Chris Paisley on the search for confidence, and how self-belief leads to success
It has been a fairly quiet period for me since my last column at the start of April. My form is quietly improving behind the scenes, but I am yet to shoot the scores I know I am capable of. It is frustrating, but all I can do is keep working at it.
I have changed my movement pattern slightly in order to achieve a more consistent long game. The swing looks and feels great, but it’s not quite transferring to tournament golf… yet. I am being patient and working as well as I can – knowing things are going to turn around soon. Confidence is a huge element that has been missing recently, and that only comes through hard work and seeing good shots more often.
Speaking of confidence, I think Scottie Scheffler is hogging it all at the moment! It is only a few months since the guy qualified for the US Ryder Cup team without winning a tournament. Now he’s a multiple winner, world number one, and The Masters champion.
I’d say his performance at the Ryder Cup, especially the singles where he beat Jon Rahm comfortably, was the springboard to his recent run of form. All that has changed since last year, I imagine, is a little extra confidence and self-belief. It does amazing things to sportspeople, and you see it all the time.
In reality, Scottie will have been working like mad behind the scenes for years and years – working on all aspects of his game to try and build his skill level and confidence to this point. What we see as spectators is a sudden jolt of performance that seems to come out of nowhere. You don’t just pluck confidence out of thin air – it comes from hard work, patience, resilience, and doing the right things consistently over time.
I always try to observe things like this and learn from them. My takeaway is that you just have to keep doing everything you can to build your skill set, your mindset, and your self-belief. If you do that consistently over a long enough period, good things will happen.
I also need to add a quick note about Tiger. It was brilliant to see him back playing after so many thought he was done… again. Never write off Tiger Woods!
