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Superstitions are a strange anomaly for golfers.  Regardless of your handicap, every golfer has a superstition or two.  They are all based around “luck” that we have no control over.  I would suggest that superstitions are more about our mental state and how we approach our round.  It is impossible to tell a person that when you spin around three times, jump up and down with your arms in the air, or turn your hat around after a birdie really will not help their game.  Regardless of what we say, superstitions are part of the game of golf – like it or not!

The Bleacher Report has a list of superstitions like:

• Never use a red tee during your round of golf
• Never mark your ball with any coin with a smaller denomination than a quarter
• Never wash your ball if you are having an exceptional round
• Carry a lucky club in your bag

These are just a few with many others.  Unfortunately, all these acts of craziness are created, stored and retrieved in 6 inches of real estate – the space between our ears.

better-golf-by-putting-better.com has an interesting article on superstition and is worth a read.  The article outlines may superstitions held by pros such as:  “Some golfers will only play with numbers one and three. Ernie Els regards the number two as unlucky and believes that there is only one birdie in each ball. South African Retief Goosen uses a ball with number four in the first round of the tournament counting down to number one in the final round. Vijay Singh goes in the opposite order.”  And we thought we were crazy!

Superstitions can be a positive or a negative.  I have several superstitions myself, but for the most part I try not to let them overrule my common sense.  For this, I am a grateful golfer.

So what do you think, do superstitions influence your game or not?