#32 [Journey to Scratch] Scoring Low and Letting Go (A New Putting Grip)

episode-32-scoring-low-and-letting-go

Episode Introduction and Summary

Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of The Scratch Golfer’s Mindset Podcast! I’m your host, Paul Salter, The Golf Hypnotherapist, and today’s episode is packed with updates and insights from my ongoing journey to break 90 and ultimately become a scratch golfer.

In this episode, I recap a roller coaster week on the golf course, which included what felt like my best and worst round to date (yes, in the same round). I dive into the highs of hitting multiple greens in regulation and the frustrating lows of dealing with out-of-bounds shots and a costly four-putt. I also share the lessons learned from my recent swing session with my coach and how I’m working to improve my consistency off the tee.

Additionally, I’ll tell you about a game-changing adjustment to my putting grip that could be the key to better distance control and eliminating those dreaded three-putts. Finally, I reflect on the importance of emotional resiliency, staying patient, and trusting the process—essential mindset traits for golfers at every level.

Whether you’re on a similar journey to break 90 or working toward your own golf goals, this episode is filled with relatable lessons and practical tips. Plus, we’re gearing up for another weekend of 18 holes, and I’ve got a good feeling it could be the breakthrough weekend where I finally break 90!

As always, if you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 30 seconds to leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps me grow the show and continue sharing valuable content to help you unlock your potential and play to your best.

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how mindset coaching and hypnotherapy can help you get unstuck from the proverbial bunker of poor performance on the course and in your business, click here to schedule a coaching discovery call with me. 

Key Points:

  • Mindset coaching can lead to significant improvements in performance.
  • Staying present and aware is crucial for making better decisions on the course.
  • Practicing visualization techniques can enhance focus and confidence.
  • Having a solid warmup routine is essential for optimal performance.
  • It’s important to analyze both successes and failures to learn and grow.
  • Adjusting your grip can impact your putting performance significantly.
  • Consistency in practice leads to better results over time.
  • Setting realistic goals helps maintain motivation and focus.
  • Embracing the process is key to enjoying the game of golf.

Key Quotes:

  • “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
  • “Could this be the weekend I keep the ball in bounds, putt confidently, take it one shot at a time, shot at a time, emotionally reset, refocus and regroup between every hole and play to my potential? Could this be the defining weekend where I break 90, I go low, I rack up five pars in one string of nine holes? I don’t know, stay tuned.”
  • “We’re out of bounds. Are you starting to notice the theme here? We’re out of bounds again on 15. We end up with a double bogey on five, bringing us to the par three, 16. Boom, we hit the green in regulation again. This is a big talking point of today’s episode.”
  • “I feel like I took three steps back in my swing. I felt like I couldn’t hit the golf ball to save my life. I’m inconsistent, I’m overthinking. I wanna just regress back to what worked for me three days ago that I felt so confident about. And now I’m inviting in all of these swing thoughts.”

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Time Stamps:

  • 00:00: Sharing a Client Success Story
  • 03:37: Recent Round Highlights
  • 10:54: Lessons Learned and Swing Adjustments
  • 16:08: Emotional Resilience in Golf
  • 19:48: Putting Techniques and Future Plans

Transcript:

The Golf Hypnotherapist (00:03.222)

Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset podcast. I’m your host, Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist and buckle up because we have a roller coaster ride of updates in this Tuesday edition of the podcast where I bring you up to speed on all that has transpired in the past seven days as I work toward achieving

First and foremost, ultimate goal of becoming a scratch golfer, but in the more immediate vicinity of time, it’s the goal of breaking 90 on or before November 13th. And there’s a lot to update you on today, including somehow having what felt like the best and the worst round to date, but they were the same round.

