The ‘five-inch course’

'I am so tired of it. I'm sick of this sport… I hate being on this course.' Greg – a pseudonym, with some details changed for anonymity – said this while standing at the 7th tee on a sunny golf course in southern Texas. I, on the other hand, was on the other end of the Zoom call in my small home office in Perthshire, Scotland as the rain lashed the windows.

Greg began playing golf when he was three years old, and spoke fondly of practicing with his Dad in their back garden using his little plastic clubs. These memories held real emotional power for Greg and informed his sense of identity as a golfer (Douglas, 2009). As a junior player, his career too had gone from strength to strength, and in the last few years he had won amateur events in Scotland, alongside some top finishes UK and Irish competitions. I remember seeing him compete in Scotland when he won, with the coach next to me stating, 'if anyone is going to play on the PGA Tour, its Greg!'

Now, on this Zoom call, I could see tears forming in Greg's eyes. 'When I came out here it started so well'. Greg looked away from the screen as he spoke. 'I was told you don't make the team at the start, but I did and was going well until I had that disaster at Albuquerque.' Greg had take three shots from two feet on the 14th hole when well-placed in the competition. 'My short game just turned to shite. Now I can barely hold a wedge or putter. I don't trust myself.'

Greg's story is not that unusual. Many young men and women face a difficult transition from junior to college or professional golf. Often from an applied perspective, sport psychologists' main focus in golf is the on-course 'mental game' rather than such transitions (Henriksen et al., 2014). This focus is perhaps unsurprising, as the mental challenge of playing golf is high. It's an individual sport (Pates et al., 2012), self-paced (Toner & Moran, 2011), with a need to maintain concentration for 4+ hours (Bell & Hardy, 2009) and a plenty of time to think, standing over a stationary ball (Baker et al., 2003). As Head of Psychology for Scottish Golf, I have a clear role in helping players with their on course approach to such issues – what I call 'psychology within golf'. I felt very privileged to take up this role a year ago – as far as I know, the first person to do so in golf's birthplace. 

However, it would be remiss of me to stop psychology here, with on-course matters. We also need to invest in 'psychology beyond golf'. 

Specifically, these are the psychosocial aspects around the golfer that can hamper them personally or professionally. The legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones stated, 'golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears' (Keeler, 2003). To map this five-inch course in my work, I have detailed five respective 'pin positions' – where the hole is on a golfing green – to orientate practitioners, in any work setting, on how to support the person beyond traditional in-game development.

Pin position 1 – The developmental golfer

There is lovely footage of a 9-year-old Rory McIlroy on a Northern Irish television talk show called 'Kelly', chipping balls into a washing machine. The presenter of the programme, Gerry Kelly, even speaks with Rory's parents, Rosie and Gerry, during the show. Golfers often come from golfing families, with the sport acting as an attachment fabric through which many bonds, and tensions, are formed (Hayman et al., 2014). This attachment position is reinforced as parents are usually heavily involved in a young players' career, making both time and financial commitments (Hayman et al., 2011). Furthermore, young players are socialised into institutional and community norms via coaches, clubs and governing structures (Horn, 2004a). 

Within my Scottish Golf role, I have sought to map the developmental milestones a young golfer may go through to ensure parents, coaches and other support staff are aware of this journey. This 'map' is useful as it a) helps us understand a player's capacity for learning at a certain age (Horn, 2004b) b) informs when they are psychologically ready to make the step up to senior squads (Stambulova, 2012) and c) informs how psychology interacts with other forms of maturation (e.g. social, biological, physical etc) (Harter, 2012). For example, for adolescents, the importance of social groups and identification might explain a drop in motivation to practice an individual and often isolating, sport (Kroger & Marcia, 2011). Similarly, biological psychology can help us understand why adolescent, male, golfers may become angry when on course, expressed via thrown or broken clubs, swearing, or withdrawal (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009). Such awareness around psychological maturation helps us to put in place better strategies around players along the pathway. 

Pin position 2 – Wellbeing and mental health

Sport governing bodies are increasingly aware of the responsibility they regarding the mental health of their athletes (Hughes & Leavey, 2012). This responsibility is usually enacted through a referral pathway coupled with a network of support systems (e.g. clinical/counselling psychologists, psychiatrists etc.) (Rice et al., 2016). Scottish Golf are fortunate in terms of having access to an excellent referral system through the sportscotland institute of sport. 

