#10: [Inside the Mind] Bryan Taylor, Humble Multi-Tournament Winner on Prioritizing Intentional Practice and Visualizing Desired Results

Hey Brian, thank you so much for joining me on an episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset Podcast. How are you my friend?

Bryan Taylor (00:08.889) doing just fine. Thank you.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (00:10.482)

Yeah, I am thrilled that you are here and really grateful that you know our friendship took the next step. We went from phone and text message and email to here we are on video as well. What a great continuing of that.

Bryan Taylor (00:22.105) This is online dating. Here we go.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (00:23.57)

There we go. I love it. You get it. So with that said, my friend, we’re going to dive into a variety of different topics on all things golf, mental game, your experience and in whatever way feels best. I’d love for you to share just a little bit more about your golf journey, perhaps maybe just like when the game of golf and how the game of golf became such a passion of yours.

Bryan Taylor (00:26.681) You

Bryan Taylor (00:49.593) It filled a void, quite honestly. I had a restoration company. We had a crew of guys that, it was basically a manpower operation where a golf course that was being built needed laborers. And we knew enough people in the Ocean City area and had a business partner at the time. And he circled the wagons and got 10 guys and…

helped out with the crews, basically all the jobs that nobody else wanted. And we took it on from a manpower situation. I was on the tail end of my powerlifting career and I was asked by one of the superintendent one day, and after work he said, hey, we’re gonna go play golf. Let’s go, we’re gonna go next door to this pine shore, this little executive golf course. And…

I said, I don’t play. He said, sure you do. Go grab, there’s clubs in the showroom. They were part of a, just like, dude, they had like, just that. It was a showroom, it was a mock up for one of the condos. And I grabbed the clubs and went over and pretty much just kind of fell in love with it. It was weird. That’s how it started. An executive golf course. It went from there to my fear of embarrassment.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (02:04.37) Wow.

Bryan Taylor (02:13.433) And I wouldn’t allow myself to leave the nine -hole executive course and or the driving range to go to a regular normal size facility, 18 -hole facility. I stayed there for a year. Pretty much the first year I never left. And I just wasn’t, I wasn’t going to have it. I wasn’t going to go through that whole miserable, you know, this guy stinks kind of thing, you know, so I didn’t do it to myself.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (02:29.33) Wow.

Bryan Taylor (02:43.417) So went out and played for the first time. I was 30, 31, something like that. Shot like 101 and then never, never shot above 100 ever again.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (02:57.01) Wow.

Bryan Taylor (02:57.689) Yeah, yeah. Two years later, I was a single digit and won my first club championship. And then it just kind of went from there, you know, honestly, you know, that’s that’s my story in a nutshell. So.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (03:12.242)

That’s a phenomenal nutshell and I sincerely appreciate you sharing that. So if I hear correctly, you didn’t more or less pick up a club until you were 31? 30, okay.

Bryan Taylor (03:14.905) Yes.

Bryan Taylor (03:21.241) 30. Yeah. I mean, I didn’t go to a regular golf course until I was 30. Well, but yeah, 30. Yep.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (03:25.522) Wow.

So that gives me hope because you know, I played very consistently in high school, but then it was 15 plus years before I touched a club again. And here I am in my early thirties and all right, this, this is, this is inspiring to say the least, but I’m curious looking back, spending a year only on the range, only at that executive course, I can’t help but wonder if that actually really helped you in the long run, develop some of those short game essential skills. Tell me more about your thoughts on that.

Bryan Taylor (03:55.193) I never really thought about it, but you’re probably right. I mean, I kind of, because of the nature of an executive golf course with mostly, it’s all par threes, there was like one or two, I think it was two par fours, but they were drivable par fours, you know, with the, you know, so, which the way I understand it, that’s probably the way the game should be learned is from the greens moving backwards. You know, start with the putting and then go to the chipping and work your time there and then.

going to your iron game and then back to, you know, working from the tee with drivers and so on. So I, you know, I’ve been trying to do that with my kids. They’ve resisted forever in spite of me. You know, I can play or practice at most of the facilities in my area and they’re just not interested right now. So I keep pressuring it, you know, hoping that they’ll, I’ll get them to crack one day, but yeah. So yeah, that’s how, you know, I never thought about it like that, but you’re right.

