Public Golf courses: Is it o.k. to act like the public?

I've played golf on public courses since I was 11 years old. I love the game and I know you do too. For the vast majority of us, we get our start and maybe even our finish on Public golf courses. Shoot, if it weren't for public courses, we'd be back in the days when pretty much only the rich played the game. Now, I'm not saying that private courses are bad, far from it. I've had some wonderful times at beautiful locations that folks have invited me to play on their private course.

The best thing about the private course is that...and I hate to admit it...you just don't see the Yahoos out there. Who am I talking about? I'm talking about the people that leave trash around, don't fix their ball marks on the green and scream profanities when they make a bad shot.

Now, does all of this happen on private courses? Of course. Why do I even bring this up? It's because there is a serious learning here that can help you in scoring lower in your game. Here it is:

If you want to just go out on the golf course whether it's public or private, and just have as your objective to purely have a good time, then great! All too often, however, I hear that's what people say they want and then they get angry when they blow shots and then they lose their cool and act like a Yahoo.

If you care the least about lowering your score, you've got to begin to start caring about yourself. Let me explain.

We are not different people in different life situations. We are one person. What does this mean? It means that when you don't have respect for the golf course, the rules, the etiquette, your playing partners etc., you really are not having respect for yourself!

That's a hard one to swallow I know but it's true. We are whole people, not compartmentalized. In other words:

"How you do anything is how you do everything"

This is the big idea I want you to get from this article. If you are a person who throws out a lot of cuss words, then guess what, your mind works from within that negativity when facing a tough approach shot or a steep bunker lip. You think you can compartmentalize...you can't.

Your mind is in a mode of "negativity." It's very hard to break that pattern and I promise you that it affects your score. Need I remind you of Jack Nicklaus' words: "Golf is 90% mental"? no I don't do I?

I love writing on the mental game and shortcuts to better golf without practicing. It seems that this issue of "how you do anything is how you do everything" just keeps coming up. Observe your friends and family on the course next time. You will see little bits of their personality in their play, good or bad.

The good new is that you can take control of this. You can change. You can begin right now to improve your game by improving your attitude. Tommy Bolt, who was also known as "Terrible Tommy" was interviewed in a golf magazine recently and openly confessed that he wonders how many more tournaments he would have won had he had a better attitude.

Ever watch golf on TV? How many players on the leaderboard throw temper tantrums on the course like you do? It's no accident.