Golf · Level 6: Advanced · Sub-level 6.3

The Mental Game

4 tests · 40 facts · updated 13 October 2026 · markdown

The mind on the course: focus and routines, pressure and nerves, confidence and resilience, and goals.

Each test below is ten questions on Insporta. The list under a test is what the questions check: one fact per question, with the source it was written from. Read it before the test, or come back from a wrong answer.

Test 1FocusTake a test

Published in 1995.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Results follow good processes.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Tension changes grip and tempo.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Hard to force, easier to allow.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Studied in putting and many target sports.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Positive, simple cues help.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Players replace it with the shot they want.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
See it, feel it, trust it.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
The last is fully in the player's control.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied
A longer final fixation goes with better putting in studies.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied

Test 2Pressure and nervesTake a test

Gripping down is sometimes called choking down, which is different.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Experts perform best when they do not micromanage.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Too little or too much both hurt.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
After Yerkes and Dodson.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Coaches suggest a breath and a slower routine.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
A word, a breath or a touch of the glove.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
He took a triple-bogey seven and lost the play-off.
Source: The Open, 1999 championship records · recall
Over-control is the link.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Let it out, then let it go.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
The top of the curve, at a middle level of arousal.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied

Test 3Confidence and resilienceTake a test

A key part of confidence.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
A Canadian-American psychologist.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
He called these mastery experiences.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Described by Carol Dweck.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Memory tends to keep the bad ones.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
It can be trained like a skill.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
The reaction ends at an imagined line.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Doing it yourself counts most.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied
The reaction has a time limit.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Beyond the line the shot is gone.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied

Test 4Goals and imageryTake a test

A common framework in coaching.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Fully in the player's control.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Motivating, but partly out of the player's hands.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Each kind does a different job.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Used off the course and in routines.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Such as ten greens in regulation.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Where did focus drift, and why?
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Winning depends on others too.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied
From the big aim down to daily habits.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · recall
Process goals are the daily habits.
Source: Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching · applied

Sources

PGA coaching and general teaching guides, launch-monitor teaching material, sport-psychology research as used in golf, the Rules of Golf 2023 and Model Local Rules where a rule is named, and championship records for settled events; original questions authored, nothing reproduced.

Sport psychology in golf (Rotella; Bandura; Vickers; Yerkes-Dodson; Dweck) as used in coaching39
The Open, 1999 championship records1