That’s probably, that kind of came easy to me for some reason. And that’s kind of growing up playing all those sports, baseball, football, and so the hand to hand to eye, and that’s, I guess the story I’m going with. I don’t know the reason why, but yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (05:11.474)

Yeah, that seems to make sense. I love how you said like, yeah, the game of golf should be approached from the from the greens and then eventually back to the t box. And, you know, that’s kind of the mentality I’m taking, you know, I live five minutes or so I should say my girlfriend does from an executive course. So every time I’m visiting her, that’s always a priority to stop there once or twice over the long weekend. And it’s because just for that reason, like, how many shots am I going to hit with within 120 yards, a lot more than I am driving off the t box. So if I can.

fine -tune those short game it’s going to serve me just indescribably so in the long run.

Bryan Taylor (05:45.305) And so to this day, if I have, you know, I have to pass golf courses to get to my house every day. So if I stop two or three times a week and spend 20 minutes putting, 20 minutes chipping, kind of goofing around the end of my day, thinking about what I have coming up or whatever, I do it, you know, and I enjoy it. You know, it’s kind of a, kind of,

end of the day, bringing everything down. It’s kind of has a calming effect, you know, but at the same time I am practicing with a purpose. So I think that’s important to put your mind in a place where you’re kind of, you still have to have it a competitive, like I’ve got to make X number of five footers or something like that. You have to do that to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you’re just killing time.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (06:40.626)

I am so happy you shared that I think that’s such an important and overlooked point like just reflecting back. Yeah, like you and I both know the value and importance of the consistency putting in practice. But we also know it’s doing the same damn thing over and over and over again and those who experience tremendous success leap and leaps and bounds above everybody else find a way to fall in love with the monotony of practicing and doing the little things. So I love what you said you kind of it seems that to me like you gameify it I have to make X number of five footers before.

Either I move on or go home. Did I hear you right?

Bryan Taylor (07:10.713) Kind of, yeah, you know, you have to make extra, you don’t get dinner and you know, the fat kid likes to eat, you know, so. So, no, it’s not that bad. I would never give up a meal. But yeah, so yeah, but I mean, you know, my understanding of truly the way you’re supposed to be practiced is not standing on the range and hitting 47 irons. You know, I mean, you’ve got to play a hole in your head. So there’s got to be a.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (07:17.01) Yeah

Bryan Taylor (07:39.481) hole that you’ve gotten a vision where you’ve got a, you know, it’s a dogleg left and you’ve got to get set up and, you know, maybe hit a straight ball or hit a draw. And then that’s going to leave you X amount of yards into the green. And so you go from this club to that club. And, and that’s truly the way to practice is to go down it that way, as opposed to the monotony of hitting the same club over and over again. That makes no sense.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (08:02.674)

I am so grateful you just shared all of that because it’s it’s so interesting like, you know, I say this to most people and I’ll say to you like this podcast is selfish for me. I get to learn from you. Yeah, so to all this so does everybody listening. So it’s a win win win situation and it’s you know, you saying that you treat the driving range like a practice hole like you know, you you may maybe you hit your five wood and then you hit your seven and then maybe you know, you make mock out there you got to hit a pitching wedge or something but

I love hearing that because it’s been so ingrained in some of what I’ve experienced that you do need to hit 20 shots with your nine, then your seven, then your five, but the transferability to playing 18 holes is much less than if you’re treating each range session like multiple practice holes.

Bryan Taylor (08:47.609) Yeah, and don’t get me wrong, I do hit multiple shots with the same club, but once you’ve got to the point where you’re warmed up and you’re comfortable, then yeah, at that point then you need to create a golf course in front of you, at least in my mind, and then that’s how you need to practice. And then it’s like, I do kind of the same thing when I’m, if I’m getting ready to play a tournament and…

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (09:03.634) Mm -hmm.

