You’re making the turn in three under par at your local course–an eagle, a birdie and seven pars on the front nine–potentially on your way to a personal best. The pressure starts to mount as you stand on the tee box of the 10th hole, a 175 yard par 3, all carry over water. It doesn’t help your comfort level that your playing partner has just commented, “You were kicking my butt on the front side, but it’s a whole new nine now.” You do your best to focus and shut out any errant negative thoughts as you go through your pre-shot routine. Unfortunately, you don’t get all of that 5-iron and the ball splashes in the water just short of the green. You hit your third shot from the drop area to about twelve feet from the pin and proceed to three putt for a triple bogey six. Are you resilient enough to bounce back from problems or will your back nine be a continuous set of mishaps?

Research on resilience has shown that it is not a trait that people either have or don’t have; resilience involves ordinary behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed by anyone.

More specifically, the research shows that the most resilient people share certain things in common such as: strong connections to people, religion or spirituality; an optimistic outlook; possess achievable goals towards which they take decisive action; learn from their mistakes; have confidence in themselves and their abilities; and keep difficulties in perspective. With a little work and attention to developing the behaviors and mindset that foster resilience, you can build your golf resilience so that one bad shot doesn’t become back to back bad shots, and one blown hole doesn’t lead to a round you’d rather forget than recap at the 19th hole with your playing partners.