More on that to come in just a moment. Before we dive in though, I just wanna give a big shout out to my dear friend, Luke. This man was on a mission at the beginning of the year to get out of his own way. He was, in his words, struggling mightily with the mental aspect of golf. You’ve heard me mention his story before. He was plagued by pressure, fear, and anxiety stepping over those second putts, and as a result, it was like he was a magnet.

for three putts. was almost as if he was thinking about three putting while he was making the walk from cart to green. And this was significantly holding him back. Well, we fast forward from when we first connected, I believe it was February and his index was a 5 .7. We bring you all the way up to today. His index is a 2 .1. He has brought home countless pieces of hardware, winning multiple trophies in a variety of tournaments.

He is a putting machine playing out of his mind, but what stood out to me today in a recent conversation, which by the way, he shot a one under 71. He double bogey nine only to finish the back nine at two under was him taking some time to explain to one of his friends. The impact mindset coaching has had on his life and his performance to date. And he found.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (02:21.984)

The experience of having, having to actually articulate the results, the benefit, the impact, the value he’s experienced profoundly beneficial in and of itself because it helped him recognize where he’s experiencing so much ease, so much effortlessness, ultimately allowing playing to his potential to become a habit. And I bring this up to not only celebrate and send a big shout out to Luke.

but to also bring up just the long -term benefit of experiencing ease, effortness, congruency in your life that allows you to transcend occasional bouts of feeling, seeing your potential to ultimately shape that into becoming your norm, your default, playing to your potential, becoming a habit.

And if you want to learn how to get out of your own way and unlock your potential, make playing to your potential a habit, well, I invite you to use the link in the show notes to connect with me on a mental game assessment and discovery call so we can learn how I can help you get out of your own way and unlock your full potential. Well, with that said,

cue the two minute drill Chris Berman music because we are going to go off to the races another round of 18 this past Saturday with my good buddy Aaron at heritage Isles golf course here in I guess technically it’s Wesley Chapel just outside of Tampa Bay. Remember this is the home course this is where we’re going to break 90 and

I’m gonna be honest, I’ve got a good feeling about this upcoming weekend, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. So we are starting on the back nine, but what I think’s really important to note is on this day, it was a dream day scenario. It was actually this past Friday, I think I said Saturday. And I got up early, finished the to -dos, published the newsletter, great edition of the More Pars Than Bogies newsletter, all about patience, something I’m working on every single day. Fire off a couple emails and we go hit the range.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (04:28.482)

We spend about an hour or so working on putting and chipping and about 45 minutes working on the gap, the pitching, the nine and the eight iron. Two hours of practice knowing we’re playing a few hours later, we go home, we have a new client call, we have a sales call with the new client and then we are back at the course again to play 18. We’re feeling good. I got all dialed in during that what inevitably was an extended warmup session.

hit a couple putts, hit a couple balls, and we were rocking and rolling. Starting out on 10, first drive, boom, we’re out of bounds. Not the start we were looking for. We rally, we find a way before, not once, but twice, finding ourselves out of bounds to start the day on number 10 with a triple bogey. And again, we are moving to the next hole, the par 511, where…

First shot, okay, we’re in play. Second shot blasted it only to find it take a hard kick off the cart path. And wouldn’t you know it out of bounds. It’s an uphill battle to say the least to start this beautiful Friday afternoon. And we end up carting a bogey on the par 511. We hit a double on 12 and we are not starting the way we intended things. It’s not that they’re not necessarily clicking. I’m making great contact, but I’m

I’m not swinging through the ball. I’m a little timid a little hurried a little stress I need to have a little mental timeout ground myself Reconnect with my breath and I begin to settle in on the fourth hole number 13 boom par 3 hit the green to putt first part of the day 14 great shit great drive green and regulation to putt back -to -back pars were grooving were rocking and rolling on to

Number 15, another par five. We’re out of bounds. Are you starting to notice the theme here? We’re out of bounds again on 15. We end up with a double bogey on five, bringing us to the par three, 16. Boom, we hit the green in regulation again. This is a big talking point of today’s episode. Take note. So both par threes on the back nine, we have hit the green on 16.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (06:46.37)

I guess I just have to spoil the news. I four putt. was a, had about a probably estimated 50 to 60 foot putt for the first one uphill, a couple breaks to navigate and I just left them well short. Not once, not twice, but three times. I take the nasty four putt, I card a double bogey on 16 and like Ted Lasso says in I believe episode one to Sam, be a goldfish.

