The Mental Golf Show
The Mental Golf Show helps serious golfers improve their performance under pressure. Host Josh Nichols, a U.S. Mid-Amateur finalist and golf mental coach, explores why good players struggle to access their best game in real conditions. Through conversations with players, coaches, and experts, plus solo episodes, he investigates the gap between potential and actual on-course performance.
Episodes
297: Julie Elion - How Wyndham Clark Overcame Adversity to Win the 2026 U.S. Open
Get Julie Elion’s new book Mastering Your Mental Game (link to Amazon)
On this episode we’ve got THE Julie Elion. Most notably the mental performance coach for Wyndham Clark. She’s also the author of her new book Mastering Your Mental Game, which is excellent.
So the timing of this one was pretty dang cool with Wyndham just winning the U.S. Open last week. We of course talk a lot about Wyndham and
296: Joel Suggs (PGA Master) - These three stats explain everything…
On this episode we have Joel Suggs, a PGA Master Teaching Professional with decades of experience helping golfers of all levels understand their own games. Joel is the author of Golf Success Before Every Round, which was the number one new release in golf coaching on Amazon when it came out.
By the end of this episode, you'll learn why golfers already have the right answers for their game — and ho
295: Steve Kamb - How to Try Again, Play More Free, and Not Let Fear Wreck Your Game
Get Steve Kamb’s new book How to Try Again: An Approachable Guide to Navigating Chaos and Making Change THAT STICKS (Amazon link)
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Steve Kamb is the author of the brand new book How to Try Again: An Approachable Guide to Navigating Chaos and Making Change THAT STICKS.
In this conversation (and in his book) Steve helps us learn about life and golf and the many parallels between the two. We tal
294: Dr. Justin Ternes (Breath Expert) - How to Breathe To Play Better Golf
Take the FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment
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Dr. Justin Ternes is a world expert on breathwork, physical therapy, and the connection of mind and body.
I wanted to have Justin on because there’s so much pseudoscience out there about breathwork, meditation, and emotional awareness. But Justin sets us straight and teaches us that what we’ve heard and learned might ac
293: Deep Dive Into How Josh Prepares for a Golf Tournament
FREE Brand New Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment
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In this episode Josh dives deep into his tournament prep, what he's done this year different from past years, and how he readies himself for a competitive round.
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Chapters & Topics:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Preparing My Body: New Stretches, Better Pre-Round Warmup, and More Regular and Intense Hitting Sessions
6:
292: My Mental Game Has Gotten Worse (I Have Proof)
Click here to take the brand new redesigned Mental Game Assessment!
I’m a Golf Mental Coach and the host of a golf mental game podcast. Yet my mental game has gotten worse.
How do I know that? And what am I going to do about it? And what you can do to improve your mental game. All of that in this short episode.
291: How Well You Play and How Well You Score Are Not the Same Thing - Peter Melton
Peter Melton is a Golf Enjoyment Coach and author of Conversations with Par. He spent three decades stuck in the same trap most golfers never escape — believing his score determined his worth.
In this conversation, we dig into the inner golfer versus the outer golfer, why your survival identity is quietly running your game, and whether enjoyment is just another arrow in the quiver or the whole bag
290: Perfect Mechanics Don’t Matter If Your Tempo is Off - Chia Chou (Master Pianist)
Chia Chou is a classical pianist and has taught the best of the best musicians for decades.
In the last 5 years he has grown his very unique approach to helping golfers through the use of audio. We even get into how Chia's method is different from (and potentially better than) Tour Tempo.
You'll leave this episode with actionable practices to help you have better tempo, a better understanding of w
289: The Mindset Shift That Almost Won Me the U.S. Mid-Amateur
I made a massive shift in my game between missing the cut at the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur to making it the finals of the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur. In this episode we get into two major ways I did that.
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Join Mental Golf Club for FREE here: app.joshnicholsgolf.com
Announcing: Mental Golf Club
Join Mental Golf Club here: app.joshnicholsgolf.com
You guys comprise the best community of the smartest, most thoughtful, deepest thinking bunch of golfers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen and heard how much you guys have engaged over the years. It's been incredible.
