We’re rattling through October at a great pace.  For goodness sake, the clocks will be changing any day now and the local kids have already started putting ghosts and ghouls in their windows and gardens in time for Halloween.

It’s a scary time of year alright and that applies to any number of professional and would-be professional golfers who find themselves gearing up to attend qualifying school for their particular tour.  It won’t have helped the women that the next stage of qualifying for their LPGA card in America was postponed because of the hurricanes rolling in off the coast of Florida.  The anxiety and expectation have been drawn out a little longer and the pressure of waiting to see if you’ll have a job next year is ramped up another notch.

I attended qualifying school once in my life and it is as bad as everyone says it is.  I realised before going that it wasn’t so much my physical game that had to be top notch that week, it was my mental game.  It was my mind.  I could regain my card not playing my best, but I wouldn’t regain it if I didn’t have my “A” game mentally and despite this taking place decades ago I still remember a lot of the work and preparation I put in.

I doubt any of you reading this will be attending any sort of qualifying school for a tour card, but the following tips can help any of you achieve a better mastery of your mind on the course, no matter what your skill level may be, and that should help you shoot the lowest score you are capable of on any given day.

So, here goes with a couple of suggestions – all used to good effect by me all those years back.

1  Create your own video library in your head and know it off by heart.

Positive visualisation is massive in any sporting endeavour but particularly so in golf when you have so much thinking time between shots.  Make a list of every club in your bag and opposite each entry write a detailed account of the best shot you have ever hit in your life with that club – and so much the better if it was a shot you pulled off under a lot of pressure.  The more vivid and detailed the description or memory the better, right down to remembering the feel of the weather on your skin, the sound of the club contacting with the ball, the sight of the shot sailing off exactly as you intended.  Use all your senses in your description if you can.

You now have a powerful tool to use when facing a pressure shot in the monthly medal or the Christmas comp or whatever.  If you are all square playing the last, with a 7-iron in your hand, take a deep breath and summon to mind your best-ever 7-iron from your own personal library.  When you take aim and have one last look at your target, proceed to flood your mind and body with the sensations of the shot from your library.  Then pull the trigger.  You’ll be amazed at how there is no room in your head for fear or anxiety and your chances of a successful outcome have just rocketed.

The final figures on a scoreboard such as this hide so many personal triumphs and disappointments. [Tris Jones, LET]

Sit down and think, no really think, of the times you played your best golf.  Are you easily discouraged after a poor start or does it make you knuckle down and perform better as the round progresses?  Do you get nervous when you have a good score going or are you empowered to swing freely right till the last putt drops?  Do you hit a few shots before going out or are you pulling into the car park with the tyres screeching and running to the tee?  There is no right or wrong answer here.  We are all different but the key is you understand the conditions which allow YOU to perform to your best – and then it is up to you to recreate them.

Let me explain. A few years into my professional career I realised after analysing my scores that I had a tendency to start poorly and that that pattern was frequently repeated.  My back nines, however, were much stronger overall and helped me recover from these poor starts.  It seemed to me that, for whatever reason, I was too cautious, too defensive at the beginning of a round.  It was almost as if I was defending starting off at level par and trying not to make any mistakes.  Endeavouring not to make any errors means losing the freedom necessary for a good performance so I concocted a plan to deal with this.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but go with me here.  I would arrive on the 1st tee pretending I was already four over par and my goal was to make that up by the turn.  The difference it made to me was astounding.  I always had performed my best with my back to the wall, so I just started to create those conditions for myself on the golf course.  I used to feel I was “cheating my mind”.  You may think it’s bonkers but it worked for me.  I have to stress I never felt I was defensive from the off but the scores and the figures didn’t lie – and that’s what I mean by really understanding yourself.  Think deeply about the conditions that give you the platform to produce your best – then it’s up to you to create that platform in your head.

Tom Watson, one of the most famous Q-school graduates of all time, went on to win eight major titles. [youtube.com]

So many of us have a little weight shift back and through when we swing the putter – even on very short putts.  That can catch you out from time to time because that little movement can create momentum in your stroke and make it difficult for you to judge distance.  Concentrating on keeping your knees immobile gives you a stable base where the only variable is the swing of the putter back and through.  No extra power is added from another bit of movement.  Also, it’s a thought that nicely keeps your mind occupied and limits self-sabotaging thoughts.

So, have fun with these mental tips.  Who knows, you may bag a turkey over the next couple of months!

PS  I finished twelfth and kept my card.  Phew!

The regular reader is used to my cries of “Come On You Spurs” – often uttered plaintively – and seeing the acronym COYS, baffling to those lucky beings with no interest whatsoever in football.  They don’t understand the anguish and agony they’ve spared themselves.  And the occasional moment of ecstasy they’ve missed.

