The Mental Golf Show

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 how to draw those out using facts instead of tips. You'll discover the three stats that cause virtually all big scores in golf, why analyzing batches of shots beats obsessing over individual ones, and what your tap-in count is actually telling you about your putting.

Joel is a unique and interesting guy so I’m confident you’ll learn some new perspectives from this one.

Get Joel Suggs’ Book & Workbook: Golf Success Before Every Round & Golf Success During Every Round

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Timestamps & Topics:

00:00 - Intro

2:18 - Golfer’s Already Have the Right Answers In Them

9:22 - How Do We Use Stats to Change Our Games?

15:34 - 🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

17:32 - Swing Change vs. Swing Improvement: What Even Is a Swing Change?

28:04 - 🏌️‍♂️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

30:29 - Play What You Have? Or Stubbornly Try To Play What You SHOULD Have?

36:51 - One Shot at a Time: How To Get Lost In the Golf Moment

40:53 - Why Tracking Tap-Ins is Actually a Valuable Stat

50:41 - ⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

52:53 - Actionables from Tracking Tap-Ins

55:30 - The Three Most Important Stats to Spend Limited Time Working On

1:06:15 - 🎯 Shot Pattern - Course Management Made Easy - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

1:08:14 - Why Do We Play Worse Than We Practice?

1:13:33 - Why We Should Be Grateful About Golf

1:19:42 - Joel Suggs

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📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

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Mentioned in this episode:

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

🏌️‍♂️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

🎯 Shot Pattern - Course Management Made Easy - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

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Josh's stuff:

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

👨🏻‍🏫 1-on-1 Mental Coaching with Josh: Visit joshnicholsgolf.com/coaching to see plans and pricing to work with Josh on your mental game. Or send an email to josh@joshnicholsgolf.com.

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up for weekly mental game tips at **joshnicholsgolf.com/newsletter.**

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Other podcast partners:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

🏋️‍♂️ FREE Golf Workout - Nerd Fitness - Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!

🍀 Fairways & Fundays - Ireland Golf Tours - Named World’s Best Golf Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards in 2024 and 2025! If you’re interested in going on a golf trip to Ireland, send me an email and I’ll get you set up with them - josh@joshnicholsgolf.com

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🔥 🧈 Special thanks to Titleist for their support of The Mental Golf Show. Join Team Titleist here.

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10 Key Takeaways

Answers Already Inside — Golfers already have the right answers for their game — a coach's job is to draw those answers out through facts and honest conversation, not to impose new ones.

Batches Beat Individual Shots — Analyzing batches of shots rather than individual shots gives golfers a far more accurate and useful picture of their actual game.

Improvement Over Swing Change — "Swing change" is rarely real — improvement is more accurate and more honest, because there is no definitive before-and-after moment, only a continuum of progress.

Three Stats That Matter — The three stats that matter most in golf are drives out of play, missed pitches, and three-putts — these are the primary causes of big holes and high scores.

Know Your Longest Club — Knowing the longest club you can reliably hit in play off the tee is one of the most useful pieces of self-knowledge a golfer can have.

Tap-Ins Aren't Everything — Tap-ins are neither inherently good nor bad — fewer tap-ins often correlates with lower scores, because it means more putts from makeable distances went in.

Simple Stats Stick — The golf mirror is only useful if the stats are simple, direct, and non-convoluted — complexity kills the habit.

One Thought, One Round — Good players go into a round with one long-established swing thought and adapt using their own proven golf medicine when things go sideways.

Strengths Fix Weaknesses — Working on your strengths is as important as addressing weaknesses — the good shots you already hit contain the answers to fixing the bad ones.

Humility Means Accepting Facts — Humility in golf means accepting facts as they are — the golfer who can look honestly at their own game without illusion improves consistently over time.

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Top 5 episodes of The Mental Golf Show:

Mike & Eli of Chasing Scratch - Letting Scratch Happen

How to Trust Your Swing even when things are Going Wrong

Golf Thought Thursday: The Easiest (and Hardest) Way to Play Better Golf

Lean Into Your Golf Personality with John Weir (creator of Mental Golf Type)

How to Juggle Golf and Life with Andy Walker and Steve Hinks

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 talk about failure, redefining, reframing and better understanding failure, the relationship between failure and fear and our deep need for survival, the importance of self-compassion and acceptance while also navigating change, finding the balance of playing the game you currently have and improving the game you currently have, practical strategies for letting go of control and expectations, theories Steve talks about like Expectation Bankruptcy and Failing Compassionately, and how to use experimentation and taking small steps to foster growth.

The mission of The Mental Golf Show is to explore high performance through the lens of golf, and this conversation hits right in the strike zone of that mission.