Bryan Taylor (09:15.961) years ago I used to run a fair amount and I would be out running. I would play the golf course that I was getting ready to compete in and I would play each one of the holes and then as I was going I would, of course I always won, which doesn’t happen often, but then I would also envision having struggles. I would envision hitting errant shots and then what I was gonna do in that situation or if I’d played the course before,

and blew up on a specific hole, what was I gonna do different on that hole to change things? So I did that so much, like before I would go to bed or if I was driving, I would think about that on those rare occasions when something like that actually happened, it would almost be like an epiphany to me, like, my God, this is going on. But I had rehearsed it so much, I was already ready for it. And maybe that just sounds like that was the only thing that was on my mind.

leading up to an event if I knew I was playing that golf course, I would think like that. And I would go over what shot I was gonna hit and that kind of thing. So.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (10:26.258)

I mean, to be frank, that’s such a difference maker as to why you’ve had some of the incredible success you’ve had. And I’m curious, you know, this, the skill of visualization, particularly the skill of visualizing the mistakes and when things go wrong, like so that when they do inevitably happen, it feels like you’ve been there before. Is this something like, when did you learn or first start implementing this? Was it golf specific? Was it from one of your earlier sports?

Bryan Taylor (10:50.699) I think I did it all the time, maybe even as a kid. I don’t know. I was a running back. Later in high school, I was a fullback and I was smaller, but I didn’t get the ball much, but I blocked a lot. And so on those rare occasions when I did, in my mind, what was I going to do? It was a dive play instead of smashing to the linebacker and maybe fake the linebacker out and score a touchdown. So you were visualizing that.

I think everybody does that to some degree. But I think in your mind, if you can be a little more detailed and then go out and actually practice that shot knowing that there’s the potential for it to happen. Listen, early on, I was not the straightest driver of the golf ball and I lived in the woods. So being able to hit low cut shots or low hook shots and I still carry a four iron.

you know, in my back, you know. So, a lot of other people have gone to hybrids. But, yeah, and it sounds crazy, but I never really panicked, you know, once I got into those situations, because unfortunately, I’d been there enough and practiced enough on the range that I knew that there was a way that I could get out for the most part, you know. So.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (12:06.322)

Absolutely and for those of you listening, it’s a wonderful reminder that your mind doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined and I think it hits home for me and I know so many listening like if I in a perfect world I’d be on the course every single day. That’s just not my reality. You get it being a business owner entrepreneur family man, like it I just can’t get there as much as I want but I do before I go to bed and periodically throughout the day maybe when I should be working I’m thinking about my next round. I’m thinking about putting so I’m I’m

Visualizing all of it just like you said and that is a way to get deliberate intentional practice in even without a club in your hand Which is a wonderful thing to be able to do

Bryan Taylor (12:47.289)

Bryan Taylor (12:47.289)yeah, I, you know, it was a hard thing for me to accept that you were going to lose more than you were going to win in golf. It just, you know, other than, you know, Tiger was, you know, Tiger Woods was, you know, he was a phenom, but I can tell you that I’ve been made myself so miserable, going to play in a tournament and playing terrible and literally on my way home, two hour drive, whatever, three hour drive.

finding a driving range on the way home and pulling over to figure out what I just did. Honest to God, I just, and maybe that’s borderline obsessive, whatever, but it would drive me nuts. And then I would, I just would, you know, so.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (13:32.466)

Yeah. I mean, I love reframing the word obsession, obsessive. Like I think it’s a, it’s a gift. It’s a, it’s truly a characteristics of someone who is committed all in passionate about their success. So, Hey, you’re speaking my language. I totally understand. And I’m curious with that, you know, elite level of work ethic and commitment to your craft. I have found in myself and my clients.

there’s often a potential to go on a negative spiral of just defeating harsh negative self -talk. Has your self -talk ever been something that’s been counterproductive to you playing your best?

Bryan Taylor (14:12.729) No, I think we all badger ourselves to some degree. I mean, I hit bad shots and just chastised myself to the nth degree, and that happens. But I think that I’ve always had the ability even to lose my temper and then to be able to bring it back down and kind of circle the wagons to some degree and figure out what was important in the next 30 seconds and then kind of go at it from that perspective.