My playing partner Aaron, believe he doubled that hole too. I reminded him, I broke down the expression, the reference from Ted Lasso, be a goldfish. Short memory, we’re off to the races. We par 17, we bogey 18, we card a 47 on the back nine, which ties our best at this course on the back nine. We make the turn into what becomes really the front nine here. We bogey one, we move to the par five hole number two.

we’re out of bounds again. And not to mention on 18, the only reason I bogeyed is I shot or hit a shot out of bounds. There’s a theme here, keep the ball in bounds. I’m probably shooting mid eighties at this point. So we double bogey number two, we double bogey number three, we triple bogey four. So from two, three and four, we go double, double, triple, two out of bounds. And I’m looking here, no greens and regulations.

and six putts, just, we chunked a couple, we left him short, we put ourselves in a peculiar position. And at this point, I’m starting to feel like a good round is slipping. You know, if I was ecstatic with a 47 on the front, knowing there was so much room for potential, I’m striking the ball well.

and we’re reaching a fork in the road. We can either shut down or succumb to a shit -filled back nine, which is really the front nine here, or we can regroup, refocus, and what do you know? We choose the latter, we regroup, refocus, we par five, which again, par three, green and regulation, two putt. Notice the theme here. We bogey six, we bogey seven, we par eight, another par three, green and regulation.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (08:57.634)

We double nine because there’s an out of bounds, wouldn’t you know? Card a 48 on the, technically the front, walk away with a 95 for the round. Best round to date. But as you probably listened to, so many good things, so many things we could have done better. For the front nine, one three putt, one one putt. On the back nine, which was really what I played first. All two putts except that one horrendous four putt. So 38 putts on the round.

Not terrible considering my average is 35 .6 of all the rounds I’ve recorded here, but it was my worst round of putting or second worst round to date where I felt like my putting was really beginning to click that for putt very costly, obviously. But again, in the grand scheme of things, just a couple of strokes off my average room for improvement work to be done as always, countless out of bounds shots. mean that right there, if I let’s say I had two out of bounds shots, I’m flirting with an 89 or a 90. So.

As I’ve described the last month or so, I felt a little inconsistent off the tee box. And that was the information, the feedback I brought into my lesson on Sunday, which I’ll address in a moment. But the big theme here is I hit greens and regulation, seven greens and regulation by far my most to date this year. And what do you know? One, two, three, four, five pars, two bogeys that had out of bounds, I believe, or yeah.

Two bogeys that had out of bounds and I played the par fives horrendously. So, so much to be grateful for, so much to be excited for yet simultaneously is that weird mix of excitement and missed opportunity leading to disappointment. But the journey goes on. So that’s where we’re at. As a whole, ecstatic about that round. Really think it’s a stepping stone. A lot of growth came from that round. So I’m leaving that day at a wonderful time with my playing buddy Aaron.

I’m feeling confident, head’s held high, chest is out, I’m walking into my lesson on Sunday morning and I’m feeling good, I’m starting to hit some balls, I’m hitting some good ones, the driving range is crowded, my coach is behind me, he’s talking to players right behind me too, so hitting a really good shot and then maybe I chunk a couple, hitting a good shot, just starting to get settled and then it starts to settle in, we’re into the teaching session, I’m hitting some good balls and he’s like, okay.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (11:19.458)

