Better Golf Academy: Strategy to Awesome Golf

In this episode, I dig into the one sense you've probably never thought about — the one quietly running your entire swing while your eyes take all the credit. I tell the story of the blindfold drill that makes your contact better instead of worse, and the strange rubber-hand experiment that reveals the real twist: your eyes aren't powerful because they're accurate. They're powerful because they wi...

If you've ever stood over a short putt and felt your hands completely betray you — this one's for you. Today I'm getting into one of golf's most misunderstood and most stigmatized experiences: the yips. And what I found in the research genuinely surprised me. It turns out, not all yips are created equal. Some are anxiety-driven. Some are neurological. And treating the wrong one with the wrong appr...

This episode draws from Lanny Bassham's "With Winning in Mind" to explore how a golfer's self-image quietly controls their performance — and how to start rewriting that story one shot at a time. The core insight is simple but powerful: you will always perform consistently with the identity you hold about yourself. The practical tool is just two words. After a good shot, say "that's like me." After...

This episode is about one thing: tempo. Not someone else's — yours. Ludvig Åberg looks effortless not because he's talented, but because his rhythm never changes regardless of the moment. Dr. Joan Vickers' research confirms it — elite performers aren't more technically precise, they're more rhythmically consistent. Your tempo isn't a flaw. It's a fingerprint. Find it on the range. Protect it with...

This episode explores one of golf's most overlooked and surprisingly well-supported mental performance hacks: chewing gum. It opens with my personal observation of Tiger Woods chomping away through his iconic 2019 Masters victory and Collin Morikawa doing the same on Tour, then weaves in the neuroscience behind why — including research shared by Adam Grant showing that gum chewing increases cerebr...

This episode opens with a personal birdie streak at Pelican Hill Golf Club and uses it to introduce one of psychology's most surprising findings — the hot hand doesn't actually exist. Gilovich, Vallone, and Tversky studied thousands of NBA shots in 1985 and found that a player on a streak is no more likely to convert the next attempt than one who just missed several straight. The streak is real. T...

Joan Vickers' Quiet Eye research reveals that elite golfers hold a long, locked gaze on a specific spot on the back of the ball for about two to three seconds before and through their stroke — while amateur golfers let their eyes wander between the ball, the hole, and the line. That half-second difference in gaze duration turns out to be the difference between a quiet nervous system and a hesitant...

City Slickers gave us one of the most memorable lines in movie history — Curly's one finger, one thing. Legendary golf instructor Harvey Penick lived by the same philosophy, giving students a single thought per lesson and nothing more. The reason? The human brain can't manage a committee meeting and still swing a golf club. Researchers call it paralysis by analysis: too many competing thoughts int...

Is it true that staying balanced with a good follow-through — even after a bad shot — actually helps your next shot? According to neuroscience, yes. Researchers Antonio Damasio and Paula Niedenthal found that your body and brain are in a constant two-way conversation. Slumping and dropping your head after a bad shot doesn't just look defeated — it tells your brain to feel defeated. The fix is simp...

You missed a three-foot birdie putt — and your brain immediately decided that chances like that don't come around very often. That's counterfactual scarcity: a near-miss that doesn't just sting in the moment, but sends a signal forward that opportunity is rare. And that belief is what loads the pressure onto every close look you get from that point on. The fix isn't positive thinking. It's a more...

You've hit that shot a hundred times. But the moment the coaches showed up, you made a quadriple bogey. That's not a swing problem — that's the Spotlight Effect. Cornell psychologist Thomas Gilovich proved that we think twice as many people are watching us as actually are. And we overestimate how many people truly care about how we hit the ball. The gallery in your head is always bigger than the o...

Bluma Zeigarnik wasn't studying golfers. She was watching waiters in a Vienna restaurant — and what she noticed about memory and unfinished business turned into one of the most cited findings in cognitive psychology. In this episode, we break down the Zeigarnik Effect and what it means for every golfer who has ever carried a bad hole into the next tee box. The brain keeps open tabs. We'll show you...

