I recently polled all of our golf newsletter subscribers about a variety of things and one thing that I didn't expect came back from a large number of them. They were very interested in help with the mental side of golf. I understand the importance of this side of the game so I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but I guess I was because I wasn't asking anything about this part of the game, but so many of our readers asked for me to talk about it.

To me the mental side of golf has two parts. Part I is just the mental side of how you approach the game and Part II is being mentally tough. I'll talk about both pieces in today's article.

The approach to the game is a key component and not just for the pro golfers. I think that a fair number of amateur golfers think that they should really focus on their golf swing and get it in pretty good shape before they turn to the mental side. And I strongly disagree. Let me explain why.

Several years ago, on a great trip to Hawaii, I was playing golf with some really great friends and business partners. As we came to the second shot on a very challenging par 5, we were discussing laying up versus going for it. Well it was settled quickly when someone said "Hey we didn't come all this way to lose weight or lay up!" Well, we all went for it and not everyone cleared the hazard in front of the green.

Now that was fun, but in this first discussion that I want to do on the mental side of golf, I want to talk about the ego and your golf game. One of the big challenges to mid and high handicappers is making decisions that are way out of whack with our current ability. And most of the time it is fed by the ego and the comments of the group we are playing with... "Come on wimp, you're not going to lay up are you?"

Now if you don't mind having a "blow up" hole in the middle of a round and stupid mistakes don't cause you get really frustrated and mess up the next two holes, then this golf tip won't help you. But most of us need to start our approach to mental golf by making smart decisions on each golf shot. Let our ability and the best way to score drive our decisions, not our ego.

This is a hard thing to change, but if you can focus on scoring, not impressing your foursome, it's a good start.

The second part of mental golf is what I consider "Mental Toughness". How to not let mistakes phase you, how to compete head to head and get in your opponents head rather than the other way around. Or how to play tough under pressure.

This part of the game is tough. So I am going to do something that I rarely do. I am going to recommend that you look at a product that addresses this. I don't often recommend products here, but this is a product that I use and that I really like.

It's from a very well known sports psychologist that has worked with Justin Leonard, Bernhard Langer, and other top professional athletes, not just golfers. It's a software program developed by this sports psychologist, Dr. Fran Pirozollo. You can find out more about it here.

I use it and I've recommended it and even given it to friends. I can't train you how to be mentally tough but Fran can.

So that's our introduction into the mental side of golf. I will continue this series throughout July and August, so keep coming back to the site.

Good golfing