So we wanted a way for you to engage even further and deeper than you already do. Somewhere you could get even more out of the podcast
288: Matt Myers - Become a Better Golfer One Pushup at a Time (Q2 2026 Check-in)
We've got another check-in with Nerd Fitness Matt.
Ok, sure, these are thinly-veiled selfish conversations with my fitness coach. But also I firmly believe they're a peak for you into the mindset that builds real consistency and actual results with fitness, nutrition, habits, self-care, and just general relationship with ourselves and what we need.
Hope you learn more about yourself listening to t
287: Gary Belsky - The Mental Game Difference Between Pros and Amateurs
If you've ever played your best golf alone but fallen apart the moment others are watching, this episode is for you.
In this conversation, Gary Belsky makes a compelling case that solo golf isn't just a scheduling convenience — it's a mental training ground that can rewire how you handle pressure, self-criticism, and the performative noise that creeps in during a round. You'll walk away with some
286: Andreas Kali - Embracing Discomfort, Exposing False Practice, and Earning Real Confidence
Andreas Kali is a golf coach based in Denmark who works with nine professional golfers across four tours, including players ranked inside the top 50 in the world. He's spent the better part of two decades coaching, and his philosophy runs counter to a lot of what you see or hear — harder practice, honest feedback, and no false confidence. Things that I love and agree with.
This is going to be a co
285: The Question That's Rewiring My Golf Brain
You ever feel like the mental game advice you try doesn't stick? That's because most mental game advice is superficial and not effective in high-pressure moments. Including some of the stuff I've put out.
That's because there has to be a deeper layer underneath that advice for your mental game to actually be effective. In this episode, we dive into that.
Key topics:
The Ineffectiveness of Common M
284: Jeff Troesch - Great Golf Requires Imbalance, Confidence is Overrated, and How to Think Like a Better Golfer
Jeff Troesch is a mental performance coach to major champions on PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, Olympians, and athletes in nearly 100 other sports.
He has just released a new book titled One Day Better: Mental Performance Concepts to Transform Your Game and Life. It contains 150 one or two-page lessons on the most important facets of performance. It's unlike anything else I've read in any other mental ga
283: Matt Young - Why Your Golf Game Spirals (and How to Regain Control)
Matt Young is an Emotional Change Specialist. His expertise is in helping people move past their limiting beliefs and protective/automatic emotions in order to access their best as often as possible. Matt's an avid golfer himself, and in this episode we we dive in to some real-world case studies of PGA Tour players, as well as Matt's (and my own) golf game to discuss the deeper psychology of how a
282: Rye Stinson - How to Be Great At Golf, Successful at Work, and Avoid/Navigate Injury
Rye Stinson is perhaps the only person in the world who is all of these things: Occupational Therapist, Certified Hand Therapist, TPI M3 Certified, AND has qualified for a U.S. Mid-Amateur, which he did in 2024.
So I took that as an opportunity to dive right into how on earth he is so successful in his work while also being such a high level player. He plays humble, but he shared some great wisdom
281: How to Take Your Game from Indoors to Outdoors
It's that time of year. You've been working hard on your game all offseason, grinding on your swing, getting things dialed, and now it's almost time (or is already time) to get outside and play.
But what typically happens when you do that? If you're like me, everything you worked on all winter can seem to go right out the window when you touch real grass. That terrible feeling of all that practice
280: John Dunigan - You Care Too Much About Your Golf Swing
John Dunigan is the cofounder of the Practice Golf Coach app. I haven't used the app personally yet, but one of my mental coaching clients uses it and he swears by it. He's sent me screenshots and it looks awesome. It uses AI combined with John and cofounder Dr. Will Wu's expertise and experience to build you custom workouts that change with you as you enter in more data. I'll have to check it out
279: Andy Gorman - Putting Better is Easy
Andy Gorman is ThePASS (The Putting And Shortgame Specialist). And this episode is truly all about putting.
