How Pain Can Save Your Golf Game

Pressure doesn’t ruin performance. Overthinking does.

You’ve felt it. Over a must-make putt. In the final stretch of a presentation. When it matters most, the thinking mind grabs the wheel—and things fall apart.

The Trap: Thinking When You Should Be Feeling

Performance researcher Dr. Sian Beilock calls it “explicit monitoring”—when you start thinking about every move you're making, even the ones you've trained a thousand times. Your swing becomes mechanical. Your voice, forced. Your body tightens.

The more you try to control the moment, the more it slips away.

What Greg Norman Knew

Greg Norman had a method. When the pressure built, he would drive his fingers into his ribcage—hard enough to cause pain. Not to punish himself, but to feel. Pain cut through thought. It grounded him in his body. It pulled him back to now.

This isn't superstition. It's neurobiology. The body is a shortcut. Sensation—especially strong sensation—pulls attention away from analysis. It disrupts the loop of anxious thought and brings you back to something real: breath, weight, presence.

The Practice: Grounding in Sensation

You don’t need pain to find presence. But you do need to train it.

• Tactile anchors: Use physical cues—like pressing your fingers into your palm, thigh, or ribs—to interrupt spiraling thoughts.

• Body scans: Quietly name what you feel. Not thoughts—just physical sensations. “Tension in shoulders. Warmth in hands. Breath in chest.”

• Simplicity under stress: When the moment feels big, simplify. Focus on rhythm, tempo, and movement. Let the thinking go.

Golf and Business Are the Same Here

Pressure doesn’t care where it shows up. Boardroom. Tee box. Big decisions. Final holes.

If you want to show up when it counts, you need to stop thinking so much. You need to trust your preparation. And you need a way back into your body when your mind wants to take over.

That’s what elite performers do. They rehearse not just the mechanics, but the reset.

Your Next Step

At ATX Golf Performance, we teach this reset. We use cutting-edge tools and proven coaching to hardwire movement—but we also teach you how to trust it when it counts. To stay grounded. To stay out of your own way.

If you're looking to perform under pressure—whether on the course or off—it starts with training more than just your swing.