A glutton for punishment, travelling ever in hope of course, I’m off to N17 this weekend, to watch us ‘ammer The ‘ammers, as West ‘am are known.  Well, who knows what the result will be?  It’s one of our many local derbies and one that has become very venomous over the years; gone are the days when Jimmy Greaves could go from us to West Ham and Martin Peters could come to us from them without too much hate mail.  (Or have I got that wrong?)  Not long ago, a Spurs supporter who found himself between a rock and a hard place, opted for a group of Arsenal fans, to save himself from an ‘ammering.  Funny old world.

Tamworth are in the red and black, that’s our goalie in the white. No rain. Brill.

Anyway, last weekend friends persuaded me to go to a proper grassroots football match, FA Cup fourth round qualifying, Tamworth at home to mighty Macclesfield.  Well, in reality, the Silkmen (Macclesfield was renowned for its silk industry and the club, founded in 1874, was the oldest professional club in Cheshire until it was wound up in 2020, then revived) aren’t so mighty.  They have former Wales international Robbie Savage, he of the hair and current 5 Live pundit, as manager but they’re in the Northern Premier League, two tiers below National League Tamworth (promoted last season).

The Lambs (they used to change in the Lamb pub apparently, so that’s how they got lumbered with the nickname) play on an artificial pitch and won 4-2 in a cracking game.  Most of the goals would have graced any goal-of-the-month competition.  We stood – what bliss, to stand at a game – behind one of the goals and were almost on the pitch.  It was fab.  I loved it.

Over the moon under the rainbow:  Chris, left, who’s responsible for my new crush on Tamworth and his wife Essie, my fellow Spurs fanatic.

Next up, in the first round proper, we are at home to Huddersfield, who won the FA Cup in 1922 and the League three times in a row in the 1920s.  They now occupy the heights of League One but did spend two seasons in the Premier League before they were relegated in 2019.  “Count me in, please,” I instructed my friends, thinking that the match was on Saturday afternoon, 2nd November, the day before Spurs v Villa.  Perfect.

But I’ve just looked again and, lo and behold, the match has been moved to the evening of Friday the 1st because it’ll be on the telly, BBC no less.  Great – the exposure and the money involved are a big help to small clubs –  but this fan has a problem:  it’s Quiz Night at WHGC and I’m not sure what my team will say when I tell them I’m thinking of abandoning them and going to the football…Surely they won’t miss me if I can find a sub who’s good at soaps, films, pop music, the picture round and any number of other subjects that leave me floundering?  Any volunteers?

Just to let you know that it’s not a long way to Tamworth – 14.2 kilometres and 19 minutes by the most direct route with no traffic to speak of according to Waves (app that’s useful for those of us with no sense of direction).  There are lots of decent pubs in Tamworth and a bar at the club, so I thought about going by train (times didn’t work) or by bus (free with my old person’s pass but getting the timing right there and back would be tricky).  So, sorry Greta and fellow eco warriors, the car it was.

And, would you believe it, like most of my football forays the journey wasn’t straightforward.  There were gridlocks (the notorious Ventura Park shopping centre on a Saturday, aaagh), U-turns, time-limited car parks that wouldn’t work before, at last, I gave up and parked at the club for £3.  Bliss.

In the evening, two of us wrapped up well and went to a lovely concert by the Serenade Trio at Four Oaks Methodist Church, a notoriously chilly venue.

My mother had many qualities and taught us many things but these songs were not in her repertoire…

The trio comprised:  Helen, soprano supreme, who is in charge of Everybody Sings!, the choir that tolerates me (no-note Madill – the Davieses are not responsible for my lack of musicality); Clare, pianist, flautist, singer, arranger, who is our accompanist; and Lisa, who sings in the choir, is principal clarinettist in the City of Lichfield Concert Band and a saxophonist of note.  They are ridiculously talented and if they’re ever at a venue near you, go, go, go.  Their next gig is at the Aldridge Church Centre on 25th January.

The stars of the show: from right to left Helen, Clare, Lisa and Sara, guest accompanist.

I don’t know if any of you have been watching the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup but there was a result of seismic proportions the other day when South Africa beat Australia, the defending champions, by eight wickets in the semi-final in Dubai.  So Australia, who hardly ever lose, are out; England are out; India are out; the big guns gone.  It’s New Zealand against the West Indies in the second semi, which can only be good for the game worldwide, surely.

Bish, bash, bosh:  Australia were battered by the Rainbow Nation.  Anneke Bosch made 74 not out and Nonkululeko Mlaba took 1 for 31. [Snapped from the telly, Sky Sports]