If you wonder why you don't putt better, whether you have the right putter for you, why you don't putt well under pressure, why you under-read so many putts, and then exactly how to address all of these things... then you're going to love this episode.
Andy is both extremely knowledgable abo
278: Cameron Strachan - Master Golf By Being Lazy and Stupid
📕 Click this link to get Cameron Strachan's book UNF*CK YOUR GOLF BRAIN, plus bonus videos, a pre-round cheat sheet, and more: https://bit.ly/ufygb-josh
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Cameron Strachan was not a name I had heard before this. But when he reached out to me expressing interest in being on the show and shared his book UNF*CK YOUR GOLF BRAIN with me, I gave it a read and I was immediately hooked. I read over ha
277: Alex Fortey - Why Do We Make Golf So Complicated?
I had the pleasure of hosting Alex Fortey on the podcast. Alex is a content creator with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube (The Art of Simple Golf). He's a pro golfer with some very strong opinions on the golf industry and golf instruction, and has some very honest takes on how to make golf simpler.
Some of the topics we cover:
The Complexity of Golf Instruction
Understanding the Disconnect in
276: Brendon Post - Why Trying Harder Makes Golf Harder
Is chasing consistency actually hurting your golf game?
In this episode, I’m joined by Brendon Post — a longtime competitive player, coach, and caddie with decades of experience at the college and professional levels. Brendon brings a rare perspective from living on both sides of the rope: competing under pressure and watching the game with total clarity as a coach and caddie.
Topics cover
275: Steven Yellin - There Is Only One Way to Play Good Golf
I had the honor of hosting Steven Yellin on the podcast. Steven is an author of the book Simplicity. He holds some very strong positions on how good golf must be played. But he claims they aren't his ideas, they are just the way the brain and the body work. I truly can't spell it all out here, you'll have to listen to know what I'm talking about.
If you like this podcast in general, you're going
274: How to Play Fearless Golf
🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.
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I used to always play golf with a ton of fear. And frankly, I still play golf with fear. But not as much as I once did, thanks to an understanding of some of the core reasons we as humans encounter fear.
In this episode, you will learn what the core sources of human fear are, why we fear those
273: Dr. Gio Valiante - Fear, Flow, and Mastery vs. Ego
I had the great honor of hosting Dr. Gio Valiante for a conversation that had me thinking from the moment he started talking. Something about the way Dr. Gio explains things makes me feel like golf is on the one hand deep and rich and complex, but on the other hand incredibly simple and fundamental to who we are as humans. His grasp of human psychology is aspirational, so it's no wonder he's been
272: Matt Myers - How to Make Golf Fitness Stupid Easy (Q1 2026)
🏋️♂️ Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!
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I worked with Matt Myers at Nerd Fitness for the entirety of 2025 as my personal trainer. But far beyond building workout plans and keeping me accountable to nutrition goals, he was a partner on a journey. I know for a fact I would be so far off course from where I started 2025 had I been trying to go it alone. I can say without exa
271: 10 Lessons 2025 Taught Me (and What I’m Carrying Into 2026)
I've done a goal-setting episode at the end of every year for the past 6 years, but I don't think I've ever done a review of the year that just ended. This episode will show you a simple, proven way to review your year (or your day or your round of golf) that you can and should use. And I of course set some golf and podcast goals for 2026, which I think can help you do the same.
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📊 FREE Menta
270: Steve Wheatcroft - The Unseen Struggles of Being a PGA Tour Player
Steve Wheatcroft played professional golf for 19 years, almost all of those on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour. In this episode we get into the experiences he had, the fallout of retiring, and the journey since.
Topics discussed:
The Silence After Professional Sports
Identity Beyond the Game
The Balance of Passion and Profession
Learning to Practice Effectively
The Journey of Becoming a Golfer
Self-P
269: Best of The Mental Golf Show (2025)
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
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This year has been a monumental one for The Mental Golf Show. It's the most interviews I've ever done (33 up to this point) and I feel like my skill as an interviewer has drastically improved across this year, and certainly over the life of the podcast.
