Golf is hard. Playing golf with nerves akin to a 9th grader asking a 12th grader to prom can be painful and almost always leads to high scores and beaten-up egos.
Here are six best practices to settle your nerves and improve your focus while playing under pressure.
1. Have a Clear Pre-Shot Routine
- A consistent routine is your anchor under pressure. It gives your brain something familiar to lock onto instead of spiraling into “what if” thoughts.
- Keep it simple: pick your target, take a deep breath, set up, and pull the trigger.
- The key is trusting the routine, not the outcome—you can’t control the bounce, but you can control your process.
- Always, always, always commit to your target!
2. Control Your Breathing
- Tournament pressure can literally make you forget to breathe properly.
- Try a simple technique: inhale slowly for 4 seconds, hold for 2, exhale for 6. This lowers heart rate and quiets the mind.
- Do this walking up to a tee shot or before pulling the putter back on a slippery 4-footer.
3. Stay in the Present
- Stress often comes from thinking ahead (final leaderboard, the 18th tee, or “what if I blow this lead?”).
- Train yourself to focus on this shot, right here.
- One trick: give yourself a target no bigger than a basketball on every shot. Narrowing focus keeps your mind busy with execution, not nerves. iF a bad thought creeps in to your mind, step away and reset. Just make sure to only do this a few times during your round. Otherwise, you’ll run into other problems, and pick up a slow play reputation.
4. Reframe Nerves as Energy
- Instead of fighting nerves, flip the script. Feeling butterflies? That’s your body gearing up to perform, like adrenaline before a big game.
- Jack Nicklaus used to say he played better when he was nervous—because it meant he cared.
- If you treat nerves as fuel rather than fear, you’re halfway home.
5. Have a Go-To Calm-Down Strategy
- Things will get shaky (everyone three-putts in tournaments), so be ready with a reset button.
- Examples:
- Use a mantra (“one shot at a time” or “smooth and steady”).
- Smile—even if forced, it tricks your brain into relaxing.
- Pick a point in the distance (like a tree or cloud) and let your eyes rest there for 5–10 seconds before refocusing.
- Chew gum. It was Tom Watson’s go-to.
- Try CBD. For many, consuming small doses of CBD will help you stay calm. Our friends at Golf Gummies make a great-tasting chewable product that not only enables you to focus better, but also gives you a little boost to keep your energy up. (Learn More)
6. Enjoy Some Liquid Courage, but Not Too Much
- Don’t ever be ashamed if you need to gulp down a breakfast beer to settle your nerves on the first tee, especially if you’re teeing it up in something meaningful. Just make sure to pace yourself. Once you cross over to the dark side of drunky, drunky, the odds of ever making a putt longer than 3 feet drop close to zero. Enjoy a couple of on-course adult refreshments over 18 holes, but pace yourself and drink tons of water along the way.