I want you to put your club away and I want you to come sit down with me. And he’s got all this video to show me. like, you’re not doing this. You need to do more of this, less of this. And quickly was I humbled as we deconstructed the swing back down to its basic elements, only to spend the remaining 90 minutes or so working on, I’m a right -handed golfer, me really getting that rotation so my left shoulder passes to or through the ball so I can rely on my core to do the swinging, the hard work for me, if you will. And to be frank, I

felt a little bit of motivation or not motivation, a little bit of energy deflation happening because as you can imagine, starting to toy with the swing a little bit more, I’m thinking, I’m trying to digest and absorb all of his feedback and it’s inconsistent. It’s frustrating to say the least. So that’s how I left the range portion of that lesson. And I’m gonna skip ahead now and just let you know where I am today, Monday, as I’m recording this. had a two hour practice session on the range.

and I feel like I took three steps back in my swing. I felt like I couldn’t hit the golf ball to save my life. I’m inconsistent, I’m overthinking. I wanna just regress back to what worked for me three days ago that I felt so confident about. And now I’m inviting in all of these swing thoughts. I told you I wanted to work with my coach on the driver, the three wood, getting off the tees. And he was like, no, no, no, we still gotta work on your foundation, your core swing. You tell me you wanna be a scratch golfer. We’ve gotta get the fundamentals in place.

And after a horrendous, frustrating and painful practice session, rich in video, I sent him feedback, my coach that is.

I started pondering the notion of when and where do I draw the line? When and where do I shut the gates of the feedback, the coaching, the tips that I am and am not willing and ready to accept? At what point do I shut off or shut out the outside noise and focus on what I know works well for me and stick to it? There’s part of me that recognizes

The Golf Hypnotherapist (13:32.032)

That could be an old pattern of mine of wanting to go fast, but doing it alone. Though I say I have a goal of wanting to go far. And I come back to the quote that literally did change the trajectory of my life. And that quote is, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far.

go with others. And this is a classic example. If I want to go fast, could tell Melvin to fuck off. I’ll see you in six months. Let’s let me do what I can to do to eke out breaking 90 as soon as possible. Then I’ll take a big step back. Okay, feed me what you need to feed me. Or, or I can be patient. I can be open -minded. I can remind myself I don’t need to break 90 tomorrow. I mean, I would love to. Let’s call it like it is.

But the goal, the ultimate goal remains scratch. And I could potentially be doing myself a disservice by just trying to arbitrarily break this goal of 90 with this arbitrary deadline that was self -imposed just purely to implement a sense of healthy pressure. And this would be at the detriment to my swing in developing the fundamentals needed that will take me to becoming a scratch golfer.

So I’ll be honest, I felt incredibly frustrated after my practice round today. And I sent video feedback to Melvin, and he, in a very polite, elegant way that I’m not gonna repeat here, more or less just said, dude, you fucking skipped the first part of what we worked on. You were so focused on the second and third part, you were skipping the extended takeaway, the one -piece takeaway, that full rotation.

And because you were skipping that, were inconsistently hitting the ball. Everything else got out of whack because part one was out of whack and there was a downstream ripple effect. So after I laughed at myself and after he connected the dots for me and got back to me so quickly with such a great response, sending me videos of what we did during the lesson, well, I went out into the backyard and I practiced, focused on and prioritize the exact feedback he shared with me.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (15:40.48)

And lo and behold, when I was on the range, I felt stuck. I felt like I couldn’t rotate through. couldn’t make solid contact. I just blasted every practice shot focusing on extension or not extension, exaggeration of that takeaway. And I hit every shot clean, straight. And what did you know? It’s because I focused on step one rather than skipping to step three. So that’s where I’m at in my golf game. I’m going to come back to the putting in a moment here, but it was a…

really good week of scoring, a really good week of demonstrating emotional resilience. It was very easy for me to choose the path of least resistance, getting frustrated and angry that I hit so many shots out of bounds, getting frustrated I missed an opportunity to par that second par three on the back nine and instead four potted for a double. I could have easily gotten frustrated when I had a stretch of triple bogey double, back to back doubles or even double, double, triple.

