Thalia Martin has learned that managing the mental side of golf isn’t about hiding frustration; it’s about accepting it.
Ten seconds. That’s all Thalia needs on a golf course.
A missed putt that turns into a double bogey, a bad tee shot that goes out of bounds and receives a penalty stroke – and that one mistake can turn into more for any athlete.
For Thalia, the answer isn’t to hide the frustration. It’s to accept it – and then move on.
“I would give myself 10 seconds to let it out and then let it go, and then move on to the next,” she told us.
As for many young athletes, Thalia initially believed showing frustration was something to avoid in the public eye.
She would try to bottle up those emotions on the golf course when she was competing; however, she realised that wasn’t the right way to go about it and how a special someone has helped her in that situation.
“With how I am as a person and on and off the golf course, I realised I’m not a person that can bottle things up or just show no emotion,” Thalia added.
“So I realised, if let’s say, I do hit a bad shot, I would just let it out in my own head, mumble something, be just a little, like 10 seconds, or just let it out but then let it go, sort of thing.
“Cause I tried so hard many times to just, ‘Oh, it’s okay, it doesn’t matter,’ but I realised I’m bottling it in, so that’s what I try and do mostly on the course, is trying to manage my emotions and energy.”
“After I hit my shot, I would take off my glove, look around and just spot what I see, spot what I hear, or if I smell any flowers or feel the ground”
Thalia doesn’t just rely on one mental technique when she steps out on the course.
Alongside showcasing her frustrations with ‘10 seconds to let it go’, she also tries to remain in the present moment, always focusing on the shot she has just played instead of looking too far ahead.
“After I hit my shot, I would take off my glove, look around and just spot what I see, spot what I hear, or if I smell any flowers or feel the ground or see, I would just try and do that really,” she explained.
“I would tell my mum, ‘Oh, that’s over there is a pine cone,’ or ‘That tree is greener than that tree,’ or just something surrounding my area to just keep me in the present moment.
“That would be the first thing that I would do after I hit my shot and then keep that process again.”
“I had some anxiety at the start of the year”
But the mental battle hasn’t been easy for Thalia.
Notably, with anxiety around her tee shots as the courses become narrower and her ability to hit it further, providing a mental roadblock she had to overcome.
However, using her techniques by being in the present moment and letting out her frustrations in 10 seconds, she has managed to overcome that as the year has progressed.
“I’m not really sure why I had quite a lot of anxiety about tee shots,” Thalia explained. “I think courses nowadays are getting narrower, there’s a lot more water around and I think now that I’m hitting it just a little bit further than I’m used to, it’s finding itself in like spots that I’m not quite used to.
“So I think that’s why I’ve been having some anxiety off the tee, but somehow I just pull through. Being in the present moment, letting it out and letting it go has really helped me with the tee shots.
“Then, I think after the first four months of the year, I’ve just gone back to my normal self and there’s been some really tough courses out there where tee shots really mattered. I just seem to find the middle of the fairway just by keeping myself in the present moment.
“Because if I start and my anxiety starts happening, if I’m just thinking about the future and thinking, ‘This could happen, this could happen,’ but if I just focus on what I want and that’s all that I can do, really.”
Thalia has had a special someone by her side to help her overcome those situations.
Golfers have a caddie when on the professional tour, who usually provides guidance on the course, recommendations of clubs and carry bags, and Thalia has had the unusual but lovely moment of having her mum by her side on the course.
‘You can trust your instincts’
So, could you ask for anyone better to help you with the mental struggles when competing in an 18-hole round than your mum, who knows exactly what to say to their children in that moment?
“That’s why I like having my mum with me because she understands me better than probably myself sometimes,” Thalia told us. “She knows when to say things or when not to and just be my cheerleader, really.
“Because sometimes I doubt myself quite a lot and it’s just important to have someone there just saying, ‘You’re a good player, you do make the right decisions, you can trust your instincts’.
“I’ve had caddies on the bag before, and yes, they helped me calculate numbers or the shots and everything, but when I caddied for myself in Manchester, it just pushed me to really trust myself and made me realise that my mum was right and just believe in myself.”
