Jack Nicklaus once said, “I never missed a putt in my mind.” The quote speaks to the importance of positive visualization and its role in navigating the highs and lows golfers endure throughout a round.
If you have a process in place, it’s generally easier to battle back when things start going the wrong way.
Jason Day knows this better than most. Since he was 12 years old, the former major winner has employed a multi-step visualization that came about through work with long-time mental performance coach Jason Goldsmith. Until recently, Day and Goldsmith kept the pre-shot process to themselves, believing it gave him a distinct mental edge over his peers on the course.
But even the greats are sometimes willing to reveal some of their trade secrets. Following years of development between Day, Goldsmith and Bridgestone — where he’s currently on staff — are ready to let weekend golfers give the Aussie’s visualization process a shot.
During a recent interview with GOLF’s Dylan Dethier, Goldsmith revealed how Day’s process turned into a multi-colored “Mindset” design now found on the cover of Bridgestone’s Tour B lineup.
“Jason’s had this process for a long time,” Goldsmith told GOLF.com. “This is what we work on when we work together, which is: how do we get him more connected and free him up so that he can be the best athletic version of himself?
“So many junior golfers, with all of the statistics and everything, get caught up in the outcome. They never learn how powerful the process is. We wanted to create this golf ball, so it doesn’t matter where you are — starting golf or you’ve been playing for 30 years — if you’ve never worked on your process, we’re hoping the design will free you up and help you enjoy the game more.”
The visual technology is designed around three different circles that act just like a stop light: Red helps the golfer stop and identify what needs to be calculated — things like distance and wind. From there, the yellow circle is designed to help the golfer prepare for the shot by visualizing what needs to be accomplished. Once the golfer is fully engaged, the green circle gives them the permission to fully commit to the pre-shot work and execute.
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“People would say it’s very visible what [Jason] does when he’s playing golf,” said Goldsmith. “He’s a person who closes his eyes. You see his eyelids flutter a little; it’s very obvious that he’s behind the ball visualizing his intention of the flight. So when Bridgestone wanted to share this with the rest of the world, it was the obvious choice. Let’s get a guy who has been doing this since he was 12 years old.”
For golfers who’ve never worked on their visualization before and might be curious if the Mindset visual technology could be a benefit for their game, Goldsmith said the only way to find out is to take it for a test drive on the course and see what happens.
“The most important thing is to understand that you don’t have a process,” he said. “So how do I introduce this to my golf game? Once they do that, not only will their scores get better, but their enjoyment level in the game will increase. You’re supposed to play [this game], not work it.”
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