The power of automatic golf

The other day I wrote about the worst golfer in the world. Rhein Gibson is the exact opposite, having shot the best score ever in the golfing world. His 16 under par is quite incredible and has the golf world talking.

What interesting to me is this quote from the man himself,

“I had this song playing in my head. It is that new one from the Eli Young Band. It was in there all day.”

When you’re occupying your conscious mind for the duration of the shot you’re playing automatically. Automatic golf allows your subconscious to take over and perform the motion with limited interference. Distractions and interference are a golfer’s worst nightmare and one of the easiest way to play automatically is to sing a song in your head.

I’ve been saying for years now that automatic isn’t magic, but simply increases your chances of playing well. Gibson would have certainly encountered some mental obstacles, but his ability to keep playing automatically “all day” gave him the round of a lifetime.

Interestingly, when Aaron Baddeley was busy beating a classy field of professionals in the 1999 Australian Open, he too sung his way around the course. So if you’ve got a game this weekend maybe you could arm yourself with your favourite song and see how you go. You’re not going to shoot 16 under, but you might learn something significant and this is most important of all.

Check out his scorecard. He started play from the 10th tee.

Rhein Gibson's record score