Tim O'Connor

1 month ago | fairwaysgolf.ca | Tim O'Connor |Peter Mumford

“The quality of your golf—and your life—is determined by the quality of your attention.”I’m not sure who I first heard utter this nugget of wisdom, but I have heard myself saying it a lot lately to my coaching clients. I also had a recent experience that seemed to substantiate it. Last weekend, I was listening to a young fellow around 13 reading aloud to a group. He was slight, spoke softly and had what I believe was an accent from an African country. I thought: “I can’t hear what he’s saying.

1 month ago | fairwaysgolf.ca | Tim O'Connor |Peter Mumford

Photo: Zoltan Tasi / UnsplashIn my new book, Getting Unstuck: 7 Transformational Practices for Golf Nerds, I argue that the best thing you can do to respond more effectively to your negative and distracting thoughts in your golf—and your life—is to meditate. The following is an edited excerpt:Most golfers go through a round of golf without a clue what their minds are doing. It’s like we’re in a trance, carried unconsciously this way and that by our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviours.

2 months ago | fairwaysgolf.ca | Tim O'Connor |Peter Mumford

In nine seconds last Saturday, we got it. We realized what this was really about. It wasn’t about winning a trophy for a newly created contrived event, for a medal, or some long-dreamed-of championship. This was about pride, heritage, respect, blood, and nation. And tonight, we get to witness it again in the most anticipated hockey game in North America since the 2010 Olympics: Canada vs. the United States. No one cares that it’s for the championship of something called the 4 Nations Face-Off.

2 months ago | fairwaysgolf.ca | Tim O'Connor |Peter Mumford

When you throw a ball overhand, your elbow bends and leads your hand toward the target. But you’d never tell a baseball player to consciously do it. Yet, most golfers do. That is, they focus on moving body parts. In coaching golf nerds in the mental game or on their golf swings, I find that almost all of them struggle because they hyper focus on technique.

Jan 18, 2025 | fairwaysgolf.ca | Tim O'Connor |Peter Mumford

Our unconscious strategies get us what we want. Until they don’tSwiss psychologist Carl Jung theorized that our unconscious is the greatest factor influencing our behaviour. In my last blog—an excerpt from my book, Getting Unstuck: 7 Transformational Practices for Golf Nerds—I wrote that the mental strategies that everyone uses throughout their lives eventually stop working. That’s when we feel stuck.