The Right Mindset Heading Into the First Tournament of the Year
by Chris Smeal, PGA and Founder of Future Champions Golf
The first tournament of the new year always brings a unique mix of emotions. Excitement. Nerves. Hope. Sometimes pressure—often self-created. And if you’re not careful, expectations that quietly work against you before you ever hit your first tee shot.
Here’s the mindset I believe gives players the best chance to perform, grow, and set the tone for the entire season.
Be Prepared — Then Let Go
By the time you arrive at your first tournament, the work is already done. The practice sessions. The reps. The offseason commitment when no one was watching. Confidence shouldn’t come from what might happen this week—it should come from knowing you’ve prepared the right way.
Preparation is your foundation. But once competition starts, your job isn’t to prove anything. It’s to trust what you’ve built.
That’s where most players get stuck. They confuse being prepared with needing a specific result. Those are not the same thing.
Lower Expectations to Raise Performance
High expectations often feel like confidence, but they usually show up as tension.
“I should win.”
“I have to play well.”
“I can’t start the year poorly.”
Those thoughts don’t make you sharper—they make you tighter.
Lowering expectations doesn’t mean lowering standards. It means shifting your focus from outcomes to execution. From scoreboards to decisions. From trying to force a great week to allowing one to happen.
When expectations are lighter, performance has room to breathe.
Compete to Perform, Not to Control
You don’t control the field.
You don’t control the weather.
You don’t control how the course plays day to day.
What you do control is your commitment to each shot, your response to mistakes, and your ability to stay present.
The players who perform best early in the year aren’t chasing results—they’re stacking good decisions. They accept bad bounces. They move on quickly. They stay curious instead of critical.
That mindset keeps you competitive no matter what the scorecard says.
Use This Tournament to Gain Information
One of the biggest mistakes players make is treating the first tournament like a final exam.
It’s not.
It’s feedback.
This is your first real data point of the year:
- How does your game hold up under pressure?
- Where does it feel solid?
- Where does it feel rushed or uncomfortable?
- How do you respond when things don’t go your way?
Every answer you get this week is valuable—if you’re willing to listen instead of judge.
Great players aren’t obsessed with being perfect early. They’re obsessed with learning quickly.
Play Free, Not Careless
There’s a difference between playing free and playing careless.
Playing free means:
- You commit fully
- You accept outcomes
- You stay emotionally steady
It does not mean you stop competing or stop caring.
It means you trust that your best golf shows up when you’re present, not when you’re forcing the future.
Set the Tone, Not the Ceiling
The goal of the first tournament isn’t to define your season—it’s to set the tone for it.
Show yourself you can compete with patience.
Show yourself you can stay composed.
Show yourself you can handle adversity and keep going.
If you do that, the results will take care of themselves over time.
Golf is hard. That’s the point.
And the players who understand that—who respect the process, stay grounded, and stay curious—are the ones who grow the fastest.
Go play.
Go learn.
And let the season unfold.