#30 [Journey to Scratch] Patience, Pressure, and Focus On (And Away From) the Course

The Golf Hypnotherapist (00:02.966)

Hey fellow golf addicts, welcome back to another episode of the scratch golfers mindset podcast. I’m your host, Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist. And wow, we have a week to recap if there ever was one, both life on and away from the golf course, no shortage of great experiences, life altering moments taking place this weekend. And fortunately or unfortunately those beautiful life changing moments.

and lifetime memories were all made away from the golf course, but we will dive into that. And again, thank you so much for listening. Remember every Tuesday, I do a brief recap on my past week focusing on achieving my goal of breaking 90 on or before November 13. And if you had to ask me today or rather if you asked me today how I’m feeling about breaking 90 on or before November 13.

I would initially pause before I answered to really think about this answer.

The confidence is at a 6 .5 out of 10. As of this moment today, it’s Monday, I think it’s September 9th. I just got off the course, played a round of 18 with a good friend, Mr. Aaron. 6 .5, because I’m a big believer whenever I ask my clients to use that one to 10 rating scale, you’re not allowed to use the number seven because it’s an easy go -to answer. It’s like a cop -out. And the confidence is a little less. At the end of the day, I’m going to achieve this goal.

damn it if I don’t I’m going to achieve this goal. There’s a little lingering frustration and disappointment, maybe perhaps a little speckle of impatience present in this moment and we’re gonna unpack all of that. But what a wonderful week. This past week.

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I had the pleasure of welcoming an abundance of family and friends to come down here to Tampa, Florida. My parents, one of my brothers and his girlfriend spent a long, long weekend with us. had a wonderful time getting plenty of sunshine and sand down at the beach in St. Pete. Plenty of ass whooping on the pickleball court by yours truly, of course. I mean, get this my little brother talking so much smack, you know, if you’re an older brother, you got to put him in his place.

waxed him 11 to zero on the pickleball court. I felt it was a move of integrity not to allow him to gamble on his pickleball after watching him warm up. said, dude, we can’t do this. I would not feel right taking your money. So all kidding aside, that was absolute blast. And the main reason they were down here was twofold. First and foremost, we got to celebrate our little one who is about nine and a half weeks away from meeting us and coming into this world we had a

great baby shower with our closest family and friends. Just a wonderful moment surrounded by so much love, so much joy, excitement. if you’ve heard anything about my story, I’ve moved 19 times now in the last, I don’t know, 12 and a half -ish years. So establishing a sense of community’s been difficult to say the least. And to be surrounded by such close friends, family, people who have really stepped up.

for us and come into our lives the last year. was such an indescribable moment. And then the next day, boom, it’s week one of the NFL opening kickoff, the Redskins, my home team, ride or die down here in Tampa for a complete ass whooping. They absolutely forgot to show up on the defensive side of the ball. But again, we had 16 people come to that game and an incredible experience.

minus the outcome. So just overjoyed with love and gratitude away from the course this week. And I share that for a couple of reasons. One is to really help you recognize what’s going on away from the course, whether you want it to or not, absolutely affects what’s going to or what can potentially happen on the course. know, a lot of

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misunderstanding about the type of coaching I do and where and how I use hypnosis to help competitive golfers, amateur golfers play their best golf. A lot of what we work on are elements taking place away from the course because no matter how hard you try or you want to, you can’t separate the golfer.

From the husband, the employee, the employer, the dad, the mom, the brother, sister, neighbor, it’s all interconnected. The same challenges you face on the golf course, impatience, anger, emotional mismanagement, frustration, doubt, lack of confidence, trust, belief, lack of focus, concentration.

They’re likely plaguing you and your professional, your personal and your romantic lives as well. And if we flip that too, if you have a lot going on in your personal life, you may struggle with patience, focus, concentration, confidence on the course as well. And I’ll circle back and really tie this together in a moment. And for now, we’ll get to golf.

