Part two of my new series, Bad Advice — the five bits of golf wisdom everybody repeats that the research quietly disagrees with. Every golfer knows the feeling: first tee, shaky hands, and a little voice telling you to calm down. But what if that voice has been sabotaging your game this whole time? Today I dig into a Harvard study that flipped everything I thought I knew about pre-shot nerves.

It turns out the line between choking and coming through might come down to a single thing you say to yourself before you swing. I'll walk you through what it is, why it works, and the hundred-year-old science proving your nerves were never the enemy. This one might change your first tee for good.