Golf-a-Phobia

Pretty much everything a person can do in the world has an associated phobia. Fear of daytime is an official phobia. Fear of crystals or glass is an official phobia. Virtually every letter in the alphabet has a phobia or phobias associated with it. The closest thing I have to a phobia is Selachophobia. For a complete listing of phobias, please go here: http://www.phobialist.com/.

One of the biggest phobias i see in my life is a fear of golf; yet there is no phobia associated with it. Any time you go out on the golf course, you see it too. It's not any kind of phenomenon. There is no specific auditory, visual or aromatic trigger that can cause it to manifest. Rather, it is a combination of any of them that can cause the golf fear to appear. It doesn't appear in the places you would typically expect, either. Many people think it appears when you have to hit over a pond to get to the green. Or maybe you think it's the 200 yard carry that releases the fear. I mean, who likes to hit 3 from the tee, let alone hitting 3 over a forced carry???

Around the green is where i see the most fear. How can one argue with this? To prove my point here are the top 5 fails that result from golf fear:

1. Par 4: you miss the green short on your approach. The pin is on the front of the green. You hit a chip right up short of the green. In your mind, you must hit a perfect shot and you're afraid that if you don't you'll be 50 feet away. However, 50 feet and putting for par is better than being 50 feet and putting for bogey; which is what you WILL be after you flub the chip.
2. Sand Traps: same scenario, just replace the pin on the front with the pin anywhere. Leave it in the trap, blade it into the woods behind the green, there's a good chance you're going to (in your mind, prior to hitting it) add strokes by a factor of 2.
3. The DAB (Drive After Bird): The one exception for the fear being around the green. For most of us, a bird may not be rare, but it doesn't happen regularly (not as regularly as bert pooping at least). All too often, unfortunately, we squander the reduction in our score compared to par by messing up the next drive. It's the top, the hook into the woods, the slice into the trees/water, whatever. Why can't we take a bird and build upon it? Why is it so hard?
4. The penultimate fear is that, which may exclusive to a person whose name rhymes with Leve Fozmell. I experienced this fear a few weeks back, in person. There was a par 4 the was a dogleg right. The green had a bunker left, right and to the right of the right bunker and all the way behind the green is water. Boz, unfortunately hit his approach into the water. However, it landed on ground and rolled in. So...that meant he could have dropped justto the right of the green. He was afraid, however, of hitting it over the green so he went back to where he originally hit the shot into the water. I don't know what that is, but it's gotta be fear in some way...
5. This is the capper. The Myrtle Fear. While it's not experienced by an individual as fear, per se, the effect is the same. This happens to players every year. Going into Myrtle, they're feeling good, playing well, even, dare i say, confident. Then the fear, manifested as excitement, kicks in...The Chunk from 100 yards. The double chip. The 4 putt. You want to so well. You want to win the coveted LBI cup, but in the end, FAIL. You're afraid to win.
   

Fear runs rampant in life. Don't be upset if it seeps into your golf game. Just don't let it penetrate deeply. We all are hesitant to try a new shot. We are even more hesitant to take our medicine and be patient. But it's what you need to do to be successful in golf...and in life.