Do you ever feel like your mental game is holding you back from shooting your best scores? Do you ever feel like you’re playing well but go into self-sabotage mode sometimes?
If so, just know that you’re not alone. So many golfers (and all athletes, for that matter), struggle with the mental game from time to time.
But golf is much more of a mental game than any other sport out there. Four plus hours of just, 14 clubs, and your thoughts to try and play your best golf. If you’re playing in a competitive event, add in some nerves, maybe weather, and it can make for a long day.
If you’re struggling with the mental side of things, more practice on the range isn’t the answer necessarily. It might be time to mix it up and use a trick that professional golfers use and don’t talk about nearly enough.
A sports psychologist might be just what you need. They can help you conquer your inner demons, play better under pressure, and ultimately, have more fun on the golf course.
Let’s review this unique form of psychology and see if it might take your game to new heights.
What is a Sports Psychologist?
So what is a sports psychologist in golf anyway?
According to the American Psychological Association,
“Sport psychology is a proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and skills to address optimal performance and well-being of athletes, developmental and social aspects of sports participation, and systemic issues associated with sports settings and organizations. APA recognizes sport psychology as a proficiency acquired after a doctoral degree in one of the primary areas of psychology and licensure as a psychologist.”
They understand how the mind works in a way that most of us never will (that’s what a lot of school will do). Specifically, they use this knowledge to help athletes perform better in both practice and competition. Sports psychologists are common practice for many athletes, including Olympic athletes, outside of golf as well.
History of Sports Psychology
Sports psychology is somewhat of a newer field and wasn’t universally received by all athletes.
According to Very Well Mind, “Sports psychology is a relatively young discipline in psychology. The first research labs devoted to the topic were opened during the 1920s and 1930s. After the first U.S. lab was closed during the early 1930s, research did not resume until the topic experienced a revival of interest during the 1960s.
The International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) was established in 1965 and by the 1970s, sports psychology had been introduced to university course offerings throughout North America.”
Throughout the 1980s it became a bigger focus in the scientific community and how well it could improve performance. Now, it’s a big part of golf and any professional sport, as more and more people are seeing the benefits of working with a specialist.
Professional Golfers Who Use Them
One thing in life and golf is for sure, success always leaves clues. By studying the great golfers of the past, you can learn from them to improve your game. I’m not talking about just practicing like them either, but instead, thinking like them.
The truth is, a ton of professional golfers use a sports psychologist to play better golf. Now, they are as much part of their inner circle as a swing coach or personal trainer. Some of the best examples include:
- Tiger Woods: Many would say that Tiger has a focus and determination unlike anyone who has ever played the game. I think a lot of that came from meditation and early work with a sports psychologist, Dr. Jay Brunza. He learned advanced techniques at an early age that seemed to stick with him and get him “in the zone” on the world’s biggest stages.
- Phil Mickelson: Leftie also doesn’t shy away from the mental side of the game and has worked with Julie Elion during his PGA Tour career.
- Zach Johnson: According to USA Today, in 2006, he said that he felt like his game was “treading water” and wanted more than just two wins. After working with Mo Pickens, he went on to win multiple major championships and more PGA Tour titles.
- Nick Faldo: Nick openly shares about his mental game training during his broadcast and his personal YouTube channel. He talks a lot about how visualization, meditation, and other strategies helped him play his best golf and win so many events.
If it works for them, it can work for you too.
Benefits of Working With a Sports Psychologist
Needless to say, if the men and women making millions of dollars to play golf use a sports psychologist, it can help you too. Here are the biggest benefits of working with one for your golf game.
Enhance Performance
Ultimately, the main goal of a sports psychologist is to help you improve your overall performance. With golf specifically, that could mean something different for every individual.
For some, it might mean overcoming nerves in golf and playing the first few holes better. For others, it might mean staying focused during the middle of the round or when playing in an event. And for others, it might mean finishing strong to help you beat a personal best.
A lot of people find that it will free them up mentally more than anything. Sometimes baring your soul is a way to get the demons out and allow you to play your best golf
Increase Confidence Levels
Confidence seems to come and go faster in golf than any other sport. One day you can’t miss a shot, while the next day you can’t pay for a good one. Too many of those days in a row and your confidence levels begin to plummet and you can find yourself in a golf slump.
Luckily, working with someone can help you get your confidence back so you can take it on the course. As Top End Sports said, “Doubt is the opposite of confidence. If you maintain many doubts prior to or during your performance, this indicates low self-confidence or at least you are sabotaging what confidence you had at the start of the competition.”