But I persevered, I kept focused on one shot after another. And this is my reminder to you, specifically if you are near my handicapper scoring, like I shot a 95 and there were plenty of ugly moments, far from perfect shots, holes and stretches. And I was still able to put together a decent, respectful score based on where I’m at in my journey. And I take pride of that. And let’s just be an example to you, a reminder to you that golf is not a game of perfect.

emotional resiliency, the ability to be a goldfish, to have that short -term 10 -second memory and ultimately move forward to focus on your next shot, those are the collection of skills that are going to serve you and allow you to play to your potential. Now, I want to come back to the putting because my biggest obstacle in putting has been speed control, distance control on those long putts.

My MO is leave it short, leave it well short. There’s this irrational fear in the back of my mind that I can’t possibly leave it long because there’s no way in hell I’m gonna make the putt coming back. I don’t know where that came from. I’m actively working on it. But I can tell you when I revisited some putting at the tail end of my lesson yesterday, Melvin quickly looks at me, he goes, I’m a right -handed putter, remember? Why is your right index finger extended along the shaft? And I said, I don’t know.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (18:02.336)

That’s all I know. This is how it’s always been done. He says, okay, I want you to think of that extended index finger as an antenna. That antenna is transmitting any fear, anxiety, pressure, or uncertainty your body is feeling, and it’s transmitting it to the putter. Do you think you’re going to be able to put confidently like that? And before he could even get the words out of his mouth,

I quickly just wrapped my index finger around the putter because I was picking up what he was throwing down and we spent some time together putting and I felt just a general sense of ease of better controlling my distance. had me really work on some long distance putts. hit some long distance putting work done in, but in the midst of my practice session this morning after I needed a little time out from some frustration on the range. looking forward to adjusting to.

this new putting grip while I continue to gain more proficiency, confidence, and trust in my putting stroke. Again, as a whole, we remove that one foreput. I putted well. I felt confident about my stroke. I left a few short, like I mentioned, and it’s a learning opportunity for me, but I really think this subtle tweak…

is going to allow me to feel confident sending the ball wherever it needs to go, giving it the best shot to make that putt, make the 40, the 50, the 60 footer and not putt from a place of fear or worry that I’m gonna roll the ball past the hole. So excited to implement this change, excited about the direction of the game. Again, it looks like we’ve got 39 % greens in regulation, 38 putts, not the norm. We’re building off of that. And here’s where we are this week. So it’s Monday afternoon as I record this.

I just got done two hours at the range like I mentioned, and we’re gonna get some more range time Wednesday and Friday this week, and we’re playing 18 at Heritage Isles back to back this weekend. And I don’t know about you, but I smell opportunity. I feel opportunity. Could it be this weekend? Could this be the weekend I break 90?

The Golf Hypnotherapist (20:16.034)

Could this be the weekend I keep the ball in bounds, putt confidently, take it one shot at a time, shot at a time, emotionally reset, refocus and regroup between every hole and play to my potential? Could this be the defining weekend where I break 90, I go low, I rack up five pars in one string of nine holes? I don’t know, stay tuned. Next Tuesday will be the update. I’m so grateful that you are tuning in, listening to yet another episode.

of the scratch golfers mindset podcast. sincerely appreciate it. look forward to keeping you posted between now and then you can connect with me on Instagram at the golf hypnotherapist or on Twitter at more pars over bogeys. Otherwise hit them straight this week. Get your practice in, get your practice in your future self on the on the range and then on the green this weekend. We’ll thank you have a phenomenal week and I’ll catch you in the next episode.

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PAUL SALTER

Paul Salter - known as The Golf Hypnotherapist - is a High-Performance Mindset Coach who leverages hypnosis and powerful subconscious reprogramming techniques to help golfers of all ages and skill levels overcome the mental hazards of their minds so they shoot lower scores and play to their potential.