What is mental toughness? Can you get a good score when things are not going so well on the field? Or is it the mental ability to stay strong and engaged despite the distractions and circumstances of the course?
Of course, they are both and more. However, mental toughness is not something that is simply acquired on the spur of the moment or when “I think you need it.” No, it’s more of a general mindset. A perspective of the game that allows you to touch another level within your mental game.
Mental toughness develops and builds over time. Once you have a certain degree of mental toughness, accessing it when needed becomes easier and easier. Like any new skill, it gets used over time. Higher internal resolution for consistent, confident shifting.
Do you have the mental toughness of a 14-year-old girl? I don’t think even Tiger will.
Seriously. Is your golfer mentality strong and engaged in the many scenarios that unfold in your game? Do you have a mind as strong as the young MacKinzie Kline, the 14-year-old golf phenomenon? She is incredibly strong mentally.
He was born with only three valves in his heart and his kidney was on the wrong side of his body. Having gone through several operations in his life, he built a fortress. She went on to qualify for the Women’s Amateur at the age of 14. He has already had three aces, and one of them was captured on film!
However, as he continued to play, he began to feel like he was short of breath. She was forced to carry an oxygen tank with her while playing and use it between holes. Nothing would stop her from competing. Conceived loading an oxygen tank around the field with you and staying focused on every shot!
Concerned, the doctors investigated what could be causing her shortness of breath and discovered that she had a hole in her heart that they had missed some time before. Then he underwent another operation.
She has a mental toughness that keeps her on her game and completely focused in every moment. Regardless of the circumstances. He has decided to play with a mindset that says: “I determine how I feel and how I will act, not the other player or what might be happening around me.” The MacKinzie Kline mindset is the epitome of mental toughness.
It’s almost routine to see a frustrated complainer on the field throw his stick 20 yards down the fairway after a bad shot. Or complain about all the bad breaks they get, why the bunker wasn’t raked properly, how the cup wasn’t cut well, and so on. Player after player, when faced with adversity, they retreat like a cheap suit and succumb to the inertia of their own inner weakness.
And then there is this 14 year old girl with only three valves in her heart with more character and heart than any of us could hope to have.
Mental toughness is a state of mind that keeps your attention on every task. Every shot. Every moment. MacKinzie Kline is committed to her mental game. She is committed to herself.
She accepts full responsibility for her results and does not blame herself for her circumstances. Amazing. Almost everyone would agree that she has the right to feel self-pity. That does not happen with her not for a moment. His diminutive stature disguises a gigantic brain game.
She chooses how she will feel herself on the golf course. Knowing mental toughness is a decision. A commitment to an inner ideal that is greater than the outcome of any shot or game. She chose to accept ownership of her inner state and how it will perform.
Without a doubt, Tiger is the dominant force in the game and it is mainly because of his mental toughness. However, I would place young MacKinzie Kline next to him any day if I were forced to choose the giants of the mental game in golf.
It sure makes our own weakness on the pitch look pathetic, doesn’t it?
