Welcome to issue number 57 of The 3 Minute Golfer. This FREE publication is here to help every golfer improve their mental game and their personal wellbeing. 

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Every golfer has played with that person. You know the one. They stand over every putt for way too long. They pace around the hole and look from all points of the compass, squint into the distance, hold the putter out like a divining rod, take three practice strokes, step away, reconsider the meaning of life, and finally hit the putt... exactly where everyone knew it was going five minutes earlier. 

The 2026 Open Championship provided the perfect antidote to golf's epidemic of overthinking. Ryan Fox, standing over the winning putt on the 72nd hole at Royal Birkdale, barely gave uncertainty time to lace up its shoes. Having marked and replaced his ball, he read the line, settled over it, and pulled the trigger in roughly 22 seconds. The putt disappeared into the centre of the hole, the Claret Jug was his, and every slow golfer in the world suddenly had one less excuse. 

That's not to suggest every putt should be hit before someone has removed the flagstick. But Fox demonstrated something that great players have understood for decades…once the decision has been made, there is very little to gain and plenty to lose by standing over the ball searching for one more piece of information.

Imagine if Fox had decided to conduct a full parliamentary inquiry before putting. He could have consulted his caddie, then ignored him. He might have walked around the hole another seven times to determine whether the Earth's rotation had changed the break. Or he could have asked the nearest seagull for a second opinion…but none of that would have helped.

We have covered quick decision making and speed of play in previous newsletters, but it is worth reiterating that the science behind this is remarkably consistent. Skilled movements, like a golf swing or putting stroke, become highly automated through thousands of repetitions. Under pressure, however, golfers often try to consciously control movements that normally happen instinctively. Instead of simply making a swing, they begin thinking about takeaway position, wrist angles, shoulder turn, tempo and face angle…all while the club is still sitting behind the ball. Research by Sian Beilock and colleagues has repeatedly shown that this conscious interference can disrupt expert performance, particularly under pressure.

Think about it another way. You don't consciously tell yourself how to walk down a flight of stairs. You simply do it. But if someone asked you to think about every muscle movement involved with each step, you'd probably feel awkward almost immediately. Golf works much the same way. The more you interfere with an automatic movement, the less automatic it becomes.

This is why good pre-shot routines matter. The best players gather the information they need…distance, wind, lie, target and strategy before they ever step into the shot. Once they cross that invisible line into execution mode, the thinking is largely finished. The routine becomes a bridge between analysis and action. Lingering on the bridge rarely improves the destination.

There's another advantage to quicker decisions that rarely gets discussed…mental energy. Every round already demands hundreds of decisions. Club selection. Wind direction. Yardages. Targets. Risk versus reward. If every shot requires a lengthy internal debate, decision fatigue begins to creep in long before the closing holes. Golfers often mistake mental exhaustion for poor swing mechanics, when they’ve simply spent four hours arguing with themselves.

Interestingly, studies examining the thought processes of golfers under pressure have found that better players tend to maintain a clearer external focus. Rather than obsessing over body positions, they concentrate on the target or the intended ball flight. It's a subtle shift, but an important one. Great golf is usually produced by clear intentions rather than crowded minds.

None of this means rushing. Quick decisions are not reckless decisions. Fox didn't sprint to his ball and swipe at the winning putt. He followed his routine, assessed the situation and committed. The critical point is that once commitment was made, there was no invitation for doubt to join the conversation. Confidence isn't always about feeling certain…often it's about refusing to reopen a decision you've already made.

The irony is that amateur golfers often believe taking more time demonstrates greater care or professionalism. In reality, it can have the opposite effect. Every extra look at the target sends a subtle message to the brain that perhaps the original decision wasn't quite good enough. Uncertainty grows in the silence. Soon, what started as a simple seven-iron becomes an unsolved mystery.

Perhaps that's the lasting lesson from Ryan Fox's Open triumph. Years of practice had already prepared him for that winning putt. There was nothing left to learn standing over the ball. He trusted the work, trusted the read and trusted himself. For the rest of us, that's probably the smartest strategy available. Read it. Pick it. Commit to it. Then swing before your brain has a chance to organise another committee meeting.

References

Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2001). On the fragility of skilled performance: What governs choking under pressure? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Jackson, R. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2008). Performance pressure and paralysis by analysis. (BPB)

Whitehead, A. E., Taylor, J. A., & Polman, R. C. J. (2016). Evidence for Skill Level Differences in the Thought Processes of Golfers During High and Low Pressure Situations. (PubMed Central (PMC))

Jones, T. (2022). How to Deal with Overthinking on the Golf Course. (Sport Excellence)

Coverage of Ryan Fox's victory at the 2026 Open Championship: Associated Press, PGA Tour and Fox Sports. (AP News)

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