And it took me a long time to kind of say, hey, you know, that’s behind me and how, you know, to take the next step. but I did, I did always have a way of being able to settle that back down and, you know, honestly, some of the best tournament rounds I ever had were starting off playing terrible. You know, I mean, just the nerves and everything and, and, you know, having a double or triple on the first hole, you know, and then like, okay, now what are you going to do? You know, with.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (14:59.858) Mmm.

Bryan Taylor (15:09.913) What are we going to go? Lou Holtz had this acronym for, you’re down 38 to nothing in a half time. What do you do? You win, W -I -N. What’s important now? What are you going to do now? That’s the next thing we’re going to do, because that’s behind us. So, yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (15:21.49) Mmm.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (15:26.898)

right? Yeah, it’s that next shot mentality. And I love that you said it’s almost like, and if I heard, please correct me if I misunderstood, but like you if if you do happen to hit an errant shot, make a mistake, there’s anger, there’s frustration. Within 30 seconds, you of course corrected you are laser focused on that next shot and you just move on from it.

Bryan Taylor (15:46.681) Yeah, I mean, I don’t always, you know, get really upset about it, but there are times when I just, you know, if it’s something that’s just in my wheelhouse and then I just whiff it, you know, and I just, you know, and that’s just a lack of focus, quite honestly, you know, I mean, I don’t know how Tiger Woods on his downswing could hear a click of a camera and stop. I’ve never been that guy.

So I could brush something on my backswing and I would continue through the shot and then I would just kind of internally, you know, like, what are you doing? Why didn’t you just stop? You know, things like that drive me nuts, you know, or something envisions in my head and I have to try it right then. You can’t wait till after the round and go. And so that’s, you know, that’s in there too. So, you know.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (16:36.274)

I hear you. I call that and I think you’ll agree. Like I call that the anyway shot. You know you shouldn’t follow through because something’s off and yes, still do it anyway. Yeah, I hear you on that. And for those of you listening, episode four digs into all aspects of the anyway shot. So Brian, I’m curious as you had a pretty quick navigation, you know, you shot that 101 and never looked back. Reflecting on your journey, what do you think was one or maybe a few of the…

Bryan Taylor (16:46.489) Yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (17:05.554)

key difference makers that brought you from like a high 80s to consistently shooting in the 70s golf.

Bryan Taylor (17:14.649) I just always saw there was room for improvement. You know, I just, there was this, you could always get better. And that’s actually, I think one of the big things that got me sucked into golf was that there was always room for improvement. No matter how good you ever got, there was always going to be room for a better shot. You know? So, I guess after the round,

And I think everybody does it there again. You kind of look back and you go, wow, I missed this shot and I missed that shot and I missed that shot. So at this point, I also kind of give myself a little credit and I look back and go, that was a quality shot. That was a quality shot. And actually hit it where I aimed. That kind of thing. That was a smart move. So I do give myself a little credit. When I was younger, I probably didn’t do that as often.

So I’ve kind of learned a little bit like that. The game’s hard, you know, it just is. So yeah, so you have to do every now and then you have to break down and say, that was good, you know.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (18:23.442)

that so I’m curious is there any type of structure or formality to what I’ll call your post -round reflection like is this something you do in your car after a round?

Bryan Taylor (18:34.777) No, and I probably should do better about that. There’s so many different ways now that you can track everything. You know, how many putts, you know, how many greens you’re hitting, you know, so on and so forth. And my instructor, Bob Crowther from Bayside Golf Course here, just down in Selbyville. We talk about that a little bit. You know, I get periodic lessons, whether I need them or not. Some of them are talking lessons.

I mean, I’ve gone out on the course with him and hit driver two or three shots from the tee box. And then we go get my balls and we go to the next hole and we’re talking about things, you know? And he’s always said to me kind of, you know, what iron are you comfortable with hitting within 15 feet or 20 feet, you know? And we go down that road and then he’ll tell me, well, the other clubs, why aren’t you hitting to the middle of the green or aim towards the middle of the green?

