#36 [Journey to Scratch] Bogey Golf, Slowing Down, and Addressing Work to be Done Away from the Course

Episode Introduction and Summary
Welcome back to The Scratch Golfer’s Mindset Podcast! In this episode, host Paul Salter, also known as The Golf Hypnotherapist, takes you through his latest journey toward breaking 90 before November 13th. Paul shares the highs and lows of his week, including practice sessions, a lesson with Coach Melvin, and an insightful round of play at Heritage Isles. He discusses the breakthroughs he experienced, both on the physical side and mentally, as he continues to refine his swing and dial in his mental game.
In this episode, Paul emphasizes the importance of patience, presence, and slowing down to improve performance. He explains how breath work and mindset practices are helping him stay calm, focused, and prepared during longer, more crowded rounds of golf in Florida. Paul also highlights a key lesson from his coach about shoulder alignment based on uneven lies, which unlocked a new level of consistency for his game.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into how to approach practice with intentionality, why quality reps matter more than quantity, and how simple tweaks in preparation can lead to major breakthroughs. Whether you’re striving to break 90 yourself or just want to sharpen your mental game, Paul’s reflections offer practical tips to help you succeed on the course.
Tune in for a detailed recap of Paul’s journey to scratch, including his plans for upcoming rounds, the power of presence on and off the course, and how patience is the unsung hero in achieving lasting golf success.
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:
- Confidence is key in golf performance.
- Mental strategies can significantly impact your game.
- Breath work helps in maintaining focus on the course.
- Physical preparation is crucial for consistent performance.
- Quality practice is more important than quantity.
- Coaching can provide valuable insights and adjustments.
- Understanding your body alignment is essential for better shots.
- Emotional management is part of the game.
- Set warmup routines can enhance performance.
- There are always opportunities for improvement, even in the off-season.
Key Quotes:
- “If I’m being candid, when I moved to chipping and putting, there was a lack of a plan. And as I’m saying this out loud, I know it’s silly, it’s foolish. I need to do a better job cultivating my set warmup routine on and around the green.”
- “I’ve really focused on allowing my mind to naturally drift during some of these breath holds and having an anchor to come back to, to ground me in the present moment. And the goal here is to allow this to become a transferable skill to the golf course as well.”
- “Knowing these rounds are going to likely be a little bit longer. There’s a creation of so much more downtime, opportunity for distraction.”
- “I was quite disappointed with the 45.”
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Time Stamps:
- 00:00: Introduction and Journey to Scratch Golf
- 02:52: Mental Strategies for Golf Improvement
- 05:53: Physical Preparation and Practice Challenges
- 09:01: Inconsistent Performance and Lessons Learned
- 11:48: Coaching Insights and Technical Adjustments
- 18:06: Final Thoughts and Future Goals
Transcript:
The Golf Hypnotherapist (00:02.506)
Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of the scratch golfers mindset podcast. I’m your host, Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist. Happy Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever day it is that you are tuning into yet another episode. am wishing you a wonderful day and just my biggest expression of gratitude and appreciation for you tuning into yet another episode, recapping my journey to scratch and
I want to be confident. want to say it with conviction. We made a couple, ah-ha dot connecting moments in the swing this week, a couple practical strategies or I guess learning lessons learned on the course this week that I feel will prove pivotable, pivotal, there’s the word, in my journey to reaching the initial goal, which is breaking 90 before.
November 13th. So gonna dig into some practice sessions, one round of play this past week, one transformative lesson with coach Melvin and everything in between on my journey to breaking 90 before November 13th. Before we get there, though, just a reminder to you, there has been
no shortage of stellar newsletters written and produced on the more pars than bogeys newsletter website. Remember every Friday I send and share a detailed written collection of resources, content, tangible action steps you can take to overcome your own mental and emotional hazards to get out.
of your own way and play to your potential. And some of the past few additions are the art and science of acceptance. Learn how practicing acceptance can accelerate results. The power and potential of practicing patience. How patience or lack of it shapes your golf game. And to be frank, this one was I think really written for me first and foremost. The next one, one of the most recent ones, overcoming the yips.