However, since the Duty of Care in Sport review (2017),  there is an enhanced focus on creating positive, working environments that facilitate thriving, rather than simply providing pathways to manage ill-health (Keyes, 2002). Creating such environments is challenging for a golfing body because a) golfers compete under their national banner in competitions but may be based mainly with a personal club coach or at a University – a large number of young golfers from Scotland will enter scholarship programmes in the USA in particular b) the time staff get with players directly is therefore limited, and c) this time together can be in many different physical locations e.g. different clubs in Scotland, different locations abroad, and dependent on player availability. The way we are trying to explore it at Scottish Golf is through 'contact points' – these are the staff who have direct contact with the players. Ensuring staff have awareness, education, protocols, and support to explore any mental health concerns is crucial (Gulliver et al., 2015). 

However, for us as performance support within Scottish Golf, training is not enough. We need to place morality and good health at the core of our values. I believe that within any performance domain it is crucial to check in on such values regularly to avoid objectifying performers, instead embracing a person first concept of development (Tausig & Fenwick, 2011). 

Pin position 3 – Golfing relations

One-to-one work with golfers encompasses many areas. Initially, it may relate to 'problems' of performance, like the yips (sudden deterioration in a skill or ability, expressed as a twitchy jerky motion), pre-competition anxiety or dealing with poor rounds or shots. Furthermore, there are 'problems' of process, in which support may entail debriefing games, setting goals, and strategising learning. Finally, there are personal 'problems' related to having professional status. 

A common example is the impact on relationships. For younger golfers, such relationships might be difficulties with parents, siblings or peers (Knight et al., 2023). For adult golfers, amateur or professionals, relationships with partners, husbands or wives can become strained too (Fry & Bloyce, 2017). Competing in golf requires a huge amount of time away from family often in different countries. Personally, I believe expertise around marriage support and so forth is more aligned with other psychology disciplines other than sport e.g. counselling. However, I often find golfers prefer to lean on those immediately around them – like the sport psychologist – and so an athlete may explicitly reject referral/signposting. Such rejection has left me in the past in a moral quandary – do I have the explicit competence, or can I at least provide a space for golfers to discuss what is currently important to them (Tod et al., 2007)? I have found that a good grounding in counselling skills is helpful for me to be able to offer golfers empathy, genuineness and regard (Katz & Hemmings, 2009; McCarthy & Moffat, 2023). I have also sought supervision from a counselling psychologist supervisor as needed, alongside some basic reading and awareness around issues of adult attachment (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016), family systems theory (Priest, 2021) and marriage/romantic relationships (Helms, 2013). 

Pin Position 4 – Preparing for precarious professionalism 

Recently, a pro golfer remarked to me that 'the lack of money always haunts my thoughts and feeds my anxiety'. Professional golf is precarious, defined as 'work that is unstable and insecure in its continuity and quantity' (Blake et al 2021). Practically, Kalleberg (2018 p. 3) cited precarity as 'living without a safety net' as you have no statutory support if you get ill, need to care for others, fall pregnant etc. Contextually, for every romantic story of a golfer who goes from supermarket delivery driver to winning £170,000, there are far more instances of professional players losing their status and trying to survive on wages from low income jobs in cafes etc. Professional sport in general is precarious, due to limited contracts, ageing, and a surplus of talent (Roderick, 2006). For golfers making the leap from elite amateur to the professional ranks, such economic insecurity is exacerbated by the increase in competitions, a requirement to manage your own 'team' (e.g. coach, support staff etc.) and appropriate scheduling (Cranmer et al., 2022). 

One of the things we are exploring at Scottish Golf to manage such precarity is a Career Assistance Program (CAP). There are around 60 formalised sporting CAP systems in the world, usually focused on retiring athletes with life skills, educational development, and counselling support (Torregrossa et al., 2020). However, we feel owing to the precarious nature of professional golf we feel there is a need to ensure a CAP is more multidisciplinary in orientation (i.e. physiotherapy, physiology support, financial management, etc.), and is delivered within a career rather than simply when it ceases i.e. in the transition from amateur to professional (Kiuppis & Stambulova, 2020; Stambulova et al., 2021). At present, developing a Scottish Golf CAP is in its infancy, potentially starting with a short term residential approach to provide some initial signposting (Ekengren et al., 2018).