And I’ve never done it, but one day I want to do that. Like try to hit every single green, but focus on the middle of the green. Cause if you’re a decent putter, you know, so one day I’ll get to it. One day I’ll try it, you know? But there’s, you know, the guys on tour, you know, I mean, I remember listening to Nick Price when he won the British Open and every single pin, if the pin was to the right side of the green, he aimed at the middle and either tried to cut it or draw it. You know, he was drawing it to the, you know, so.

And the miss was always in the middle, you know, and so, I don’t know, he won the British Open. So apparently it was a thing, you know.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (20:09.138)

Yeah, I love that. And I think too circling back to bring this together, like the fact that you do have some type of post round reflection, and maybe it’s more formal some days versus not is great. But the fact that you say you try to find your what went well, or your positives and give yourself some credit, that’s huge, because we all know it’s very easy and perhaps more common for some of us than others.

to have a frustrating score, to only remember the bad shots. And if you continue to let that ripple into your future rounds, you stop having as much fun, and this is a game at the end of the day, but two, you allow some of that frustration to bleed into your family life, your personal life. And then, then you’re just knocking down some dominoes that are not very fun to put back up to say the least.

Bryan Taylor (20:47.897) is.

Bryan Taylor (20:55.545) Yes, I’m gonna say yes. True. So yeah, I mean, I tried, I got a 14 year old and a 16 year old. So I try when I get home, regardless of golf work, whatever, to kind of leave it there at the door and try to, yeah, come in and then make it about them. So yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (20:57.154) Yeah

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (21:15.794)

I love that and for everybody listening like something I do personally and recommend to my clients is take two to five minutes in your car either while you’re still at the parking lot of the golf course or when you pull in your driveway to emotionally off gas if that looks like breath work or meditation great if that looks like opening the notes app on your phone and voice noting what went well from your round where you need to focus learn or what could have gone better you just kind of emotionally vomit all of those things get them off of your mind.

Go be present with your family and loved ones and then you can come back to them at a later time when you’re a little bit less emotionally charged.

Bryan Taylor (21:51.545) Yeah, yeah, I agree with all that. It’s, yeah, it’s just, it’s not fair. You know, it’s not fair to everybody else. And you get to a point if you’re doing it all the time, you come home and then the kids don’t wanna, they don’t wanna see you and you’re just miserable. And I’m not gonna do that. You know, I’m just not gonna be that guy. So, yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (22:12.388)

I love it. So circling back to your golf career, if you will, the tournaments, what did you find to be one of the biggest mental challenges playing tournaments versus more of the recreational round with some buddies?

Bryan Taylor (22:30.841) early on, it was just, I guess, realizing that I could play with these guys and that I actually belonged there. you walk up and down the driving range.

Any event, a state event, whether it’s amateur or there’s an open, and you see some amazing swings and good swings, and you recognize people with reputations and so on and so forth. And for me, it was about, it goes back to when I first started playing, I didn’t want to embarrass myself, you know? So some of the practicing, and if you’re going to put yourself out there, I wanted to be able to be ready, I guess, for…

whatever I was taking on. Because I think showing up and not being prepared was just didn’t make sense. That part just didn’t make sense to me. So I’m not sure if I answered your question or not. But yeah, getting comfortable with realizing that I belonged or that I could play with them, that took a while. It just did, you know. I didn’t grow up playing the game, so.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (23:18.738) Mm -hmm.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (23:45.586) Yeah.

Bryan Taylor (23:46.425) And I’m still learning, still, always learning. So.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (23:50.898)

I love that. So walk me through, I’m always so curious to learn this. Like let’s say we’ve got a three or even a four day tournament here. It’s Sunday, it’s the last day. Let’s just assume you’re in contention. Like walk the listeners and I through, if you have, let’s just call it a 1 .30 T time for simplicity. What is the pre -round routine look like to get yourself in the best state of mind, physically, emotionally, and mentally to play your A game?

