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I told him to prepare for this present shot as he normally would, and to generate that feeling of eagerness by squeezing his fingers and then releasing the squeeze as soon as he felt eager. I emphasized that he proceed to address the ball as he always had, applying no more or less pressure on the club than normal, and then hit the ball without any thought whatsoever. Just hit it.

The shot bore off on a long fade trajectory, landing on the right side of the fairway. After the ball came to rest I had Randy evaluate the quality of the shot again to make sure the emotional state from the prior shot was just right.

Randy said, “That’s exactly the shot I had in mind. I had that same feeling of eagerness too. That’s neat.”

We repeated the process for several other tee shots on different holes, each time “stacking” other emotional feelings associated with past tee shots into the same K-anchor—squeezing the last three fingers of the left hand on the club.

In essence Randy created a contextualized anchor—a physical movement that he naturally uses every time he prepares to make a tee shot. After he established the anchor with repeated practice during the following weeks, it fired automatically because it was a part of his normal preparatory routine.

I repeated the entire anchoring process with him for fairway shots, for pitch-and-run shots, for bunker shots, and for several different kinds of putts. He created a new K-anchor for each kind of shot: a weight-shift onto his left leg for pitch shots, placement of his left hand on top of the grip as he squatted to survey the intended line of putts, and a knee bend for bunker shots. Most of them were positions or movements that Randy normally used as “keys” during his preparation for each kind of shot, and into which he stored or mentally associated emotions which he had recalled from previous shots in similar circumstances.

Then I asked him what he had learned from the process.

“I could recall past shots quite fast, once I got the hang of it,” he said. “And I found I wasn’t brooding over shots the way I used to. I was too busy thinking of the shot at hand. ”

Randy had one question: Was he supposed to do this anchoring process every time he played a round of golf? If so, he worried that there wouldn’t be time for pleasant chitchat. In this kind of deal Randy doesn’t like to be a silent partner.

I told him to stack the anchors only for a few rounds, anchoring feelings associated with about ten good shots in each anchor. By that time he will have stacked enough feelings of confidence to make all sorts of shots. And the anchors would fire automatically.

“I only fire the anchor consciously if I lack confidence?” he asked.

“Right.”

“And if I’m faced with a shot I’m not sure about, can I go through what we did today?”

“Yes, but only during practice rounds. Don’t use this process in tournament play. I want you to direct your mind to playing each shot, one at a time. And fire the anchor only if you think it’s absolutely necessary to change your state.”

The following is an outline of the steps involved in creating your own just-right anchors for various golf shots. Essentially, you’ll be anchoring confidence in many specific forms, over and over.

GOLF-SHOT RESOURCE ANCHOR

While approaching the ball wherever it lies, or while standing on the tee, remember a specific time and place during a round when you executed a similar shot very well.

Go inside and see, hear, and feel again what you saw, heard, and felt then.

Remember the physical sensations of setting up and executing the prior shot and the emotional state as you were executing it.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the emotional state before you anchor it.

Anchor the emotional feelings with a unique and natural movement that is part of your normal preparatory routine for that kind of shot.

After you have intensified the emotional feelings associated with the prior shot, immediately prepare for the impending