So with guest episodes in mind, I wanted to pull out some
268: Will Knauth - Why You Need Swing Thoughts to Play Good Golf
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice
🏋️♂️ Nerd Fitness: Head to nerdfitness.com, and when (not if) you go through onboarding just mention Josh at The Mental Golf Show sent you.
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Will Knauth is a +5 handicap U.S. Mid-Amateur competitor, a PhD
267: David Buck - Transform Your Game with Truth and Joy
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice
🏋️♂️ Nerd Fitness: Head to nerdfitness.com, and when (not if) you go through onboarding just mention Josh at The Mental Golf Show sent you.
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David Buck is a former professional playing pro who’s competed o
266: FundaMENTALS - Expectations: The Psychology That Makes Good Golf Harder
📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.
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In this FundaMENTALS episode, we look at how expectations add tension and narrow your options, and why shifting to clear standards helps you swing with freedom. I cover the basic brain mechanics, a simple process to use before each shot, and a few practical co
265: Carly Hunt - How Your Brain Shapes Golf, Pain, and Performance
📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement
🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
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What if your pain wasn’t just a body problem, but a brain and golf probl
264: How to Lean Into Golf Discomfort, Not Eject
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
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How do you lean in when the round of golf starts going sideways? It’s so easy to eject mentally and just go through the motions.
Let's dive into the concept of Exposure Therapy as a tool to build your mental resilience.
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FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental st
263: Paul Salter - Fear, Confidence, and the Secret to Consistent Golf Success
FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement
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Paul Salter joins The Mental Golf Show (for the second time). Paul is a mindset and performance coach who uses hypnosis to help his clients get unstuck, uncover their edge, and unlock their potential.
We cover these topics:
The Commitment to Golf Mastery
The Powe
262: Caddie Yourself into Full Commitment
Most of us don't have caddies helping us get fully committed to shots, so we have to be our own caddies. Learning how to be your own caddie effectively can give you a huge advantage over your opponents and your own unhelpful tendencies.
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The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here.
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Get more from Josh Nichols:
📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up f
261: Dr. Doug Tataryn - Inadequacy, Self-Betrayal, and Core Beliefs are Affecting Your Golf Game
Dr. Doug Tataryn is the founder of the Bio-Emotive Framework. And we get into things like integral theory, the Four Facets Model of Human Transformation, and the effects of your childhood experiences on your worldview.
But, and this is very important, Dr. Doug is very good at grounding these abstract topics back to golf. And I’d like to think that I represent you, the listener, in being relatively
260: Bruce Chalas - College Golf Recruiting and Performing Under Intense Pressure
Special guest Coach Bruce Chalas and I talk all about college golf, the psychological demands of college golf, and the recruiting process for junior golfers. So if you’re a junior golfer, college player, a parent of one, or a coach helping players navigate this stage, this one’s for you.
And even if you’re not in that world, it’s still a really cool peek behind the curtain at how high-level player
259: FundaMENTALS - Handle Pressure Better in Three Simple Steps
Welcome to Episode 3 of the FundaMENTALS series, where Josh Nichols will be walking through the core components of a good mental game.
This week: Handling Pressure
On this episode, I want to talk about that feeling in your chest, that slight tremor in your hands, that racing thought pattern that can suddenly appear when the stakes feel higher. Something that every golfer deals with on the course,
258: Jayne Storey - Relaxed Readiness, Inner Quietude, and the Deeper Dimensions of Golf
In this episode, I sit down with Jayne Storey for a deep conversation about golf, performance, and the inner life of an athlete. Jayne brings decades of experience in meditation, movement, and spiritual practice.
Golf feels hard when you’re trying to control every move. So we dig into how letting go leads to freedom and flow on the course. If you’re tired of grinding and want to just feel golf aga
257: FundaMENTALS - Confidence: Durable vs. Fragile
Confidence in golf often feels like it comes and goes with your scorecard. But what if there’s a way to build confidence that doesn’t vanish after a bad hole or a bad round? In this episode, we’ll explore where true confidence really comes from—and why most golfers never find it.
