I once played a course where the eighth hole was almost completely surrounded by water. The pro at the clubhouse had warned me beforehand: “Just don’t think about the water.” I took him seriously. I stood on the tee and concentrated on everything else. The flag. The wind. And again and again, briefly, the water I was trying not to think about.
The ball landed in the water.
For a long time, I believed it was just a bad swing. Until I learned that this is actually a well-documented, thoroughly studied phenomenon. Psychologist Daniel Wegner demonstrated it in a simple experiment in 1987. Participants were asked to speak aloud whatever came to mind for five minutes, with a single instruction: not to think about a white polar bear. If one popped into their mind anyway, they were to ring a bell. On average, the bells rang more than once a minute.
Wegner later called this the theory of ironic processes. His explanation: For the mind to successfully suppress a thought, part of it must constantly check in the background to see if the thought is surfacing. It is precisely this checking that brings the thought back. You can’t escape a thought by constantly looking out for it in order to avoid it.
Other researchers later tested this directly with golfers—not with bears, but with a putt. One group was simply asked to putt as accurately as possible. The other was told, above all, not to shoot past the hole. It was precisely this second group that subsequently shot past the target more often than the first. The instruction to avoid something made it more likely to happen.
That’s exactly what I depict in *WATER HAZARD*: the moment when the attempt not to think about the water is what really brings it to the forefront. The more you try to push it out of your mind, the louder it becomes. The golfer in the picture hasn’t lost the ball yet. In his mind, he probably already has.
I haven’t found an elegant solution for myself. I’ve started consciously glancing at the water briefly before bending over the ball—almost like a quick greeting. After that, it’s easier for me to let it go than if I pretend it isn’t even there.
If you want to read more about the experiment: “Ironic process theory” on Wikipedia. And if you want to see what it feels like when that one thought gets louder the more you try to push it away: “WATER HAZARD.”
— Ralf List
