The Golf Personality Traits You Don’t Have Could Be Wrecking Your Game!

Did you know that golf might naturally be more difficult for you than it is for others?  We do not mean physically more difficult. We mean mentally more difficult.

Learning the 8 key Mental Skills for golf can be very difficult if you do not naturally have the eight Champion Personality Traits to support them.  Knowing which of your golf personality traits is weakest, and then learning how to manage it, will be like finding the missing piece of the puzzle that will allow ALL your skills to come together for some great golf.

It’s like having a finely tuned engine with a missing or dirty spark plug.  Your car will run, but not at its best.  You can put in new belts, replace the oil, fill it with premium gas, and polish it nicely, and the car will look great but it still will not run at its best when it’s actually on the road.

So now compare that to your golf.  You can get lessons from a great pro, work out with a trainer, be fitted for the best clubs, practice hard, even learn great mental skills, like a great mental routine.  But if your personality is low on confidence, or emotional stability, or decisiveness— any one of the 8 champion personality traits—you will not be able to play your best golf! Your golf may look great in some respects, but you won’t perform at your best when you’re actually on the course.

How to know if you have a personality weakness for golf  

First of all, the answer is almost certainly “you do!”  The question should really be “which one(s) are they?”

How do we know that everyone has a personality weakness? We’ve worked with thousands of players, including almost 400 Tour pros, many of whom have been in the top 30 in the world. Of all these players that have been tested by GolfPsych, no one has tested perfectly for all 8 of the champion traits.

Every player comes to golf with some personality trait that can be better tuned or better managed for better play. At one point in time, some people believed that the best pros like Tiger Woods were an exception, but he has shown to have his weaknesses as well.

Knowing you have a weakness is important, but you can’t improve it until you know exactly which trait is the weakness. Ready to see if you can find yours?  Take a quick look at this 8 Traits Personality Assessment and Report that GolfPsych created for one of these prominent Tour Pros.

While reviewing it, think about these three things:

1. 1. Where you think Tiger is the very strongest and the very weakest on the profile (or choose your favorite professional golfer).
   2. What you think this Tour Pro has had to work on most to improve his play.
   3. Where you think you might score on each of these traits.

Note that the eight champion traits are #1-4, 8, 12, 14, and 16. The dark green squares represent the most desirable score range.

If you guessed “Focus” for Tiger’s tremendous strength and “Emotional Stability” for his challenge, you would be “batting 1,000”.

If you said this Tour pro has had to work most on Focus, Emotional Stability, and Self-Assurance you would be right on the mark.

This player did everything possible to keep from having to go back to school after 3 consecutive years of losing his card.  He changed clubs, changed teachers, hired a trainer, and even changed his diet.  His play got worse and he began a streak of missing cuts.

After being pushed by his brother for two months, as a last resort, he finally took the 45 minute on-line personality questionnaire to get his 8 Traits Personality Assessment and Report.

On first reviewing his profile he was shocked to see that he had a “perfect score” on only one of the eight champion traits and was “really close” on only a “couple”.

In studying the report he learned that he was naturally more extroverted than the statistical champion golfer and needed to learn to narrow his focus better over the ball, especially when under pressure.
He also learned that he was naturally more emotional than the statistical champion and needed to learn to manage his emotions better in competition.

And finally, he learned that he was much more apprehensive than the statistical champion and needed to learn ways to strengthen both his personal and performance confidence, to play his best. He took some comfort in learning that if he worked on self-confidence (self-assured on the profile) alone to start, it would have a positive influence on all of the other champion personality traits. So he started with self-confidence, which his report divided into two important areas:

Personal Confidence and Performance Confidence

Here is a summary of the steps he learned and used to strengthen each.  See if your own self-confidence could use a boost with some of these steps!

Personal Confidence

1.  Separate self-worth from golf!

Make a list of affirmations—things that make you a special person, like being honest, hard working, loyal, good friend, etc.  Carry your list with you and look at it often, especially after poor play.

2.  Accept compliments graciously!

Look forward to any compliment you get as an opportunity to practice accepting them graciously rather than deflecting it with an idle response. For example, if someone says, “you look great today”.  Instead of replying, “you must need glasses”, say “thank you, I feel great!”

Performance Confidence

1.  Always look for the positive, then use the negative as a goal, not as a criticism!

Change the habit of only seeing what you did wrong, then dwelling on those mistakes.  After any round, think of something you did well first! If you had good mental routines but hit the ball poorly, acknowledge the good routines first. If you were committed to the shots but your tempo was quick, first acknowledge the good commitment then simply challenge yourself to improve your tempo in your next round. If your approach shots were good, but your putting off, acknowledge the good approach shots and set goals for quality putting practice.

2.  Walk and talk with confidence!

Fake it until you make it!  No matter what the result, give yourself no more than two seconds to react then:

• Pop the shoulders back
• Lift the chin
• Put a spring in your step
• Challenge yourself to smile as a symbol of shaking it off and starting anew.

3.  Find something positive to say after every single shot or putt!

After any shot or putt you do not like, first and foremost, find something positive to say.  For example, if you had the right club, but hit it off line, acknowledge the right club.  Challenge yourself to do this for the entire round

This player went on to work on his 8 Traits Personality Assessment and Report recommendations for managing emotions, and on re-testing found all of his scores had moved closer to the champion measures, with 4 being in perfect measure.

Even better, he not only avoided a trip back to Q school, He Won and he had the pleasure of being one of the FIRST TIME WINNERS to play well in the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP at the end of the year!

Now how about you?

Where do you think you would score on each of the 8 Champion Personality traits? Get your own 8 Traits Personality Assessment and Report today and find out exactly what is keeping you from playing your best golf. You’re also welcome to check out our book on the best champion golf personality traits.