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Timestamps & Topics:

00:00 - Intro

3:16 - Redefining and Having a Better Relationship with Failure

13:06 - ⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

14:43 - Expectations, Plans for the Future, and Acceptance to Play Golf More Freely

33:42 - 🏌️‍♂️ Basic Practice Plan - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

34:45 - It Feels Less Scary to Play Scared, and How to Play Freely

39:29 - Expectation Bankruptcy: Our Lives and Golf Games Are Different, Now What?

52:36 - Acceptance vs. Change: Playing the Golf Game You Have vs. Reaching for the Golf Game You Want

57:50 - 🎯 Shot Pattern - The Golf GPS App Designed to Help You Play Smarter Golf - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

59:48 - Should We Try to “Find It” On the Course? Or Play What We Have That Day?

1:09:41 - All Or Nothing: Making a BETTER Choice, Not the PERFECT Choice

1:26:26 - Letting Go Of Future Results

1:29:46 - Steve Kamb’s book: How to Try Again (Amazon link)

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📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

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Mentioned in this episode:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

🏌️‍♂️ Basic Practice Plan - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

🎯 Shot Pattern - The Golf GPS App Designed to Help You Play Smarter Golf - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

-----

Josh's stuff:

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

👨🏻‍🏫 1-on-1 Mental Coaching with Josh: Visit joshnicholsgolf.com/coaching to see plans and pricing to work with Josh on your mental game. Or send an email to josh@joshnicholsgolf.com.

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up for weekly mental game tips at joshnicholsgolf.com/newsletter.

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Other podcast partners:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

🏋️‍♂️ FREE Golf Workout - Nerd Fitness - Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!

🍀 Fairways & Fundays - Ireland Golf Tours - Named World’s Best Golf Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards in 2024 and 2025! If you’re interested in going on a golf trip to Ireland, send me an email and I’ll get you set up with them - josh@joshnicholsgolf.com

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🔥 🧈 Special thanks to Titleist for their support of The Mental Golf Show. Join Team Titleist here.

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10 Key Takeaways

Failure identity vs. failure event — A bad round doesn't make you a bad golfer. The mental shift from "I failed at this shot" to "I am a failure" is where the spiral starts — and where the real work begins.

Golf and toxic positivity — "Just stay positive" is hollow advice when your game falls apart. Real mental toughness means acknowledging that a tough round genuinely hurts, not papering over it with forced optimism.

Self-compassion for golfers — Beating yourself up after a bad shot isn't discipline, it's self-sabotage. The harshest critic on the course is usually the one standing over the ball, and that critic is making your next shot harder.

Pre-accepting the outcome — The golfers who play their best golf under pressure aren't detached — they've pre-accepted whatever happens. Needing a specific score to feel okay is the fastest route to gripping tighter and swinging scared.

Expectation bankruptcy in golf — Whether it's the swing you had at 25, the handicap you used to carry, or the ball flight you think you should have, declaring expectation bankruptcy is what lets you actually play the game in front of you.

Acceptance and change on the course — "My driver is going left today" and "I can still make smart decisions" are both true at the same time. That's not resignation — that's elite-level course management thinking.

Golf practice with limited time — You don't need a ninety-minute range session to improve. Five minutes on a putting mat, ten swings in the backyard, one alignment check in the mirror — small practice consistently beats perfect practice occasionally.

All-or-nothing golf practice — The golfer who commits to a big practice plan and abandons it two weeks later is losing to the golfer who does one small drill every day. Consistency at a low level beats intensity that collapses.

Trusting your golf swing under pressure — Trying to steer the ball in competition is telling your body that your practice meant nothing. Letting go and swinging freely is how you actually use the game you've built.

Process over outcome in competitive golf — You can't control the leaderboard, the weather, or the bounce on 14. You can control your pre-shot routine, your decision-making, and whether you give yourself permission to swing freely on every shot. Fill the jar with those — everything else takes care of itself.

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Top 5 episodes of The Mental Golf Show:

Mike & Eli of Chasing Scratch - Letting Scratch Happen

How to Trust Your Swing even when things are Going Wrong

Golf Thought Thursday: The Easiest (and Hardest) Way to Play Better Golf

Lean Into Your Golf Personality with John Weir (creator of Mental Golf Type)

How to Juggle Golf and Life with Andy Walker and Steve Hinks

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 actually be doing us more harm than good.

Allostasis Performance

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Timestamps and Topics:

00:00 - Intro: Listen to this Episode Ad-Free!

2:21 - Good Stress: How to Find the Sweet Spot of Growth

8:40 - Pushing Yourself Physically to Train Psychologically

12:49 - 🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

14:38 - Stress on the Golf Course: Should We Go Mentally Blank Over the Ball?

23:42 - 🏌️‍♂️ Basic Practice Plan - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

24:45 - Is Being “Even-Keeled” Actually Helpful?

