Lehman’s 10 rules
at a time. Thoughts may come one after another and
often merge into each other, but there’s only ever one at a
time. So if you can fi nd that one thing you want to think
about and discipline yourself to only think about that
one thing, you can help yourself stay focused. I developed
one for putting, knowing that I want to take it straight
back and straight through, perfect speed, perfect
distance. When I get nervous, that is my only thought.
It’s easy to have the one thought but then quickly it’s
followed by “Oh, but don’t pull it”. Or on the tee, “Nice,
smooth swing” but then “Don’t push it”. You move from
one thought to the next so quickly, so the key is to keep
that one thought in your head and be strong about
maintaining only that one thought. You might not hit
every shot right, but if you are thinking about it right
then you can accept that.
‘THOUGHTS COME THICK AND FAST BUT
THEY ONLY EVER COME ONE AT A TIME.
IF YOU CAN KEEP A SINGLE SWING
THOUGHT, YOU’LL FIND YOUR FOCUS’
what I’ve improved dramatically since talking to him but he
had some really great things to say. When he fi rst broke his
spine and was feeling sorry for himself, the nurse screamed
“STOP!” in his ear. That shocked him. She said “If you’re
going to live the rest of your life being miserable, you should
quit right now. You either accept it and move on or you let
yourself die.” That changed his life and he never complained.
Now his is a very extreme example but you can relate that
to golf. When you get a bad bounce or a good putt doesn’t
fall for you, you can either dwell on the negative or you can
move forward and deal with it.
8
ONE
THOUGHT, NO MORE
Tom told me you’re lying to yourself if you
believe you can think about more than one thing
Above: Lehman
says focusing
on his putting
in the ’90s was
the turning
point in his
career.
9 PLAY IN DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
I was an awful golfer for a while, until I started
going overseas and playing in South Africa and
Asia. It’s no coincidence that that’s when I started getting
good. You have to develop an attitude of saying I’m going
to fight for every shot. If you’re struggling to make ends
meet in Taiwan and you don’t make it through Monday
qualifying, you’re left sitting in a hotel all week, and that
tends to focus the mind. There’s no courses to practice on,
there’s nobody that speaks English and there’s none of the
food that you’re normally used to eating. So you sit there
bored out of your mind for a week, waiting for the next
Monday to come round. If you don’t want to go through
that process, you make sure you play better. For the club
golfer, that won’t ever be an issue, but the lesson is still
valid. The more diverse or demanding conditions you can
learn to play in, the more you test yourself and the more
your game will improve. Take yourself out of that comfort
zone from time to time and you’ll see the benefits.
10 IF IT WORKS, LEAVE WELL ALONE
I fi rst met Michelle Wie when she was,
I think, 12 years old. We were partnered up in
a pro-junior event and I walked over the fairway and
asked her what her lowest ever round was. I was expecting
her to say a 69 or something like that. She said 64. And
then she told me that was when she was 11! I was
absolutely blown away by that. My fi rst thought with her
was for her to be left alone to play golf – she really didn’t
need a whole lot of coaching out there on the course from
me! That encounter reminds me of a story that Hal
Sutton told about his dad taking him down to see Harvey
Penick when he was 18. Harvey watched Hal hit 50 balls
and didn’t say a word. Until fi nally he said, “Okay, that’s
enough, let’s go in.” When they got in, Hal and his dad
were perplexed, until Harvey turned to Hal’s dad and
said: “Mr Sutton, your son is going to be a fi ne player. Just
stay out of his way.” That was the lesson – he’s a great
player, he’s got all kinds of talent, don’t get in his way.
And the same applies to you: if you fi nd an area of your
game that works for you, leave it as it is and focus on
something else, something that maybe doesn’t work so
well for you.
GolfPlus JULY 2020 29