Bryan Taylor (24:19.801) I will, regardless of the event, work out in the morning. And I do that. I do it, you know, I’m in the gym six days a week anyway. So that’s a part of my routine. So I’m not gonna deviate from my routine. And so I will start the day that way. Get there plenty of time so that I can do the things that I think I need to work on maybe.

you know, if it’s bunker play or just chipping or something like that, and allow myself to hit enough shots that I’m confident going into the round. And whether that’s with my driver, whatever it is. And honestly, there’s a lot of times when you don’t fix it, you know, and you still go and you play because that’s what you do, you know, I mean, that’s what you signed on for. So.

But yeah, I just having enough time, I guess, and then just working on the things that you think you knew to work on. And that’s based on your performance leading up to that point, a couple of days prior to. So.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (25:26.738)

I love that you said you don’t change your routine. I think it’s so easy, whether it’s excitement change and schedule to get carried away or lost in the moment where we start tweaking things, second guessing, but it’s actually so advantageous when you stick to what you usually do. You conserve precious willpower, mental and emotional energy that’s better spent on actually performing during the round. So I love hearing that.

Bryan Taylor (25:46.105) Hmm.

Bryan Taylor (25:51.129) Yeah, I just, I didn’t learn that. That’s just what I do. So I don’t know any different, honestly. Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (25:58.81)

Yeah, it makes sense, you know, being such a decorated athlete growing up, like you were just, you’ve gravitated towards routine. You recognize consciously and unconsciously, there is so much power in routine.

Bryan Taylor (26:11.161) Yeah, I mean, some of that goes back when I through, you know, playing other sports. And then I got, when I was in high school, I was very fortunate to have good coaches and I, from the wrestling team. And I didn’t start wrestling until I was a freshman in high school, but I was very fortunate with some good coaches and they, a couple of those guys.

really impressed upon me that you just, you never know what the other guy’s doing. Are you willing to take that next step or, you know, to, to do better. And I remember I was at an intensity camp out of Iowa and the, one of the guys was doing an instructing and just stopped what he was doing and dropped down and did like 50 pushups and stood back up and said, listen, you don’t know what the other guy’s doing and you need to always feel like you’re one step ahead. And, for whatever reason, I never, I never forgot that.

because he was still training, he was still working out, he still had goals. And so, you know, there again, I’m not sure if I answered the question or not, but yeah, so just constantly working to get better, I guess.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (27:25.874)

I love them. And that’s been a wonderful, you know, through our thread rather through all of our conversation today, which has been great, like this just open mindedness and appreciation that there’s always something to learn is that it’s going to be that undercurrent that fuels the Thursday night late round practices by yourself after a long week the early morning workouts by yourself because you know, it’s always an opportunity to get better. I love hearing you echo that to all of the listeners.

Bryan Taylor (27:50.745) Yeah.

Yeah, and I mean at this stage in my kind of golf career, I’m kind of looking in like, if I can win something this year, it will be a good year. I’m kind of like, I just, I don’t know, I guess I just in my mind, I still want to be relevant in that tournament circle.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (28:17.906) Yeah.

Bryan Taylor (28:21.497) I don’t know if it’s ego or whatever. I don’t know, but I still have the drive and I’m willing to do what I feel like I need to do and able to compete. So yeah. So that’s it. So, yeah.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (28:26.098) Mm -hmm.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (28:31.474) Yeah, I’d love that.

Yeah. So reflecting back, is there something, let’s call it 10 years ago. If you knew what you knew now 10 years ago, like what’s that one piece of advice or that one tidbit of information that you know now you wish you knew 10 years ago that would have accelerated even more success in progress.

Bryan Taylor (28:56.057) Wow.

You know, I, for me it was, you know, figuring out how to practice, I guess in the beginning, doing that the correct way, because you can get hung up on, and I see kids do it all the time. They get a big bucket of balls and, and at my club, and I remember going over to a couple of kids and the kids are just swinging and they’re hitting the ball so fast and they’re not actually taking in what they did. And, I would, I remember stopping over and just saying to kid, Hey, what are you, what are you aiming at something? And what are you aiming at?