Start a Visualization Routine
Visualization is a huge part of playing your best golf. As 18-time major winner Jack Nicklaus said, “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.”
Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods, Jason Day, and other top professionals talk about this more as well. So if you aren’t trying to actively visualize and mentally rehearse shots on the range or the course, you’re missing out.
Working with a sports psychologist can help you out. They can go over your routine, teach you more about the power of visualization, and help create a clear picture in your mind.
Set Golf Goals
One of the best things I’ve learned from working 1:1 with a psychologist and reading psychology books is helping set goals. A lot of times as golfers we don’t have specific goals and it makes it hard to ever really improve.
But a sports psychologist can help you set goals that are relevant to your skill level and attainable. Plus, if you meet with them on a semiregular basis, you can evaluate your goals and find ways to hit them faster.
Reduce and Manage Anxiety
One of the biggest benefits of working with a professional is helping to manage and reduce anxiety.
As the Very Well Mind article from above stated, “Professional sports psychologists often help athletes cope with the intense pressure that comes from competition. This often involves finding ways to reduce performance anxiety and combat burnout. Tactics that might be the focus of this area include things like relaxation techniques, changing negative thoughts, building self-confidence, and finding distractions to reduce the focus on anxiety.”
If you need instant help with anxiety on the golf course, CBD might be your answer. Studies have shown that it can provide quick relief to anxiety and is great for overcoming nerves on the course.
Handle Pressure More Effectively
Everyone gets the first tee jitters, even Tiger Woods. But the pressure goes up incrementally when we want to play well. Whether it’s for a member-guest tournament or a USGA qualifier.
But a lot of times, we put so much extra pressure on ourselves, we make it nearly impossible to play well. A sports psychologist can help you remove the pressure, figure out ways to stay calm during the round, and learn to take it one shot at a time.
Manage Emotions
If you’re someone who wears their emotions on their sleeves, a psychologist can help you. While it’s good to play with some fire and passion, too much is detrimental to your game. Just ask Sergio Garcia, right?
A sports psychologist can help you identify triggers, replace bad habits, and manage emotions to help shoot lower scores. This should help you get off the emotional roller coaster that is likely costing you shots throughout the round. Plus, I bet you will find that your rounds aren’t so exhausting either.
Improve Focus
What separates golf from any other sport is the amount of time that you have to focus. For competitive rounds, it can last sometimes six hours! In a world where people have the attention span about the length of a goldfish, that’s nearly impossible.
Chances are, you know what I mean. There’s nothing worse than starting off the round well with pars and birdies, only to lose it on the back nine from a lack of focus and concentration.
If this is something you struggle with, a sports psychologist can help. They will use techniques to stay mindful and present throughout the round.
Rehabilitation
A sports psychologist can also help if you’re overcoming an injury as well. A lot of times, it’s hard for players to bounce back to their original form after an injury. Even if their body heals, the mind might take just a long, if not longer.
A sports injury can produce feelings of fear, frustration, anger, and other symptoms that will likely hurt your performance. But talking about these feelings out with a specialist and finding techniques to manage these feelings can help get them back to normal.
Enjoy the Game More (and Avoid Burnout)
Finally, they can also help you enjoy the game more. A lot of people get into golf because it’s so fun and addicting at times. Only to end up dreading golf and not having any fun over time.
That’s not the way this great game was meant to be played. A lot of us put so much pressure on ourselves to play good all the time, that we take the fun out of it. When it feels more like a chore than a recreational activity, it’s very difficult to play good golf (or have much fun).
But working with a specialist can help you enjoy the game again. It’s why sports organizations for young people even hire psychologists to help educate coaches and players about healthy self-esteem in the sport. It can help them avoid burnout and continue on in a game that they love.
Don’t forget, golf is always meant to be a fun, leisure activity above all else!
Next Steps
As you can tell, there are a ton of advantages to working with someone to improve your mental game. While not enough players talk about it, in my opinion, it’s a huge piece of playing great golf. Here are the next steps you can take to start reaping the benefits as well.
Finding a Sports Psychologist
So, how do you find a sports psychologist?
I’d suggest always starting with Google to find one in your local area. You can then visit them in person or have your session over the phone or a Zoom meeting.
Personally, I like in-person the best as you can develop a stronger connection with them, but it’s not always possible with your location and other circumstances. A Zoom call is great too because you can record your session and revisit later. I remember my first meeting with a psychologist and took so many notes and having a recording was really helpful too.
