Fabulous post. Hit me very hard after a day of total frustration playing with an enormously over competitive golfer.

Great, great stuff.

http://scratchtoscratch.wordpress.com

I have to beat this into my head every so often after I regress back to "trying", instead of staying focused on the deeper reasons I choose to play. My best rounds continue to occur ONLY when I set out with no preoccupation about scoring well.

I've also found that if I can adopt this attitude when playing those "enormously competitive golfers", my happy and carefree attitude usually gets under the skin at some point during the round and they begin to falter ;)

Yep - I think you're right. My attitude recently where I'm not bothering to wrry about driving distances or bad shots has definitely annoyed a partner.

Still, it's hard to keep that attitude all the time.

I just read about another guy who broke into the single digits who made his breakthrough after reading a book about Zen and the martial arts. He came across a lesson taught by a Zen master of Kyudo (archery). He taught his students that "the man who shoots for nothing does so with all of his mind body and spirit. He has nothing to concentrate on except the shot. However, as soon as there is a piece of gold to be won, he is divided. Part of him wants the prize. Part of him wants to shoot. The only way to truly shoot each shot pure is to shoot for nothing."

Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.
Bruce Lee

I've recently been reading on the intelligence of play, where if play is the foundation rather than worry or contest or a goal, tension is removed ( we know what tension does to a golf swing ).

There is a great article by Chuck Hogan http://www.chuckhogan.com/Default.aspx?tabid=44 where he compares golf to performing complex motor skills such as tying shoelaces, no formal pre shot routines visualisation etc.

It is way more than interesting that we brush our teeth, tie our shoes and drive our cars quite efficiently without the least “thought” of how we are doing the doing. Your intent is to have your shoes tied and the next thing you know (or don’t know or care), your shoes are tied. I bring up shoe-tying as an example because it is a very complex motor skill. In fact, the number of shoe-tying movements, reverses and tensioning of the strings is far more complex than something as simple as the putting stroke. In fact, a golfer might take note of the maze complex non-golf activities that one does many times each day without the least “thought”. All that is required is intent and but the least attention to the intention. Even the intent is mundane. The task simply “needs” to get done by you (or through you). Getting your socks on is one example. How about the note that you wrote, the breakfast you ate, the spooning of food to your mouth, the combing of your hair, etc, etc.
“Those don’t count”, say you. “Those things are not important,” you say. Okay, maybe that is the real issue. Maybe it is the “caring” that blocks the “doing”. In fact, golfers often play their best when then have zero expectations (a form of paying attention to the immediate, disconnected from any other implications). You might want to examine this matter of “caring” and /or importance of your golf game. It may be that what you call “caring and concentrating” is the culprit.
At any rate, you do a whole bunch of things/activities each day “in the zone.” Everyone does, and literally gives “it” no thought.

I suppose similar to your quest guys my quest is to see how much my game can improve based on the above section of Chuck’s article.

I wonder how you have gone with your rapid improvement and the above aspects

Anonymous, thank you for your insightful reply! I'm really excited about exploring this further. I heard a similar analogy to your shoe tying comparison in a podcast by Fred Shoemaker, but I didn't capture how extraordinary that insight was at the time. I think you (and Chuck Hogan) are on to something!

My best rounds have occurred not only when I wasn't "trying", but when my mind was focused on the people, trees, birds, winds, and beauty around me! I wasn't concentrating so hard over every shot.

I especially like Hogan's insight that concentration "is" trying. I have one friend who nicknamed me "the hawk", because my focus and concentration over the ball can be so intense. I have an uncanny ability to concentrate from years of computer programming. However, that concentration does not require effort. It's just the natural state that occurs when my attention is on the details of coding and problem solving. It's more "mindful" than concentration.

While reading Hogan's remarks, it occurred to me that the intent of my initial improvement was to demonstrate to others that this game is more simple than they're making it and that lessons are not necessary. I've always believed that hitting a stationary ball is no harder than shooting a free throw, throwing a wad of paper in the trash, or throwing a ball - all activities that don't require professional instruction.

But, now that I've reached this level, my goals have started to become more about reaching an even lower index instead of about further learning and experimentation.

Interestingly, I've begun to struggle.

Your insights give me a new reason to experiment and may prove to be another missing ingredient to reaching my potential. I'll certainly explore this insight more fully and report any progress!

I passed along the Chuck Hogan article to a friend in his late 60's who shoots in the 90's. He then went out and played yesterday with a more carefree attitude and shot 86 from the 135 slope tees!