Is there anything in your golf game that you want more than consistency? You want to hit more fairways and greens, and make more putts—but you’re not talking about getting it together once, for one round, and being satisfied. You want to do it all the time. But how do you unlock your best golf, over and over again? How do you take that one round that felt like a fluke, and make it your standard? In the February 1985 Golf Digest story, 18 Keys to Consistency, pros share tips to help make you a more consistent golfer. Amy Alcott’s is a mental trick that every golfer would benefit from trying.

“Don't think about what your next shot means,” Alcott says in the article. “Too many golfers I see, men and women alike, put extra pressure on themselves by worrying about the significance of every shot.

"If I make this putt, that means I'm a great pressure putter."

"If I can par these last three holes, it will be the best round of my life."

"If I get down in two, we win the $10 nassau."

That translates into, "I've got to make this shot," or "I've got to make this putt." It gets so bad they can't even take the putter back.”

Putting the pressure on is enticing to some, Alcott explains. Because if you do put that pressure on and then come through, you’re a hero. And then you try to ride that high for the rest of the round. It’s dangerous, however, because if you don’t pull off the shot, then you’re left feeling like a failure. Alcott says that these ups and downs aren’t worth it.

“Take it from me, you're better off leaving your ego in your bag. The levelheaded players, who don't let that single bad shot ruin their round or let a good putt make them higher than a kite, are the ones who succeed the most,” Alcott says.

Instead, Alcott recommends a healthy detachment from the outcome of each shot. That putt to halve the hole? It’s just a putt. Hitting the fairway to avoid going OB and losing your chances of breaking 90 for the first time? It’s just another tee shot, no different from the ones you were hitting on the range during your warm-up.

“You've probably listened to interviews where a pro who's broken the course record says something like, "I didn't know how far under par I was." He's not kidding. When you scored your best round, were you thinking about "what it means"? Were you counting up your score on every hole? Were you trying to impress your playing partners?,” Alcott queries. “I'll bet you weren't. I'll bet, in fact, that you were simply letting it happen, playing one shot at a time, and the good round just happened. Your mind was quiet. It wasn't worried about ‘what it means.’”

The advice is intriguing. What if unlocking your best golf is as simple as letting go of the pressure of making this round the best round of your life?