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Why self diagnosing and labeling your recent poor play is keeping you stuck. And last week’s edition, hitting the mental reset button, how to use pattern interrupts to play to your potential. So I’ll link in the show notes.
the direct link to the more pars the bogeys newsletter free every Friday delivered in your inbox around seven or seven 30 Eastern time. It’s a great resource and read as you prepare for a wonderful weekend of golf. Without further ado, let’s dive into the weekly recap and let me begin by saying golf in Florida is changing.
You know, as I record this, it’s the last day of September. The snowbirds massive arrival is imminent. And the golf course from my naive short-term perspective so far is becoming more and more crowded. Tea time’s more and more difficult to find. Granted, again, limited window of experience here, but I was that individual who had no issues making a tea time at one.
30 on a Wednesday when it was 95 degrees humid as hell and I could play by myself or with my playing partner get a round of 18 done in three and a half 345. Well, I’m starting to notice like I mentioned t times are harder to come by they’re only going out in four sums. And my last round took about 440. And I think that’s just the norm. You know, my good buddy Aaron who I golf with quite regularly has constantly reminded me buckle up buckle up.
Golf is different down here in the wintertime. are uninundated with snowbirds. It’s crowded. It’s beautiful fucking weather down here, October to March and everyone is out taking advantage of it. So to weather that storm, if you will, I’ve been proactive in making tea times. My buddy Aaron’s been proactive making tea times. I’ve got two on the calendar this week, Friday and Saturday morning. And we’ll get into that in a moment. But the challenge the new
The Golf Hypnotherapist (04:15.036)
challenge that has posed for me again comes back to one of the prevailing themes I shared on one of the first episodes of this podcast. patient
Diffusing any feeling or sensation of false pressure, urgency, a rush, a hurry, and just purely being present in the moment. And during my away from the course mental work the past week, I’ve really began to lean into my breath work and presence practice like never before. Really digging in, pushing a little deeper,
with my unique breath practice. I’m a big fan of two parts, really what I do every morning is my one to one, two, three breath work practice in for four, out for four, in for four, out for eight, in for four, out for 12. And I also pivot into some Wim Hof breathing as well. But for me too, I’ve really focused on allowing my mind to naturally drift during some of these breath holds and having an anchor to come back to, to ground me.
in the present moment. And the goal here is to allow this to become a transferable skill to the golf course as well. Knowing these rounds are going to likely be a little bit longer. There’s a creation of so much more downtime, opportunity for distraction. I need a way to better anchor myself, pull myself back to the present moment. So that’s what I’ve been working on away from the course. And another way to further enhance that, and this is a little bit
directly related to some feedback I got during my teaching lesson yesterday is making sure I’m doing a better job slowing down, spending intentional time in my think box before each shot. And then when I step into my play box, just allowing it to be unconsciously automatic reactive, go swing hit and move on.
The Golf Hypnotherapist (06:17.612)
So I’ll break that down a little bit further when we get there. But that’s what some of my away from the coursework has been this week, as well as an uptick in mobility, flexibility, and dare I say, prehab, rehab. The low back has been stiff as a board. My glutes are just yelling at me today. It’s not so much soreness as irritation the last 72 hours and.
