There are a number of distinctly different terrains on a golf course; greens, fringe, sand, fairway, rough, and the teeing ground.  The latter, called the tee box, is usually rectangular, raised, and clearly defined.  To many golfers it has the feel of a stage.  Often you are standing there alone, as your fellow competitors (audience) are seated in the box section (golf car).

There is a natural tendency to show off under this circumstance - to impress.  Just like an actor wants the play to be a big hit, we try hard to hit the big one in play!  But this becomes a problem, because home-run hitters also strike out a lot.  In golf you have to play your foul balls.  The first tee is an especially stressful situation, almost like an audition in front of many critics.  Good players tend to want to show off, while poor players freeze with 'stage fright'.

The way to dissolve this illusion of being on stage and feeling pressured to perform, is to look back a couple of hundred years in the history of golf.  In the early days of the game clubs didn’t have numbers; they each had names.  The 1 wood was called the 'play club', not the 'driver'.  Look closely at the attitude a golfer will have when 'hitting a driver' as opposed to 'putting a ball into play'.  When you hit a driver, there is a sense of big deal, important event.  Put a ball into play, and you might think of the opening kickoff at a football game, or first move in chess.  It simply gets the game started.

If you are able to keep the correct attitude in mind, then the first shot on each hole will have the quality of good start rather than the whole show.  Your stage fright and self-consciousness will dissolve and you will truly be playing the game.