The Truth About Targets
Day 7 from “The Golf Hall of Shame” by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo
The Golf Book Club: Every day, we share a mental game lesson inspired by great golf books—stories and strategies to help you think better so you can play better.
Philippe Porquier was an assistant golf pro with big dreams. He worked hard, qualified for the European Tour and, in 1978, played in his first major, the French Open.
Philippe was nervous. But he focused on his routines and his targets. After the front 9, he stood near the top of the leaderboard.
That’s when Philippe forgot a fundamental truth: the target is not just where you want your ball to go. It’s where you want your thoughts to go.
“Don’t shank, don’t shank, don’t shank.”
On the par five 13th, Philippe drove straight and laid up 40 yards from the green. As he swung, he wasn’t thinking about targets. He was thinking about birdies—and shanked it out of bounds.
He took a drop, told himself not to shank, and pitched out of bounds again.
Now his brain was stuck: Don’t shank, don’t shank, don’t shank. With the exception of one topped ball that rolled deeper into the rough, poor Philippe swung and shanked over and over.
Finally, he decided to use his broken record of a brain to his advantage. He aimed way, way left, told himself, “Don’t shank, don’t shank, don’t shank,” and shanked the ball onto the green.
Two putts later, he shook his head, smiled sheepishly, and walked off with a 20. He missed the cut, but set a record that still stands: the highest single-hole score in European Tour history.
“Free will is the greatest gift.”
In his book, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, Dr. Bob Rotella offers the oldest and best advice in the world. Every player struggles with a wandering mind and knocks a ball into trouble. They all offer a variation of the same complaint.
“Doc,” they say, “I just started thinking about the water. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Doc always offers the same reply. “No,” he says, “you can indeed do something about it. You can think about the ball going to the target. Free will is the greatest gift anyone could have given us.”
The psychologist William James said, “People become what they think about themselves.”
Sometimes the best lessons are the most basic. Which is why we neglect the fundamentals. Like Philippe, we often forget that thoughts, like golf balls, usually go where we point them.
Ultimately, the strongest club in your bag is your freedom to choose your thoughts. And according to Doc, choosing to think about your target will stop you from thinking about the trouble. And what a difference that makes in your game and your life.
We hope you enjoyed “The Golf Hall of Shame” by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo. Sometimes we learn best from failure, and these zany, entertaining stories have a lot to teach us.
That’s all for now. Tomorrow, we’ll launch a new 7-day series to help you stay positive, present, productive, and grateful. Until then, keep imagining what’s possible.
Today’s Photo
Denarau Golf & Racquet Club in Fiji