Pin Position 5 – Unpack your own golf bag

As I write this piece, I am conscious of rejecting the 'dead hand' of a disembodied practitioner (Stoller, 1997). If I seek to establish a relational, collaborative, stance of working with golfers, rather than on them, it is important for me to unpack my own inner 'golf bag'. This means exploring my own motivations, needs, assumptions and inclinations in terms of how they may inform the relationships with those I work with (Schön, 1991). 

There are two questions I continually use to help me unpack. First, 'why do I want to work in elite golf?' Elite sport can be intoxicating, with a public romanticism that allures to glamour and riches. However, the reality is more mundane, questioning any notion of external gratification as a motivation for the work. Personally, working in golf meets my need for connection with others, invests in my curiosity to learn and I enjoy being part of a project bigger than myself. However, such work always cast a 'shadow', not something as negative per se, but a darker side of our motives that requires illumination and self-knowledge (Jung, 1957[2005] p. 75). I try to be vigilant that connection does not become exploitation, curiosity does not become nosiness, and a project orientation does not turn to basking in reflected glory (Cooper et al., 2019). 

The second reflective question is, 'what is the culture of the sport I work in?'. In that sense, golf is not a therapeutic or healthcare setting, but a bottom line, performance oriented, one. Interestingly, my supervisor once reflected that 'the performance rarely stops when athletes leave the pitch, track or court'. The relevance here is that, unlike healthcare settings, elite sport may be more 'wild west' in nature, with no obligation to provide guidance to practitioners around things like healthy boundaries, dual role conflicts, confidentiality, and consent (Tod & Lavallee, 2011). The practitioner must develop these in a tacit way, deploying them 'on the hoof' in context. Owing to both the allure of golf and its performative nature, I feel I need to engage with as much professional development as I can. This work entails having a golf specific mentor to deal with contextual dilemmas, a supervisor to deal with the process and my own therapist to deal with myself (Oliver, 2010). In so many ways, the loose nature of elite sport, and elite sport in general, ensures practitioners must take absolute responsibility for their own motives, intent, and behaviours (Andersen et al., 2001). 

Back to the clubhouse

When Bobby Jones' spoke of the 'five-inch course', the mental side of golf was well recognised by the players, but applied psychology within golf was in its infancy. However, Jones also suggested that in golf there can be a 'mental staleness…manifested when a player is overgolfed.' (Jones, 1992 p. 222). Jones warned that without exploring what psychologically happens away from the golf course, the 'damage is done' before we ever get to the first tee. 

Furthermore, theoretical and practice-based evidence is now available to support Jones' anecdotes that no golfer exists in a vacuum. We need to recognise the player and the person (Merleau-Ponty, 1968). Thinking back to the introduction and our golfer, Greg, there are certainly on course psychological strategies that may help. However, we must also broaden our psychological base when looking at a player. How are they managing a sporting transition (Anderson et al., 2012), coupled with culture shock as they step up into an American collegiate sport (Kelly, 2014)? How have they, from a young age, used external golfing success as a foundation of their self-worth? How do they deal with faltering expectations that threaten an idealised future (Wacquant, 1995)? 

I believe, therefore, that to have the required 'grip' in elite golf, a psychologist must be as comfortable working on the broader psychosocial 'five-inch course' as any other physical fairway. 

Dr Will McConn-Palfreyman is a Chartered Psychologist and HCPC-registered Sport & Exercise Psychologist.

Twitter: @WillMcConn

P.S.… The Olympic journey

Pierre de Coubertin's dream of a modern Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896. By this time, 36 years had passed since the first Open Championship in golf had taken place in Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland (Cook, 2011). From 1900, histories merged, with golf integrated into the Olympics but only as far as 1908. Since 2016 though, golf was reintroduced back into the Olympic programme. The 152^nd Open will happen at Royal Troon in Scotland this year from 14-21 July, followed by the Paris Olympic Games with the golf starting at the Le Golf National from 1-10 August. Golf, of course, has a very rich history, but within the Olympics it is a relatively modern addition. 

For many golfers, the Olympics is a great opportunity to represent your country, but must be considered within a very busy schedule. In my own work, unlike many psychologists working in Olympic sport, the focus is not on producing athletes who will be Olympians, but rather those who can compete in the top amateur events, and also gain professional status. However, with the crowded competitive calendar a growing part of golfing life, it is a reminder for us at Scottish Golf to prepare players for both on-course, professional, competition and the off-course, personal, intensity (Cranmer et al., 2022). For many elite amateurs and professionals, it is these off-course struggles that can be the most threatening and debilitating for their careers.

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