Unfortunately, it’s my own doing this the ego and me having a background in a competitive career in powerlifting it I’ve been I’ve gone so long without barbell squatting I’ve gone so long without traditional deadlifting I’ve tried squeezing trap bar deadlift back into my workout routine. And although it feels fair, okay, no pain during the lift. It’s just my body seems to just not handle it well for whatever reason.
the history of car accidents, injuries, disc this disc that and I think I’m hopefully sharing this out loud for my own accountability. I’ve got to just remove that exercise. So that’s the plan this week is to remove it, see what happens. I’ve added yoga into the schedule again, now that I’m settled in my new home, new location. So I’m hopeful those collective efforts are fruitful and allowing me to play or move.
pain free because as you can imagine all that rotation and torque my low back is just clenching clenching clenching almost as if it doesn’t feel safe rotating allowing my backswing my takeaway to get back where it needs to be which to be frank led to a really inconsistent week of practice you know I’ve jokingly shared before it’s like a Jekyll and Hyde situation for how I hit on the range during a round I can usually just kind of get away with you know grinding out good shots enough to score fairly well
But this week, I mean, there were a couple times I went to the range, you would have thought I was a scratch golfer. Kidding aside, I was just striking the ball very clean, hitting the ball straight. The other days, it was as if I couldn’t make fucking contact to save my life, almost as if there was a magnet on the hazel connected to the ball. And that’s the only contact I was literally able to make. some inconsistent range sessions this week, but finally, lo and behold.
The Golf Hypnotherapist (08:33.14)
If you’ve been following me on Instagram at the golf hypnotherapist, you’ve likely seen a handful of swing videos with me on my swing mat that is in my Lenai, which is a screened in porch for you non Floridians hitting plastic golf balls. Many moons ago, I got a big swing golf net. I went to set it up almost six weeks ago. It was broken. It was missing a piece, sent it back, got another one right away, just failed to ever set it up.
And finally this past week I set it up brought the swing mat outside. It was a process and a half. It is pretty ghetto rigged if you will the setup is not perfect. I’m making it work. It does work. It’s held down by extra paint cans. One of the paint cans leaked unbeknownst to me in the moment. So there’s just a big blotch of white paint in the middle of the flooring of the net piece. But regardless it works. I’ve been hitting a lot of balls out there now and that’s where I really plan to get some
quality reps in if not every day almost every day to really help fine-tune that swing and for me There’s a key word there. I hope you call quality reps I’ve noticed the past few weeks due to some Increasing frustration with just like one day feeling like my swing is perfect the next feeling like I don’t know how to swing
Sometimes I feel as if I’m just checking a box, rushing shots during my practice sessions, hitting a shot for the sake of hitting, almost as if I’m hoping, wishing there’s smooth contact so I can take a deep breath. So my challenge to myself is to really slow down. And the approach I’ll be taking to practice this week is 15 to 20 balls, just, know, can be fairly quick.
to get a feel warm up get the body moving the blood flowing feel the ball the club in my hand and then slowing down it going through my full pre shot routine with every shot focusing on tying this all together doing a lot more practice swings without hitting the ball something I kind of backed away from the past month or two really trying to make my pre shot routine automatic I’ve kind of just eliminated practice swings
The Golf Hypnotherapist (10:48.94)
So I’m going to really slow down and lean into quality. So after getting through those 15 or 20 warm up balls, focusing on 10 balls at a time. And if those 10 balls take 12 minutes or 20 minutes, I’m not going to fret. And I’ll just reassess after 10 slow, methodical, intentional shots, reassess if I need a break, reassess if I’m going to go do another 10 shots. So that’s where I am at this week.
And with that inconsistent roller coaster, it was only fitting that the single round I played this past week was also a roller coaster. So I had in a goal of playing 18 on last Friday morning, a couple things changed in my schedule. So I inevitably only played nine at the home course heritage aisles and was able to go off as a single early in the morning. And that morning on the range, I was striping the ball felt really good, felt confident yet.
If I’m being candid, when I moved to chipping and putting, there was a lack of a plan. And as I’m saying this out loud, I know it’s silly, it’s foolish. I need to do a better job cultivating my set warmup routine on and around the green. So I didn’t feel that consistent in my putting nor my chipping, but that’s how the chips fell. And that’s what I brought into the back.
nine playing nine on Friday at heritage aisles and lo and behold, I like the back nine the back nine especially to me in my mind is very scoreable. It’s gettable. It’s attackable. There’s a couple short par fours that when I feel more confident are very drivable. You know, they’re the between 260 and 300 with a lot of water and bunkers around but the back they’re starting on the back nine. It’s a short par four is 302.
