Anxiety When Playing Golf

Feel Pressure to Play a Certain Way on The Course?

Dr. Patrick Cohn, golf psychology expert and author of the “Golfer’s Mental Edge” CD program, teaches amateur to tour professional golfers how to improve their mental game of golf using golf psychology strategies developed over the last 20 years of his career.

In this week’s golf psychology session, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, Dr. Cohn, responds to a question from an amateur golfer, who struggles with anxiety, fear and nervousness in his game.

COHN: “Do you feel a lot of pressure and anxiety today when you go out to play a round of golf and it really affects your performance? In today’s session, I answer a question from an amateur golfer, named Sandy, who seems to struggle today with anxiety, fear, and nervousness in his game.”

“Sandy, you’re not alone. I work with a lot of golfers who have this same issue that you’re referring to. The nervousness and anxiety about winning and doing well becomes overwhelming and hard to enjoy the game.”

“Well, through our email discussion, I think you’ve identified the fact that it’s hard to play relaxed and free golf when you’re too worried about matching others expectations. We call that social approval. That you’re looking for some type of respect, you want to be liked by your playing partners, you want them to think of you as having a good game.”

Listen to the audio below to hear what Dr. Cohn says about this problem:

Subscribe to The Golf Psychology Podcast via iTunes


Related Golf Psychology Articles


Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Golf-Mental-Edge20-300.png

Do you suffer from fragile self-confidence after missed hitting shots or making mistakes, playing with strict or high expectations that undermine confidence, or the inability to play freely and relaxed on the course?

Successful golfers have learned how to perform with ultimate confidence in competition, so we’ve developed The Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0 Workbook and Audio program to help you do this! 

The Golfer’s Mental Edge 2.0 program includes the top 11 mental training sessions I do with my personal students to help them boost their mental game and improve consistency on the course!

Leave a Comment