What can an otherwise good golfer do to keep stress from taking over and ruining your game? Two things:

• Educate your subconscious mind
• Distract your conscious mind

Because you can't normally think your way out of stressful situations, these two steps are essential to controlling stress before it starts.

Educate your subconscious mind
Thinking is conscious activity and often the root of stress. For example, if you think, "On this water hole, I'll use an old ball, so if I hit it into the lake, it won't be so bad." Plunk! Into the lake goes your ball.

Obviously you didn't want the ball to go in the water, so why did you hit it there? Because your subconscious mind took over your swing.

Your subconscious mind doesn't understand negatives like "not" or "don't." It functions through imagery and emotion. It sees the lake you're gazing at, senses the emotion attached to it and obediently makes it your new target.

So in order to stay out of the water, you've got to concentrate on the positive, focus on the target and visualize where you want the ball to go. This is a universal truth, and it works whether you're driving, pitching or putting.

Distract your conscious mind
In addition to educating your subconscious mind, you must find a way to distract your conscious mind from negativity. This can be achieved simply by humming or whistling a favorite tune, which is the preferred method of golf great Fuzzy Zoeller.

I train my golf clients to substitute peaceful thoughts for tense ones through self-hypnosis. They use it as part of their pre-shot routine, and nobody else knows it's happening.

Once you master the skills necessary to distract your conscious mind and educate your subconscious, you'll be able to eliminate stress on the golf course. Then, when your partner says, "Watch out for water on the right," you'll be able to reply...

"What water?" Jennifer Scott, C. Ht. is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who practices in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jennifer is the creator of several Own The Zone^TM hypnosis programs and a regular GOLFONLINE contributor. E-mail Jennifer with questions or comments at jennifer@ownthezonegolf.com.