Drive right down the fairway with the five wood great start to the day feeling good. Hit my second shot, pushed it a little right and sadly, it’s a steep downward slope into some water. I didn’t hear a splash. I saw a couple bounces couldn’t find the ball. So sadly had to take a penalty shot doubled on 10 moving on to the 11. I love the par.
The Golf Hypnotherapist (13:06.508)
511 I bogeyed this one nothing noteworthy stands out. I don’t have my notes in front of me I forgot to write grab my phone before I hit record but double 10 bogeyed 11 par 12 because lo and behold I hit the green and regulation to putt all good things there I bogeyed the par 313 missed the green and regulation there but was able to still score bogey so we start the day double
bogey par bogey straight two putts one OB pretty solid start to the day moving on to 14 14 is another par for doubled that one parred the par 515 bogeyed the par 316 double bogeyed the par 417 due to an OB and bogeyed I’m excuse me and I parred 18 so just listen to this roller coaster double bogey par
bogey double par bogey double par for a 45 on the back nine. We take a big 30,000 foot view of this round. So much opportunity missed some really quality shots 17 putts one three putt two OBs couple greens and regulation a couple fairways hit
and my second best score on this back nine. But what was really noteworthy what I wanted to bring up to you is I didn’t in that moment until I really made the conscious effort to redirect my energy and focus feel any sense of pride or accomplishment. I was quite disappointed with the 45.
And that’s bogey golf. like that is the goal right now, literally is to shoot one better than bogey golf on or before November 13th. I felt frustrated. I felt disappointed. I just felt like I left so much out there. There would be one, two good shots on a hole or that I chunk or I topped one or two that round. And it was just like, on Paul, you’re so capable. And lo and behold, you know, I played through a couple groups there.
The Golf Hypnotherapist (15:23.326)
In hindsight, I might’ve rushed a little. I don’t think I was as dialed in and mentally prepared that morning as I could have been and absolutely as I should have been to play my best round. So a little bit of just slowing down again, the prevailing theme for me needs to be, or needs to have greater priority and precedence placed upon it.
But at the end of the day, like I am right on the cusp of where I want to be a shot of 92 a couple weeks ago, I’ve shot a 44 and a 45 respectfully on the back nine at this particular course. And we’re going to go at it again, this coming Friday, we’re going to get nine in on Friday morning and then a brand new course I’ve never played on Saturday for 18. So a lot of opportunity in front of me. And that brings me to this past Sunday. So yesterday as a recording this I had another lesson.
And it was an interesting mix of physical and emotional sensations coming into this lesson. First and foremost, like I mentioned, the low back, the glutes, a lot of pain, a lot of stiffness. Again, I spent 20 or 30 minutes trying to loosen up before even driving to my lesson. It’s so aggravating. I am in Florida riding with my butt warmers, my seat warmers on to make the 30 minute drive to my lesson, just hoping that heat loosens everything up.
And I was also just bringing a little frustration with my inconsistency to that lesson, having no idea where or what direction my coach was going to take me. I can confidently say that this has proven to be to date the most effective tactical lesson I have had. He gave me, you know, I was warming up without him. Let me start there hitting the ball pretty well, loosening up slowly, solid contact.
