All of these are efforts to circumvent the human instinct to care. In my previous Mind Games, I explained how the nerves we feel on the golf course are the same stress response triggered when fending off physical threats. Our brains don’t know the difference, so the key is to try to put everything in context.
Why does a golfer’s heart race over a big putt? Because they’ve determined that putt matters. What’s a way to make it matter a little less? By treating it as just another shot in a series, with equal meaning attached to each.
“Your expectations of me are living week by week,” Scottie Scheffler said at the Players. “My expectations of myself is almost more shot by shot. The media is always trying to create a story, which is part of your job. But when it comes to my golf game my expectations all are based around what I want for me mentally on the golf course is being committed to what I can do and controlling that aspect.”
I hate to admit it, but the the world No. 1 gets this right as well. It might not make for the most compelling answer, but as the video explains, it tends to read pretty well on a scorecard.