35:49 - Can We Be TOO Aware of Ourselves?

38:43 - 🎯 Shot Pattern - The Golf GPS App Designed to Help You Play Smarter Golf - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

40:42 - Confidence and Flow: Being Ok with Reality As It Is

55:42 - Golf Breathing: How Should a Golfer Be Thinking About Breath Through An Entire Day of Golf?

1:07:24 - Dr. Justin Ternes: Allostasis Performance

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Mentioned in this episode:

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

🏌️‍♂️ Basic Practice Plan - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

🎯 Shot Pattern - The Golf GPS App Designed to Help You Play Smarter Golf - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

-----

Josh's stuff:

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

👨🏻‍🏫 1-on-1 Mental Coaching with Josh: Visit joshnicholsgolf.com/coaching to see plans and pricing to work with Josh on your mental game. Or send an email to josh@joshnicholsgolf.com.

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up for weekly mental game tips at joshnicholsgolf.com/newsletter.

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Other podcast partners:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

🏋️‍♂️ FREE Golf Workout - Nerd Fitness - Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!

🍀 Fairways & Fundays - Ireland Golf Tours - Named World’s Best Golf Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards in 2024 and 2025! If you’re interested in going on a golf trip to Ireland, send me an email and I’ll get you set up with them - josh@joshnicholsgolf.com

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🔥 🧈 Special thanks to Titleist for their support of The Mental Golf Show. Join Team Titleist here.

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Key Takeaways:

Hormesis is the "sweet spot of stress" where the right dose of discomfort, like cold exposure or an ice bath, drives adaptation, recovery, and resilience.

Cold plunge benefits depend on a time-to-temperature ratio: the more extreme the cold, the less time you need to get a meaningful dose.

Effective self-affirmations must be grounded in truth—saying "it's cold, but I got this" works because it pairs the reality of the situation with genuine confidence.

Top-down and bottom-up communication between brain and body lets you regulate your nervous system, calming the stress response rather than faking your way through it.

The breath is the bridge between mind and body, acting as a nervous system toggle switch where the inhale activates and the exhale relaxes.

Mindfulness for athletes isn't about emptying the mind but filling it with sensation—getting into the physical body to reach a neutral, present state.

Respiratory heart rate variability (RHRV) syncs the heart and lungs through slow breathing, which is the physiological foundation of being "even keeled."

Peak performance comes from expecting and training fluctuation, not suppressing emotion, since the best athletes feel and process emotion before returning to a neutral mind.

Allostasis—"stability through change"—closes the gap between what your brain predicts and what reality delivers, and chronic allostatic overload calls for physical resets like the gym, sauna, or a long run instead of more mental analysis.

Breath training builds real capacity through the "ceiling, attic, floor, basement" model, so practiced mechanics let you use your breath under pressure on the first tee, between shots, and after a bad round.

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Top 5 episodes of The Mental Golf Show:

Mike & Eli of Chasing Scratch - Letting Scratch Happen

How to Trust Your Swing even when things are Going Wrong

Golf Thought Thursday: The Easiest (and Hardest) Way to Play Better Golf

Lean Into Your Golf Personality with John Weir (creator of Mental Golf Type)

How to Juggle Golf and Life with Andy Walker and Steve Hinks

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

6:27 - Shot Pattern: shotpattern.app and use discount code MENTALGOLFSHOW for 20% off

8:25 - Preparing My Strategy: Plotting Out the Course, Playing the Course “Virtually”, and Practice Round Process

16:02 - Basic Practice Plan: joshnicholsgolf.com/practice

17:04 - Preparing My Golf Game: Better Practice, Putting More and Higher Quality, and Much Better Swing Feels

27:03 - FREE Brand New Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment

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Join Mental Golf Club for FREE here: app.joshnicholsgolf.com

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Mentioned in this episode:

🎯 Shot Pattern - The Golf GPS App Designed to Help You Play Smarter Golf - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

🏌️‍♂️ Basic Practice Plan - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

📊 FREE Brand New Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment

-----

Josh's stuff:

👨🏻‍🏫 1-on-1 Mental Coaching with Josh: Visit joshnicholsgolf.com/coaching to see plans and pricing to work with Josh on your mental game. Or send an email to josh@joshnicholsgolf.com.

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up for weekly mental game tips atjoshnicholsgolf.com/newsletter.

-----

Other podcast partners:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

🏋️‍♂️ FREE Nerd Fitness Golf Workout - Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!

🍀 Fairways & Fundays - Ireland Golf Tours - Named World’s Best Golf Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards in 2024 and 2025! If you’re interested in going on a golf trip to Ireland, send me an email and I’ll get you set up with them - josh@joshnicholsgolf.com

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🔥 🧈 Special thanks to Titleist for their support of The Mental Golf Show. Join Team Titleist here.

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.