Two landmark studies. Two researchers who never met. And one par 3 with water on the left that ties them together. In this episode, we break down Gary Klein's Pre-Mortem and Daniel Wegner's Ironic Process Theory — and explain exactly when each one should be running your brain.

What if your bad round had nothing to do with your swing — and everything to do with your first two holes? A fascinating classroom experiment reveals how early failure quietly shuts the brain down, and why positive thinking alone won't bring you back. In this episode, we talk about how confidence is lost, how it's rebuilt, and why the only way back is giving your brain something to believe in.

Kahneman and Thaler proved it with a coffee mug. You prove it every time you play scared on the back nine. This episode is about the endowment effect — why you overvalue what you own, why your score is not yours to protect, and how champions play free when everyone else plays safe.

This episode challenges the myth that golf "feel" is a natural gift, opening with Steve Jobs testing iPhone prototypes until one "felt right." The discussion establishes that feel is a trainable skill through three principles: it can be systematically developed, improves over time with practice, and can be rebuilt when lost. Evidence includes tour pros like Collin Morikawa playing without a glove...

Most golfers approach putting completely wrong, obsessing over stroke mechanics while missing the three fundamental skills that actually matter. Through the dramatic story of Alexander the Great solving the legendary Gordian Knot with one decisive sword stroke, discover why putting success comes from systematic execution rather than perfect technique. Learn how to read greens like a tour pro using...

In this episode, I explore the powerful connection between golf and mental health, examining how and why golf has become a form of self-care and therapy for millions of players. Using research from sports psychology, insights from mental health experts, and personal anecdotes, I demonstrate how golf provides unique mental health benefits through its combination of nature exposure, physical activit...

In this episode, I explore the three crucial strategies high handicappers can use to avoid disaster holes: embracing the boring play, knowing your go-to shot under pressure, and developing a post-mistake routine.  Using research from sports psychology, insights from golf legends, and personal anecdotes, I demonstrate how these mental game approaches can help golfers lower their scores dramatically...

After witnessing a disturbing interaction between a father and his talented young daughter on the driving range, this episode dives into the critical question: Can we raise kids who excel at golf while maintaining their passion for the game? Through research from sports psychology and youth development experts, I explore how parents can foster excellence without sacrificing joy. The episode offers...

Ever wonder why pro golfers remember every detail of their rounds while you can't recall the hole you just played? In this eye-opening episode, dive into the revolutionary concept of Strokes Gained that's transformed how the pros play and practice. Discover how this stat, developed by finance professor Mark Broadie, breaks down performance into four key categories: Off-the-Tee, Approach, Around-th...

In this episode, we witness history as Rory McIlroy finally captures the green jacket he's been chasing for 11 years, completing the career Grand Slam after countless heartbreaks at Augusta National.  From his beginnings as a three-year-old swinging in his living room to his emotional collapse on the 18th green, we explore what this moment teaches us about persistence, resilience, and the winding...

Ever wonder why you lose your cool on the golf course? In this episode, I reveal the psychology behind those club-throwing moments and why anger is never actually the first emotion you feel—it's always covering something deeper. You'll discover why one pro golfer went to the extreme of taping his mouth shut during a tournament (spoiler: it didn't work) and learn the three powerful keys to emotiona...

What if everything you've been told about practice is wrong? I spent 25 years playing piano the "right" way—grinding the same songs, chasing perfection, and dreading every recital. Then, I watched my son fall in love with music overnight… not by memorizing notes, but by playing thunder. Turns out, golf practice has the same problem. Most players are stuck in their own lifeless recital—mindlessly s...

Are you in a slump? Are you feeling cluttered, overwhelmed, and lost? In this episode, we're breaking the cycle: no more band-aid fixes, no more swing overhaul madness. Instead, we're going against conventional wisdom with three powerful (and often overlooked) strategies. Plus, we'll talk about the real reason slumps linger (hint: it's not your swing) and how to fall back in love with the game whe...