And I will tell you, I snuck a round in on Thursday, a round of nine this past week, completely unplanned. I had two calls in the morning asked to reschedule. And I’d already kind of been eyeing up my late afternoon. was like, I’m gonna at least get an impromptu range session. I was like, I’m gonna make it work. If there’s a will, there’s a way. I got my newsletter done early Thursday morning, which…

If you don’t follow or subscribe to the More Pars Than Bogies newsletter, here’s your reminder. Last week’s edition is the art and science of acceptance. Learn how practicing acceptance can accelerate results. It’s a fucking, I don’t even know the word. It’s a great fucking newsletter to say the least. I’ll drop the link below. You should absolutely read it. But anyway, Thursday was just shaping up. I started the day with a ton of momentum. I’m like, okay, I now have about three hours to get to the course and start around.

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I get there, they have room for me to jump in. The guy’s like, look, you don’t have time to warm up. I’ve got six foursums that are starting in about 20 minutes and you’re gonna get stuck behind them. So you need to go now. So literally no warmup. I’m running out there. I run into a newly met friend who I played two singles. We got paired together a few weeks ago and we’ve started playing together. I’m like, this is great. It’s all coming together. Everything is there. Except my swing, except.

My feeling of being warmed up, ready, it was a horrendous round of golf. The ball striking was good, the accuracy, the depth of control every one of us aspires to have on the course was still left in my car. I forgot to bring it with me. I’m learning how invaluable the warmup is for me. And yes, obviously I know that, you know that. For me in particular, I like to do a lot of my mental warmup. If you had to use a description,

a field player, I don’t really quite resonate with that, but I like to have my processes and my opportunity to execute my processes before, during, and after a round of golf. All of my processes were thrown out the window. There was a sense of strong false urgency while we were playing. The course was in not so great shape from just the inches and inches of rain we have been dumped on with here in North Tampa the last couple of weeks.

That is one of the rounds I squeezed in. Played nine, it was so bad I didn’t even keep score if I had to estimate probably 54 to 57 range. It wasn’t a good round. It wasn’t a good round. Really hard to find positives. Had a couple really good putts that were saving double bogey or bogey from 16 to 20 feet. That’s what went well. Playing with a friend, that went well. Too many things to get into that could have gone better. We move on and I bring you to today. Again, you’re listening to this after the fact.

It’s Monday afternoon on September 9th. Got a round in at Rocky Point Golf Course, round of 18. And this is where I would love to cue the Chris Berman two -minute drill music. If you’re an old fan of NFL primetime, the man, the myth, the legend, Chris Berman, I wanna cue that music for the two -minute drill. I wish I could. I don’t know what the copyright infringement nonsense is. I’m not gonna look into it at this moment. But here’s where we were. We played Rocky Point today, and here’s what we were focused on.

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I got a lot of great feedback from my coach, my great friend Luke and a couple other people when I’ve been posting some swing videos on Instagram and it was like, dude, shorten the fuck out of your backswing. This is why you are struggling. You’re not getting the club face all the way close and around. This is why you’re pushing or slicing and you’re not able to consistently hit well off the tee box. So really the intention today was significantly shortening my backswing.

with my three wood with my driver. And as a whole, I think I did well with that. I hit the ball significantly better, significantly straighter, most importantly in bounds off the tee box and things were moving in the right direction. First two holes though, tee was too high, popped up my first drive, my second drive using the three wood and it went a whopping, you know, 100, 120 yards straight on the fairway or right off, but

really, really got under it. So we’re starting strong with double, double, double, two putt, two putt, two putt. Then we find a bogey and a one putt, another double, one poor triple. And then we go bogey, bogey, bogey to finish out with a 51 on the front, 16 putts. And here’s the thing, one triple bogey. I believe I had one out of bounds. I used one mulligan.

because I didn’t get a chance to warm up with my drives. There was not a driving range to do that. And all in all, I felt I struck the ball well. A lot of improvement, a lot of great quality contact. A couple of times I was coming across the ball. So on those par threes, pin high, great club, just pulled across the ball. So it was 25 to 35 yards left of the pin. So there was work to be done. We go to the back nine.

The sun is out, it’s 90 degrees already, and I’m just starting to lose a little fuel, a little focus, a little energy, and I’m hydrating well, I’m literally fueling well from a nutrition perspective. I noticed though I was struggling to focus. I thought I had a couple of calls this afternoon, I wanted to make sure I could get back in time.