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256: Mike Berland - Redefining Success, Making Golf More Inclusive, and Finding Joy in the Game Again
Special guest Mike Berland joins The Mental Golf Show. They discuss the multifaceted nature of golf, emphasizing the importance of enjoyment over mere improvement. Mike shares personal experiences and insights on the psychological aspects of the game, the social dynamics involved, and the need for modernizing golf to make it more inclusive. The discussion highlights the balance between striving fo
255: FundaMENTALS - Pre-Shot Routine: Four Steps for a Solid Process
Welcome to the Episode 2 of the FundaMENTALS series, where Josh Nichols will be walking through the core components of a good mental game.
This week: the Pre-Shot Routine.
Every good pre-shot routine contains four key pillars. We explore those on this episode.
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254: Gary Waters - Shifting Perspective, Finding Peace on the Course, and Unlocking Your Authentic Golf Game
In this enlightening episode, Josh Nichols sits down with Gary Waters for a deep dive into the mental game of golf and life. Gary, a performance coach with a passion for unlocking human potential, explores how shifting your perspective can transform your experience on the golf course and beyond.
From redefining success as inner peace to dissolving limiting beliefs that fuel fear and frustration, t
253: FundaMENTALS - Acceptance: Stop Playing Scared Golf
Welcome to the first episode in the FundaMENTALS series, where Josh Nichols will be walking through what he believes are the core components of a good mental game.
First up: Acceptance
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252: Dallas Webster - Better Course Strategy, Golf Highs and Lows, and the Mental Game of Technology
Dallas Webster, creator of the Tangent Golf app, joins to discuss his journey from competitive high school golfer to tech entrepreneur, focusing on using data to improve golf performance while keeping technology unobtrusive.
Topics & Timestamps:
Introduction to Tangent Golf App (05:03)
Mental Game and Tracking (06:25)
The Tangent Four (14:44)
AI Caddy and Course Management (10:43)
Battling Me
251: Stop Trying to Play Good Golf
In order to play well, you have to let go of playing well.
In order to lower your handicap, you have to let go of lowering your handicap.
These paradoxes make for tough, disciplined behavior. But if you can dial this in then you'll be getting out of the way of your own golf improvement.
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250: Dawn Grant - Access the Zone, Deliberately Improve, and Find Joy in Golf
In this episode, we sit down with performance coach and hypnotherapist Dawn Grant to unpack the true nature of "the zone." While many think of it as a purely mental state, Dawn reveals it as a spiritual and mental experience that goes far beyond traditional sports psychology. She shares how her work with hypnosis led her to discover that the peak performance state athletes describe is the same eup
249: How to Play Golf Like Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler has been on a ridiculous run. And at the risk of recency bias, I want to try to glean something from the way Scottie goes about playing the game. Specifically his mentality and his relationship with golf. He's a fascinating case study that we're getting to watch in real time.
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248: On-Course w/ Matt Davis - Putting Visualization, Ego Protection, and Honest Emotion
Josh goes on-course with special guest Matt Davis. Matt is the founder of PutterCup, a dead-simple and truly effective set of putting training aids. The three different PutterCups tackle three distinctly different components of putting: The Center Cup helps with narrowing in your focus, The Speed Bump helps with dialing in holing speed, and The To Go Cup allows you to have a regulation-sized hole
247: How Equipment can Boost Confidence, Commitment, and Acceptance (Titleist T-Series Iron Fitting)
On today’s episode we’re going to be doing something totally different than any other previous episode of The Mental Golf Show. I’m going to take you inside the ropes of my fitting for the brand new, just released Titleist T-Series irons. I got to try these out for a pre-release fitting which of course made me feel super special. And I’ve had them in the bag for about two weeks now and holy cow ar
246: Breathing Techniques for Golf Performance
In this episode, I detail what we can do to counteract the effects that the pressure and stress of golf can cause.
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Links mentioned:
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine Digital Course
📧 The Mental Re-Grip free weekly newsletter
📊 Mental Game Assessment
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Timestamps & Topics
00:00 - Breathing for Golf
01:20 - What’s happening internally when pressure ramps up?
