On the morning of the playoff that would determine the winner of the 2025 Players Championship, Rory McIlroy was nervous. Competing against J.J. Spaun, who has one PGA Tour win to his name, McIlroy had just a three-hole aggregate playoff between him and his 28th PGA Tour title. But even though he’s been in this position many times before, McIlroy said that as he addressed his tee ball on the first playoff hole, it was, “the most nervous I’ve been in a long time.” His very human admission illustrates that managing big moments on the golf course isn’t about not being nervous, it’s about learning the skills to handle those nerves.

Although McIlroy was nervous, he birdied that first playoff hole and went on to win the Players Championship.

After the playoff, McIlroy said he thought feeling nervous was a good thing.

“People say pressure is a privilege, and it really is. You want to feel like that on the course,” McIlroy said. “That’s why I spend the time that I do practising and trying to master my craft, that you get yourself in those positions to see what you’re made of.”

Instead of running from that feeling of nervousness, McIlroy reframed it into a positive thing: That he was lucky to be feeling it, and that he knew how to handle it. With that nervous feeling often comes negative thoughts. Even McIlroy has those devilish little thoughts slide into his mind when he’s playing.

“Walking from the 16th green to the 17th tee today, I could see myself hitting it in the water, right? That’s something that crosses your mind, and it’s like, OK, how do I replace that thought with a better one and visualize and get myself into the moment?” McIlroy said. “I’ve practiced hard at that, and definitely getting better at it.”

McIlroy doesn’t ignore those feelings of nervousness, those negative thoughts. He doesn’t get frustrated with himself for having them. Instead, he quiets them by making positive thoughts louder.

“I just think you have to try really hard to make those positive thoughts just a little stronger and a little more powerful than the negative ones,” McIlroy said. “We all get negative thoughts, but it’s how do you deal with those and how do you reframe and replace those with what you want to see and what you want to do.”

Sports psychologist Dr. Deborah Graham, who has worked with many tour pros—notably, Fred Couples—says that McIlroy is right, the negative thoughts are going to happen no matter how good you are.

“We all have negative thoughts and they can escalate tension and reduce focus quickly if not managed early,” Graham said in a text exchange on Tuesday.

Dr. Graham has players do thought and body checks often, so they’re aware when tension creeps into their swing. If they get the physical cues of feeling rushed or tight, then they check their thoughts and note the existence of any of those negative thoughts. Once those thoughts have been identified, the next step is to start thinking positive thoughts, which Dr. Graham calls “Champion Thoughts.” She works with her students on creating a list of these thoughts so that when they need to call on a champion thought while they’re on-course, they have several at the ready.

“For example, when a player walks to a difficult tee shot like 17 and feels the tension build, identify the negative average thought and replace it with a pre-planned champion thought, which is almost always related to something you can control,” Dr. Graham said. “In this example, it could be to catch the ‘water’ thought and bring a well-rehearsed thought of what you can control like, ‘definite target and great tempo’ or repeat a simple feel thought over and over, like ‘smooth back, smooth through’ to push out the negative.”

Try this in your own game. If you’re able to do it successfully, you might find a boost of confidence, as McIlroy did.

“I think that will stand for me, feeling like that and being able to hit the golf shots that I need while your stomach is sort of not feeling great and your legs are a little shaky and your heart rate is racing,” McIlroy said.

Main Image: Keyur Khamar