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Really just connect with my girlfriend, touch base, and then really ready myself for three hours of calls and kind of a second half of the work day, if you will. So I felt a little rushed. I caught myself once having the thought I wanted to check on the traffic about getting home and pull up the Maps app. I did not do it, but even the fact that the thought was there really helped me see like, shit, I am not focused. And I did some great breath work to finish strong, bring in.

a couple better holes towards the end, but it wasn’t pretty on the back nine. The things that went well as I started driving the ball well, putting it in the fairway, a handful of fairways hit on the back nine. The putting was inconsistent. I will say as a whole, I had five putts stop two inches or less from the hole. Just is what it is, but noteworthy, because even half of those falls were shooting much better.

Really, we went double bogey, double, double, triple, triple, double, double, double on the back. It was fucking awful. I think I read my scorecard correctly. Regardless, I shot a 54 in the back, a 105 for the day, a couple penalties on the back, hitting out of bounds, a couple lost balls that I know didn’t go in the water. We just couldn’t find them. So we had to take the stroke and play onward. 19 putts on the back nine, 35 putts total. And that’s where we were today. And to be frank, a lot of missed opportunity.

And I’m realizing, you know, I’m inundated with so many things to think about on my swing, on my course management strategy. I feel like I’m progressing from, you know, everybody who, you recall back to when you first started playing, there’s just, just hit the ball, just make good contact, just create it, just hit it straight. Now focus on your backswing like this, then following through, aim, stance, this, that, and the other.

things are moving in the right direction. A lot of those voices are becoming quieter. A lot of those swing thoughts are less intense and less frequent. I see the potential. And as discouraging or disappointing as some aspects of today’s rounds are, I know I am on the right path to breaking 90 on or before November 13th. And again, the confidence I said I kicked off this episode 6 .5, and as I review my notes,

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in front of me and my scorecard. I’m feeling confident it’s going to happen. There’s a lot of promising things here. What I really need to work on, I wrote down three words today I wanted to share with you. Patience, focus, and pressure. Patience.

Course management strategy is what came to mind when I wrote that word down. I need to be a little patient in really making sure I’m thinking through the where and the why I am aiming my next shot. How that can potentially set me up for the next one to score well. I’m not doing a consistent job around the greens of actually picking a precise location to chip to.

I’ve been so concerned the last couple of weeks with just kind of adapting to these new wedges, making solid contact. You know, I’m working on a particular way of attacking the ball from within, you know, 30, 40 yards. And then also working on doing so with an open club face to get a little more loft in particular situations. And yes, it’s a game of repetition, but I’ve allowed this tunnel vision of focus to

take me away from choosing a precise location, you know, on the fringe, the mound or the green to place that chip. And that’s due to impatience on my end. It’s also due to perhaps a lack of awareness in those moments getting so consumed. And now obviously I’m aware after doing my after round reflection, I’m voicing it here on the podcast. I will nip that in the bud, really taking the time to slow down.

just like I do off the tee box and in the fairway or the rough, envision that shot, see it, pick that location. I had a lot of great chips today that just were right at the pin and they just ran incredibly long to the point sometimes they ran all the way across the green. I bounced over the hole a couple of times. Again, the aim was there, like the ball was going where I wanted it to. I was just completely absent -minded when it came to distance and picking that location. So that’s on me. I’m working on that. Focus.

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I alluded to it earlier, I had so much going on in my personal life, all wonderful things. Admittedly, I’m a little physically, emotionally, and mentally drained today. know, lack of sleep, lots of football, a little extra curricular as yesterday, getting to an altered state, having a blast, enjoying this wonderful time, a football season, opening day with dear friends and family.

lack of sleep, on less sleep than usual, the energy’s inconsistent, just kind of the come down from a great weekend, I’m sure influenced some of my attitude and energy on that back nine, starting to kind of come back into reality after three and a half days off from no work, all fun, all family, all friends, and now it’s like, okay, I gotta get ready for the second half of the work day on Monday. So I’m sure that contributed to my focus.

I think in hindsight, I would have done a better job pre round of just really setting that intention, being more cognizant that that’s possibly on my plate and really thinking of how I wanted to strategically implement some breaks, some breath work and maybe an extra snack before the back nine. So I was well fueled and proactively in front of the challenge. So just great feedback and learning from me.