04:05 - What mental state is
245: Jim Waldron - Guaranteed Yips Cure, Radical Acceptance, Willingness to Suffer, and Eliminating Fear
On this episode of The Mental Golf Show my guest is Jim Waldron, a nationally acclaimed golf teaching professional, mental game coach, author, and lecturer. Jim touts a 94% success rate of eliminating the yips, so naturally I was curious about and we dig into it right away.
This was one of my favorite conversations on The Mental Golf Show yet, so hopefully you enjoy listening as much as I did. Top
244: Ross Macleod - Putting Fundamentals, Putting Under Pressure, and Curing the Putting Yips
Ross MacLeod joins The Mental Golf Show. Ross is a putting coach to players of all skill levels. Click here to find him on X. And click here to check out his Putting Coaching offerings.
Timestamps & Topics:
(00:00) Putting Under Pressure and Tendencies It Causes
(06:06) Does mental game cause bad putting? Or does bad putting cause mental issues?
(14:25) Can a bad golfer be as good of a putter
243: Dr. David Spiegel - Hypnosis, Trauma, the Yips, Breathing, and Why Golf is So Hard
Dr. David Spiegel is a Stanford psychiatrist, and he is one of the most published and respected experts in the field of hypnotherapy.
He is the cofounder of the self-hypnosis app Reveri. Rory has been outspoken about his use of the Reveri app.
Dr. Spiegel has been on podcasts such as Huberman Lab, Tim Ferriss, and Rich Roll. So to add The Mental Golf Show to that list is an incredible honor.
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242: Webb Simpson - U.S. Open Nostalgia, What Scottie Does Different, and Building (and Losing) Confidence
Webb Simpson needs no introduction. Timely conversation for U.S. Open week.
Timestamps & Topics:
(00:00:00) How does Webb Simpson feel about the U.S. Open now 13 years after winning?
(00:02:58) Webb’s U.S. Open Final qualifying this year
(00:05:24) Closing out the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic Club
(00:07:09) The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course - joshnicholsgolf.com/course
(00:09:11) Does
241: Mike Booker – No More Golf Victimhood, Embrace the Suck, and Become a Tournament Golfer
Mike Booker is a Texas Golf Hall of Famer, a former tour pro, and an accomplished amateur. He's the author of the The Tournament Golfer's Playbook.
Timestamps and Topics:
(00:00:00) How do you build (and lose) confidence?
(00:05:23) Using Swing Keys to Turn a Bad Round Around
(00:15:35) Last chance for 50% off The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course - joshnicholsgolf.com/course
(00:17:49) Tour
240: Joe Bronson - Exclusive Golf Courses, Balancing Golf and Life, and Simplifying a Complex Game
Joe Bronson joins The Mental Golf Show. He's the author of PARdon Me, which was just released and you can get the book, and any of Joe's other books, by clicking here.
Topics & Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Golf as a Cerebral Activity
(00:03:46) Making Golf Simple
(00:06:30) Does confidence come from playing experience, or practice?
(00:09:14) How has Joe Bronson played almost all of the Top 100 golf
239: Dan Abrahams - Pressure, Fighting Your Brain, and Your A-B-C-D Game
Dan Abrahams is a Sport Psychologist and former professional golfer. At one time he was the Lead Psychologist for England Golf. Dan joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and timestamps:
00:00:00 Why is it so hard to perform under pressure?
00:07:42 How to choose what you think on the course
00:13:06 How to use past experience to make you better
00:17:12 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course -
238: Jayson Nickol - Going Low, the Most Important Stat, and How to Move On from Bad Shots
Jayson Nickol is one of the top golf instructors on Skillest, and perhaps most notably he's coach of Chasing Scratch's Mike Shade. Jayson kills em with kindness as he joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and timestamps:
00:00 What’s Stopping Mike from Chasing Scratch from Getting to Scratch?
01:29 Prioritizing Reps in Practice Planning
08:09 Playing Well and Going Even Lower
10:31 Prioritizing Putt
237: Jon Schram - Clutch, Flow, and Golf Confidence vs. Delusion
Jon Schram is a performance coach for competitive golfers, poker players, business executives and many other areas. He joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and Timestamps:
00:00 What is clutch?
