Your swing isn’t the problem. Your focus is.

Learn how to control attention, reset after bad shots, and build mental habits that hold up under pressure. This guide shares practical mental game techniques you can use this weekend, plus a preview of my upcoming 10-week competitive golf documentary.

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You don’t lose shots on the range. You lose them between your ears.

Here’s a hard truth most golfers avoid.

You don’t “fall apart” because your swing suddenly forgot how to work.

One of the cleanest ways to think about mental toughness comes from Dr. Alan Jenkins’ work on performance psychology.

The core idea is simple and uncomfortable:

You can’t will a putt to drop.

You can control how you pick your line, commit to speed, and respond when it doesn’t.

Elite players don’t avoid mistakes.

They avoid mental spirals.

Here’s how to start building that same edge.

Most bad rounds aren’t about bad swings.

They’re about the bad timing of focus.

Golfers live in two unhelpful places:

Neither helps you hit the shot in front of you.

Steal this:

Create a focus window that only exists from club selection to impact.

That’s the only time your mind gets to be involved.

On the walk to the ball, you’re relaxed.

Over the ball, you’re quiet.

After the shot, you observe and move on.

If your brain starts narrating your swing, you’ve already lost the rep.

Drill:

Play three holes where you say nothing internally over the ball.

If your brain starts coaching, step off and restart your routine.

It will feel awkward.

That’s how you know it’s working.

Most golfers say they want to “play well.”

That’s not a process.

That’s a hope.

Dr. Jenkins emphasizes process goals over outcome goals because outcomes spike emotion and kill consistency.

Process goals keep your nervous system calm.

Examples of process goals for a round:

You can shoot a higher score and still win the mental game if your process stays clean.

Ironically, that’s how scores start dropping.

You’re allowed to react.

You’re not allowed to carry it.

Here’s the rule I live by:

Be frustrated.

Shake your head.

Say whatever you say.

Then fix your posture, slow your breathing, and walk with purpose.

Here’s what happens when you don’t:

I once hit a lazy wedge into the front bunker on a short par 4.

Instead of resetting, I rushed the bunker shot.

Bladed it over the green.

Then tried to “be aggressive” on a downhill chip.

Double bogey from 80 yards.

The bad shot didn’t ruin the hole.

The reaction did.

Bad shots are part of golf.

Bad sequences are optional.

Nobody expects to stripe it without reps.

Yet golfers expect mental toughness to appear on the back nine magically.

It doesn’t.

The mental game is trained under mild stress.

Ways to practice it on the course:

You’re teaching your brain how to behave when things aren’t perfect.

That’s the difference between “range swing” and “round swing.”

Most golfers tie their identity to score.

That’s fragile.

Strong competitors tie identity to how they show up for the next shot.

Good players don’t ask:

“How do I shoot 72 today?”

They ask:

“How do I fully commit to this shot right now?”

If you can win the next shot, the round takes care of itself.

Next month, I’m launching a 10-week documentary series following a full competitive training block.

This won’t be highlight reels.

You’ll see:

If you’ve ever wondered why your range game disappears on the 16th tee, you’ll recognize yourself in this series.

The goal isn’t to look good.

It’s to show what staying composed looks like when it’s hard.

What you missed last week:

McDowell Mountain

1–3 minutes. One lucky member wins a $250 gift card every month.

Might as well be you.