With half a dozen clubs and more than 3,000 regular golfers within a drive, chip and a putt from Leighton town centre, the Observer has signed on Leighton Buzzard Golf Club's PGA advanced professional coach Maurice Campbell to provide a monthly tip on how to improve your game and reduce that handicap.

Here is the fourth of golf doctor Maurice's tips for a healthier game:
Controlling Your State Of Mind

An area that is often overlooked by amateur golfers, but is practised by professional golfers is controlling their state of mind. The way you move and your posture have a dramatic effect on your performance. A person that has a slumped posture with their head down does not look confident. If their posture says they are not confident, then that is most likely to be the feeling they are having and their performance will suffer. A golfer that walks tall with their head up in a strong confident looking posture is far more likely to be and perform like a strong confident golfer.

Another reason for walking tall with your head up is that it will help you relax. When you walk with your head down staring at the grass, you stimulate fovial vision, which stimulates your fight and flight response system. This is hopeless on a golf course. Walking with your head up and your eyes level with the height of the flag will stimulate peripheral vision, which activates relaxation and this is perfect for the golf course.

To control your state of mind you must control your posture.

Email me at golfmachine@instructor.net to ask any golfing questions. You can also subscribe to my free email newsletter by emailing me. The newsletter is packed full of great information to help your golf.

The next golfing tip will appear in a month's time.

Good Golfing - Maurice Campbell, 01525 244815.