05:27 The Impact of Importance on Performance
08:57 When the lights turn on, are you better or worse?
12:16 Rory's Masters- He pulled off the hard shots, but flubbed the easy ones
14:09 The Shot, the Situatio
236: Lou Stagner - Stats, Expectations, and Managing Emotions on the Golf Course
Lou Stagner is a statistician, coach, and one of the most influential voices in the golf industry. He joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and Timestamps:
00:00 Emotional Control in Golf
05:07 Statistics and Anger
10:23 How much should we be thinking about stats?
12:56 The Importance of Data Tracking
14:49 Playing with Confidence vs. Emotion
19:15 Stat Tracking Apps
22:39 Does Lou practice what he p
235: Gary Nicol - Intention, Attention, Attitude, and Enjoying Golf
Gary Nicol joins The Mental Golf Show. Gary is a Performance Consultant, and co-author along with Karl Morris of The Lost Art Of Putting, The Lost Art Of Playing Golf, and The Lost Art Of The Short Game.
Topics:
- Golf is often seen as an identity rather than an activity.
- Players frequently tie their self-worth to their scores.
- The human brain struggles to stay present and often projects into
234: Howard Falco - Confidence, Golf Trauma, and the Invincible Golf Mindset
Howard Falco, author of Invincible: The Mindset of Infinite Potential and the Secret to Inevitable Success, joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and Timestamps:
00:00 Confidence Comes from Fundamentals
03:28 Bad Round: Fix or Adapt?
08:15 The Intersection of Life and Golf
14:40 What Makes Golf So Hard and So Great?
18:42 Optimism and Performance in Golf
24:59 Facing the Truth in Golf
33:29 Take Res
233: Rory McIlroy Wins the 2025 Masters and the Career Grand Slam
Josh tries his hardest to draw out to do it justice and draw out the mental aspects of Rory's win at the 2025 Masters.
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🏌️♂️🗓️ Basic Practice Plan Template
A practice plan robust enough to help you actually improve, but flexible enough to handle
232: Debbie O'Connell - Self-Talk, Flow State, and Keeping a Good Round Going
Debbie O'Connell joins The Mental Golf Show.
Topics and timestamps:
00:00 Debbie O'Connell's Journey in Sports
04:19 Overcoming Nerves and Achieving Flow State
09:11 "The Grass Floor"
10:32 Taking the Leap: From College to Professional Golf
15:14 The Value of Nerves to Being in Flow
19:17 Techniques to Be in Flow
22:59 How to Keep a Good Round Going
29:48 What if Positive Self-Talk is Fake?
35:53
231: Gary Christian - Improve without a Swing Change, Practice Smarter, and Maximize Your Time
Gary Christian, author of Beat the Course, Not Yourself, joins The Mental Golf Show for a second time.
Topics and Timestamps:
00:00 Maximizing Limited Practice Time
03:52 Using a Swing Coach to Work Smarter
10:35 Long-Term Improvement vs. Short-Term Results
18:03 Finding the Right Coach
21:00 Going long stretches without practice
22:37 Self-Coaching
25:26 Technique vs. Feel
30:17 The Balance of E
230: Jon Sherman - Dial In Your Routine, Compete Better, and Enjoy the Game
Special guest Jon Sherman (Practical Golf) joins The Mental Golf Show. Topics and timestamps below:
00:00 The Balance of Fun and Score in Golf
03:55 Jon's Experience winning a U.S. Mid-Amateur Qualifier
08:16 Titleist
12:33 Strategies for Slowing Down in Golf
14:27 Jon's Experience at the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur
17:26 How to Slow Things Down on the Course
19:11 Do the Opposite to Get What You Want
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229: Ryan Mouque - Consistency, Swing Thoughts, and Better Practice
Special guest Ryan Mouque joins Josh Nichols on The Mental Golf Show (for the second time). Topics and chapter marks below:
Chapters
00:00 Understanding Consistency in Golf
01:55 The Purpose of Practice
04:17 Managing Expectations
05:38 Acceptance
07:57 Is Ryan still improving?