And we did a couple drills, just rotation drills with you know, what would be similar to having a broomstick across my chest or a back on my back, like I have a barbell on my back. And just for me, loading onto my hip and making sure when I’m rotating, I’m not sinking down or raising up because that’s just inconsistently producing the quality contact I needed. So it’s doing some drills there, getting some mirrored feedback, feeling and seeing what it’s like to initiate the perfect one piece takeaway and
The Golf Hypnotherapist (17:37.996)
total backswing with regards to keeping my shoulders level as I rotate proved to be very, very powerful. He made a couple changes of where I’m placing the ball depending on which club I had. You know, me putting my eight iron as an example kind of in the middle of my stance, what I thought was the middle of my stance and apparently in his mind and everybody else’s was still too far back. So a couple changes there and I was hitting the ball, the
best I’ve ever hit it during a range session during a coaching session produced really good results. We went through the bag to which was really a big confidence booster wasn’t just my gap in my pitching wedge wedge I was striping because I hit those most consistently in home. was the nine and eight the seven to six the five the three would I took all of those out felt a lot more confident with the three would in my hands. Very, very pleased I brought that momentum home.
and went into the backyard and was still able to replicate all of those swings meaning for me the biggest thing was the consistency and contact didn’t have any mishits, hossles, topping nothing. was pure, it was clean. And I’m very encouraged by that as you can imagine, but a lot of great takeaways there. And what was really powerful about that coaching lesson was just how many times my coach challenged me when I was you know, not hitting the shot exactly as I had had envisioned like
what happened there, what went wrong, empowering me with the confidence and the information to diagnose where I need to bring my attention if I notice a pattern of mishits. So for me, he empowered me with that knowledge to be my own coach, to be able to address and troubleshoot my swing on the fly. So that was very powerful and I’m very grateful for that lesson.
The other thing that stands out this week, and this is gonna sound so funny for some of you more advanced and experienced golfers, but it was the first time, and I give all credit to a random Facebook reel, which happened to come up organically in my lesson with my coach as well, adjusting my body angle based on my lie. So I’m aware of the subtle adjustments I need to make if I have an uphill or a downhill lie. But I was unaware until about a week ago,
The Golf Hypnotherapist (19:56.714)
what I need to do if I have, or I should say I’m aware of what to do with my balls below or beneath my feet. But if I’m on an uphill or a downhill lie, the feedback that the cue of adjusting my shoulders to be parallel with the ground and the lie has proven instrumental. I hit a couple really quality shots that I previously would have struggled with without this knowledge during that round on Friday, and then really being able to apply that during the chipping.
portion, the pitching portion of my practice session yesterday. It was like an aha moment for me, a light bulb moment, just understanding why as an example, if I had an uphill lie and I had a couple chips where it’s like I just hit straight into the ground. He’s like, you didn’t adjust your body to be aligned with the lie. So little subtleties like that are starting to click come together. I know they’re going to continue to prove to be fruitful for me as I bring everything to the next couple of rounds on the horizon.
And with that said, crazy to think we’re about six weeks away from the little guy coming, which means six weeks away from having the opportunity to break 90, feeling good about where my game is at in this particular moment, and going to bring the intention of slowing down, bring the intention of my presence practice to every single physical range.
putting practice session this week, as well as to the off the course work I’m doing both in my breath work, as well as in my yoga, my rehab, my stretching, because I got to get the body feeling good, feeling loose in order to play to my potential this weekend. And that’s where I’m at. I wish you a wonderful week of practice and play, regardless of where you are. I have an imagination. Many of you listening, the season is coming to an end. So get out there, have fun, hit them straight and keep in mind.
There is an abundance of opportunity to take your game to the next level in the upcoming off season with minimal or non-existent range time or putting time. There are so many aspects of your game you can work on physically, emotionally and mentally. And there’s gonna be a lot more content from my direction in the coming months to empower you with frameworks and strategies and steps you can take.
The Golf Hypnotherapist (22:16.652)
to really continue your pursuit of scratch or whatever your goal is in the off season when you’re unable to play as frequently as you’d like. So stay tuned for that. I sincerely appreciate you listening. If you haven’t done so already, hey, 30 seconds, genuine rating, review.
Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you’re listening. It means the world to me. It really goes a long way in supporting the show, supporting my goal of growing this show, getting this information and the stellar lists of guests I have on here regularly out into the world to connect with fellow avid golfers like you. So take 30 seconds, leave a genuine rating and review. Have a fantastic day 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.