Putting the clubs away when the days shorten and the temperatures drop is a sure-fire way to making a slow start to the new season.
There are all manner of ways to keep your game ticking over and they don’t involve standing on the range in freezing temperatures and hitting hundreds of balls.
Mental performance coach Duncan McCarthy has worked with golfers across all the main tours.
He’s helped Erik van Rooyen to his two wins on the PGA Tour, likewise Marcus Armitage on the DP World Tour and, in 2022, he helped Ashleigh Buhai capture the Women’s Open at Muirfield.
Evaluate
You’ve got to be realistic but a good way to start, if you have any aspirations to do a little bit through winter, is to look back at your last season.
Obviously, it’s nice to identify the good stuff, but identify an area or areas that you would love to just have a little bit of improvement with next season.
I had a client recently who would like to be a little bit fitter and stronger and a bit more supple. So it might be freezing but you can still improve your golf by not hitting balls.
So, for the next few months, find a PT, join a gym or go to a local exercise class. Or you might even just start walking, depending on what level you’re at, or buy some exercise bands and just do some work at home for 10 minutes a day. It doesn’t have to be something unrealistic.
Goals
I think it does help to define some little goals that you’d like to achieve through the winter. If you’re really keen to still hit balls and keep playing, then it might be a small investment in a putting mat to keep your eye in. There’s no finish line with it, but having small practice sessions will certainly help.
You could even have a small golf club that’s cut down to about two foot long. With that you can do some mirror work and you can use that indoors. You can always work on your movement, it’s nice to hit balls but it’s a movement and you can train that.
A half set
If you do continue to play, actually make it fun. I would always use a half set in the winter; I’d go a driver, no fairway woods and then the even irons and a wedge and a putter. Then I’d swap to the odds for the next round.
That’s enjoyable and that’s keeping your imagination thriving through the winter months because you don’t need to be winning comps. You just need to keep your eye in and have a little bit of fun, but also understand that the enjoyment that somebody gets through golf doesn’t just have to be the direction of the ball or the score that they’re shooting, this is going to be a part of the enjoyment.
The other part of the enjoyment of golf might be the people that you play with and the conversations and general fun.
Exercise
The other area of golf that you can get enjoyment from might well be exercise. You’re outside and that’s good for your mental health. The clocks change and everybody goes lower.
But having that game of golf, even if it’s raining, even if it’s windy, even if it’s cold, that’s going to do a hell of a lot more good for your mental health than cancelling and choosing to sit inside in the warmth. That’s a negative because then you’re going to start chewing on your thoughts.
Mental strength
In the winter you’ll have more time to pick up a book or you might spend a bit of time working with somebody on the mental game, talking about visualisation, the steps to the pre-shot routine or just articulating certain areas of the game.
You can work on improving your self-talk, or your personal growth because that has a big impact on how you play and your reactions and how you talk to yourself. There’s lots of different areas that people can improve.
The positives
There will always be setbacks and many of us will reflect on our worst shots of the day but you’ve got to find a way to move forward from it. You’ve got to be positive. No matter how bad a day you’ve had you need to ask yourself what you have done well.
And how do we do things better?
I could tell you to keep a journal and jot all these things down but that’s probably not overly realistic.
Just ask yourself on the drive home what two things you did well today? Pat yourself on the back and start this winter to shift your mindset to look for things that you’ve done well rather than things you haven’t done well.
About Duncan McCarthy
Duncan is a mental performance coach who works across all sports, including with women’s Major champion Ashleigh Buhai
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