Cause I haven’t seen your head come up to look down the range. Is there a target in mind? And so just being, being more conscious of the practice parts of things. and I got caught up in that too. I mean, I, it wasn’t, it was more about, well, I’m going to hit two buckets of balls. It wasn’t about hitting one bucket and doing it the right way. So making better, making my practices better probably is what I would, if I had to go back and say, you know, from the golf standpoint,

I wouldn’t change much about the mental side. Not that smart to begin with. So, you know, that part of it is, you know, I don’t want to go down that road. So, but yeah, just making the practice better, more efficient.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (30:06.098) Yeah

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (30:13.938)

which I’ll boost you up and give you more credit than you’re willing to give yourself. That is absolutely a form of the mental game. Like being able to slow down and give yourself permission to slow down and bring concentration, focus, awareness, and intention to your practice produces far greater quality reps than just starting to get quantity, quantity, quantity. And that’s a superpower. Like, cause I relate to that. Like I almost, you know, I see and hear some of myself in your journey.

only in the fact that you started playing in your early thirties. And I’m like, man, I want to hit tens of thousands of shots because I want to make up for lost time. But logically, I do know it is quality over quantity. And if I, when I slow down on the range and I reassess my grip, my alignment, my stance, I observe and reflect on why the ball did what it did. That’s what my subconscious needs to further ingrain that smooth fluid swing that I’m after. So I love hearing you share that.

Bryan Taylor (31:08.697) Yeah, you know, I mean, you’re absolutely right. You know, everything that you’re saying right now, I don’t know.

You know, you caused me to think back about like how I did things before and how I do it now. And I think not having as much time either to be able to do that probably factored into it as well. You know, so when I was single and I didn’t really have anybody else to answer to, you know, I could do that. You know, I could go play 18 after work and so I still have a lot of flexibility, but I don’t take advantage of it in that.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (31:27.89) Yeah.

Bryan Taylor (31:48.281) in that capacity.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (31:50.066)

Yeah, I hear you there. And before I let you go, Brian, I’d love to hear more like share with the listeners about your business and what you do for the game of golf. I think it’s so fascinating.

Bryan Taylor (31:59.129) Yeah, so I had reached out to a company called Scoreboards of America probably 20 years ago and they had a company in Jacksonville, Florida. I flew down there after talking to them on the phone and I saw what they were trying to accomplish, but there was not a synergistic relationship between. So we put in scoreboards, I need to back up. We put in professional scoring systems, put in scoreboards. And my business, I…

where it applies, I give an industry exclusive. So we have one orthopedic doctor, we have one accountant, we have one HVAC company. And in the local community, well, you can hear my dogs in the background. My kid just, my son, I think just came home. That means a lot. And so it’s just name recognition. And then we, there was not a synergistic relationship between the advertisers and the golf course and how they could help one another. So.

I kind of figured some of that out. And, you know, over the night, last 19 years, we go to different golf courses. We do that. We help them fill their tee sheet. And at the same time we give rewards cards to all of the advertisers that they can pass along to their customer base. they get some free golf along the way and it’s kind of, I know it’s a bad win -win situation, but yeah. So, it’s been working so far and I’ve been doing it for 19 years now. So.

work with 12 different facilities. I’ve got some projects down at Virginia Beach, two very nice golf courses as far north as Deerfield up in Newark, Delaware, which is another really nice golf course. So, and a lot here, Ocean City. Ocean City’s got a lot of good golf courses here. So, yeah, yeah, very fortunate.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (33:45.586)

So many, yeah, really neat. Yeah. Yeah, well, outstanding. Brian, thank you so much for coming on to share more about your journey and really letting us into your wisdom, your insight and how you approach the game with truly a tremendous level of success. Thank you.

Bryan Taylor (34:03.001) You’re welcome. I don’t know. You’re too nice. You’re too kind. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. So anyway, thank you very much.

Paul Salter | Golf Mindset Coach (34:11.57)

You are welcome. And for those of you listening, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset podcast. If you found today’s episode valuable, which I absolutely know you did, share it with a friend, share it with a fellow golfer who absolutely will find value as well. And if you haven’t done so already, 30 seconds to leave a genuine rating and review on Apple podcast or Spotify, wherever you’re listening to the show is greatly appreciated by me.

Well, thank you so much for listening. Have an outstanding round of golf this weekend and I’ll catch you in the next episode.