Why Coltart keeps his voice down!

Coltart - impersonations.

As well as being a Ryder Cup player, Scotsman Andrew Coltart is well known on the European Tour for his uncanny impersonation of film actor Sean Connery.

But he might well be keeping it to himself this week as he warms up for the BMW Russian Open, being staged at Le Meridien in Moscow.

The 007 James Bond character was forever at loggerheads with his Soviet rivals in a succession of blockbuster movies and Coltart is sensitive about possibly causing offence.

However, he’s hoping his policy of low expectations will help him take his recent good form a step further. He finished third in the Nordic Open last week, one of six top ten finishes already this season.

The 33 year old is currently enjoying a profitable year with over £300,000 to his name and reckons much of it is down to lowering his psychological aspirations.

He has stopped hiring sports psychologists because he says was tired of setting targets that he would consistently fail to meet. Now he plays tricks on his own mind to coax a higher level of performance out of himself.

"I don’t really have a target for the season. I’ve set targets all my career and failed to meet most of them. I find that it’s better to play with no expectations and play freely.

"I’ve used three psychologists in the past and they have all told me to set goals, but I’ve found that my goals are really all about doing justice to myself."

Coltart says he tends to use reverse psychology and be quite pessimistic on the golf course - and it has worked for him.

"If I’m walking towards my ball on the course, I tend to convince myself that I have a plugged lie and when I reach it and find it’s lying nicely then I feel good about it," says the Scot, whose sister Laurae is married to Lee Westwood, competing in tomorrow’s US PGA.

The par 72, 7174 yard course in the Russian capital has been lengthened by 95 yards this year, making it an even tougher proposition than last year when Iain Pyman claimed the title in this joint Challenge /European Tour event.

*What psychology do you use on the golf course? Tell us on The Forum.