09:21 Pressure Situations in Golf
12:52 Physical and Mental Game Affect on Each Other
18:10 Should We Think About Our Swi
228: Rory McIlroy Wins the 2025 Players (Mental Game)
Welcome to Mental Breakdown, a series where we dive into how players handled the pressure of the latest tour event.
Today we're recapping the exciting and adverse-condition-packed 2025 Players Championship. What can we learn from the tournament? What can we take away from how the playoff went down?
This tournament and the playoff were a great case study in mental toughness.
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Special thanks to
227: Robert Linville – Know Your Why, Play Your Best
Special guest Robert Linville joins the podcast. Robert is the founder of Precision Golf School in Greensboro, NC, U.S. and has been teaching the best players in the region for decades. And he and Josh have been working together since 2016.
Robert has worked with elite amateurs, USGA Champions, LPGA and PGA Tour players, and even USGA runner-ups ;)
In this episode, Robert and Josh discuss these to
226: Russell Henley Handles Pressure at Arnold Palmer Invitational
Welcome to Mental Breakdown, a series where we dive into how players handled the pressure of the final 9 holes of the latest tour event.
This week we're exploring the final 9 of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Who improved, who got worse, and the stats to back it up. We draw out some mental game observations that will help you play better under pressure.
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Special thanks to:
The Divot Board fo
225: Adam Young - Good Technique, Overcoming Fear, and Developing a Structured Improvement Process
Special guest Adam Young joins The Mental Golf Show (for the second time).
Josh and Adam discuss:
The concept that good golf technique is not one-size-fits-all.
The evolution of technique, consistency, and the role of equipment in performance.
Key principles of golf mechanics, emphasizing impact and ground contact.
The importance of intent, shot pattern recognition, and tools for managing pattern
224: I Played a Tournament with No Practice—What I did Right and Wrong
I played a tournament recently, and I want to talk through what I did really well, what went wrong, and of course, the result of the actual tournament.
And ultimately I want to make this applicable to you. You don’t necessarily come here just to hear how Josh is doing, you’re here to improve your own game.
So I’m confident you’ll leave this episode with some learnings to help you play better in yo
223: Gary Christian - Stop Getting in Your Own Way
On today’s episode we’ve got special guest Gary Christian.
If you haven’t heard of Gary, he’s a former PGA Tour player. In fact, he was the oldest rookie ever on the PGA Tour at 40 years old.
We get into that story and more in depth to Gary’s history, but first we jump right into the importance of the mental game. Then we get into Gary’s personal journey and the way he improved his game. Gary has
222: How to Move On from Any Bad Golf Shot
There's not many more important skills than being able to move on from a bad golf shot. Which is why it's so important to actually have a plan for how to do it, and a way to train that ability. Because like any other part of the game, this mental skill is trainable.
In this episode we go through a systematic, evidence-based 4-step plan for moving on from bad golf shots.
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221: 3 Ways to Increase Your Odds of Hitting the Fairway
I've always struggled with driving accuracy. Even as a relatively short hitter compared to my peers, for large portions of my golf career I only hit around 50% of my fairways.
But there are some key psychological reasons for that, and processes that have helped me tremendously be able to swing more freely and hit more fairways (and hit it further). We go through 3 of those processes in this episo
220: The Psychology of Having the Right Equipment (feat. JJ Van Wezenbeeck with Titleist)
As you’ll hear in this episode, over my 20 years of competitive golf experience my relationship with equipment has been hot and cold. Which I believe has left me at a disadvantage not only with quality of shots but also with my confidence in my clubs.
So in this episode I take you through my relationship with golf equipment, how Titleist stepped in and helped me see the error of my ways, and an in
219: How to Stay Focused for All 18 Holes
Golf is full of distractions.
In this episode I want to go through two scientifically proven ways you can improve your attention span and equip you with tools to use while you’re on the course and give you the best chance to play well for a whole round, not just part of one.
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Episode mentioned:
How to Quickly Refocus on the Golf Course
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