And then I caught myself a few times, a third word I’m addressing. I addressed patience, I addressed focus, and I want to address pressure.

I am catching my mind wandering, some thoughts creeping in after the first couple of holes of, right now I’m really focused on playing bogey golf and I’m finding after a couple dogey, double bogeys, my mind’s wandering and there’s a little bit of like, well fuck, I gotta share all of these disappointing results with you. And it sounds silly, it’s totally normal, it’s a part of the human experience and I’m aware of it too, so.

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I’ll work to diffuse those thoughts and any emotional charge around it, because I love doing this. I hope you’re finding it value every time I’m recapping where I’m at, because it’s raw, it’s real, it’s vulnerable as fuck. It’s just simply where I’m at in my journey. And I know I’ll look back in a month, six months and 12 months, I’ll laugh at this, I’ll find great value in it, and I’ll be shooting a hell of a lot of a lower score. But I’d be lying if I say, you know, there’s, think 70 -ish days left here, and I want to shoot an 88 tomorrow.

And I’m not quite there yet. So a little bit of that is likely lingering the background too, and I’ll keep working on that away from the course as well. And then the last thing I noticed as kind of the result of carrying some of that pressure, some of that just emotional fuel, mental fuel, a bit depleted coming into the round, specifically on the back nine, I was a little inconsistent with some of my routines and processes too. And I share that now taking a

big step back, you know, observing this through a 30 ,000 foot view with a through the, or with a 30 ,000 foot view through a lens of non -judgmental curiosity. Like, how do I feel? Like the game is there. The skill is going to continue to increase with every single practice rep and real repetition I complete. I see bright spots. I see what my game can look like when it comes together consistently. You know, I had a hole in the back nine.

You know, placed the driver about 275 straight down the middle, blasted a five wood like 215, 220 straight down the middle. I’ve got, think like 65, 70 yards. The ball’s plugged in the fairway. It’s Florida. That’s normal. I tried to be a bit of a hero. I honestly should have just said, fuck it just kind of fixed the lie. I completely topped the ball. It was just very plugged. The ball went maybe 18 inches.

And then the next shot, I blasted it right on the green, but now I’m already four shots putting for par and boom, I three putt. Very atypical, but on that whole, a lot of bright spots, three really, really good shots. So that’s just one micro example. And again, I just share that because the bright spots are there and I’m going to keep finding them even on some of those frustrating days because I know I’m heading in the right direction, which leaves me to what is on the horizon this week.

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And as I answer that or ask that question, I’m actually bringing up my calendar. So I’m going to get around in on Friday. I’ve got a two hour lesson on Sunday. On my time, I will be working on my short game. got a little inconsistent with contact. was thinning the ball, topping the ball around the green was displeased to say the least. So that’s where my intention will be, as well as just continuing to grease the groove with the shorter backswing off the tee box. So

Those will be my intentions for each individual practice session. I’ll hit some balls in my lanai every single day. And I’m going to begin to committing to making 25 putts every single day in my garage. heard it here, 25 putts. I’ve got a two by 12 mat from Birdie Ball, believe. Really enjoy it, really like it. Yeah, it’s a neat little thing to put in my garage just to practice.

fluidity, consistency, and developing a smooth feel, turning up the volume of comfortability, trust, and confidence in my putter so I can bring that aggressive, confident attitude to the green, which admittedly lacked a little bit today. And that’s where I’m at. That’s another week we’re moving. believe, you know, if baby’s nine and a half weeks away, then that is where we are from achieving our goal. So the race is on, the opportunity awaits us, and I am so excited to continue sharing this journey.

with you every single week. So thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset podcast. I thoroughly hope you are finding value. And if you are, I have one simple ask. Leave a rating, a genuine review on Apple podcasts.

Spotify, wherever it is you are listening to this episode. This helps me tremendously. puts the show, my content, the wonderful slew of experts I have every other Thursday into the earbuds of more golfers just like you helping all of us collectively shoot more pars than bogeys. And to be frank, soon I might have to upgrade the newsletter to more birdies than pars, because that is where we are heading. Have a fantastic week of playing. Hit them straight, score low.

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I’ll catch you in the next episode.