When you’re searching for a specialist, make sure they are APA certified and hopefully worked with golfers before. Some might have blog posts to read or even published a book so you can get familiar with their work and process. While it’s not a make or break, as all athletes have a lot of similarities, it might speed up the process.
Also, make sure to inquire about payment, packages, initial consultation, and more. Then, show up ready to share, learn, and put in the work!
Best Sports Psychology Books
While I definitely recommend working with someone, especially if you want to play well at competitive levels, it might not be feasible yet. If that’s the case, there are still tons of books to help your mental game out as well.
Here are some of our favorites:
- Sports Psychology – A Complete Introduction (Teach Yourself): This book does a great job of striking it in a way that makes it easy to understand and implement. It will help with mental toughness, confidence, and motivation.
- The Champion’s Mind: This is a great book to introduce some bigger concepts about sports psychology and a lot of golf specific examples too.
- The Mental Athlete: This book is one of the first books to dive into the sports psychology world. It has tons of information on visualization, calming the mind during competition, and more.
- Golf is Not a Game of Perfect: Dr. Bob Rotella is a legend in the golf world and has put out countless books to help your mental game in golf. This is one of his classics and considered a must-read by so many golfers (and made our best golf books list too).
- Mastering Golf’s Mental Game: This is a great read specific to golf and has tons of tangible takeaways to help you control your mind on the course.
These are a small investment and likely the cost of a sleeve of golf balls. Even if you don’t see a psychologist, one or two of these books might be the best investment you can make in your game.
FAQs
Do you have more questions about improving your mental game and possibly working with a sports psychologist? If so, hopefully we’ll answer them below.
Who is the most famous sports psychologist in golf?
Dr. Bob Rotella is probably the most well-known sports psychologist in the golf world. He’s worked with hundreds of PGA, LPGA, Korn Ferry, and other professional athletes.
What’s great is that he has shared so many of his tips and tricks with the everyday golfer in his amazing books. These were how I got started learning about the mental game and eventually a sports psychologist as well. If you haven’t already, make sure to read a few (or all) of his golf books on Amazon.
Do they work with amateur athletes too?
Yes, a lot of them work with both professional and amateur athletes.
Can junior golfers work with sports psychologists?
Yes, junior golfers can and should work with them. It’s not uncommon for coaches to even reach out to sports psychologists to get additional help as well.
Remember, Tiger Woods started working with one at a very early age and helped him become a very mentally strong player. If not, the most mentally strong player of all time.
Working with someone early can help a child learn valuable life skills to manage emotions and increase overall performance. This will not only help on the golf course, but handling the challenges of life as well.
What is the cost of working with a sports psychologist?
Costs depend on the psychologist, their experience levels, number of sessions, and more.
Usually, they will have them listed on their website and it is quite common for them to charge by hour. They might also offer packages that reduce the hourly rate, but you might need to pay in advance as well.
To avoid any confusion or awkwardness, make sure to clarify pricing ahead of time. You also want to make sure to check if it’s online or in-person, and if you get a recording of your session too.
What is a typical session like?
Sessions are usually 30-60 minutes long. Before your first session, they will likely have you fill out a questionnaire to learn more about you, your golf game, and establish a starting point. Then, they will introduce themselves, share some of their overall strategy, and dive into specifics.
One thing that is great when talking to someone about golf and your goals is that you will learn more about yourself. A lot of times, especially as men, we internalize things instead of sharing with others. But when you’re in a safe space, sharing with a professional, some things might come up that you hadn’t encountered before.
This is a good way to get things off your chest, share what’s holding you back, and create a game plan moving forward. Just remember, the more open and honest you are, the more results you will get from your session.
Final Thoughts
Working with a psychologist can help you in more ways than one. They can help you manage your emotions, improve your thinking, and so many other mental skills to help your golf game.
But it will only work if you have the desire to make it work. As best-selling author Napoleon Hill said, “The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.”
If you’re not fully committed to mental training, working with a specialist probably won’t help too much. Yet, if you have a strong desire and are willing to put in the work, it can help you tremendously on the golf course.
If you’re someone who has put in countless hours on the range, bought all the new clubs, and still not getting results… Why not give it a shot? Don’t let the few inches between your ears ruin your chances of playing your best golf.
Remember, if it works for the best players in the world (including Olympic athletes), it’s safe to say it can work for you too.
If you want to dive a little deeper on the mental game, check out our article on Golf Hypnosis or our article about the Subconscious Mind and Golf. You might be surprised about what you read.
