what you set out to do.

Remember your great shots. Muscle memory is purely the way your mind remembers what you did when you attach strong emotions to parts of your game. So if you have a bad shot, don’t react to this by throwing your clubs around or calling yourself all sorts of terrible names, just move to the next shot.

On the other hand, when you hit that “amazing shot”: a difficult approach shot, a slippery putt or a million dollar drive that cuts the fairway in half, don’t just shrugged it off, celebrate it, praise yourself and imprint the memory in your mind.

Forget about your bad shots almost as soon as you’ve made it. Don’t hold onto those memories, learn from it then forgive yourself. We all make mistakes, no-one is perfect, even the pro’s. The key is how quickly you can recover. Understand that it was not your greatest shot. Learn what you can from it, replay the shot in your mind as to how you would do it better next time and move on.

Replay your great shots in your head after the round, remember what it felt like, see how the ball travelled, where it landed and how you felt seeing it go exactly where you wanted it to go. Enjoy the moment.

Golf is essentially a target game
Your intention would be to keep the ball in play until you can put the ball in the hole. In order to do this effectively you need to aim at a target. Find something in the distance you can focus on, the smallest possible target without straining your eyes. It may be a branch, a pole, a rooftop. On the green it may be something inside the cup or a blade of grass. Once you’ve chosen your target, commit to the shot and let the swing happen.

In order to score consistently, each player should have a sound pre-shot routine. It’s like being in a space where there is no fear, nor doubt – only you, the ball and the target. This same routine should be carried out before every shot. It belongs to you, it’s what makes you comfortable, it sets you up and gets you ready to swing freely to the target.

Part of this pre-shot routine could be to have a decision or “Think Box” behind the ball, facing your target and when you’re ready to hit the shot to move across to your “Play Box”.

Think inside the Box
In your “Think Box” you can make decisions about what you want to do: what club to take, where to aim, consider factors such as wind, pin placement, your landing area. You can take a practice swing here and visualize the outcome. Once you have decided how you’re going to hit the shot, move into your Play Box. This is when you quit thinking and hit the ball. Decide, Commit, Swing.