Think Above Par | Your Mental Caddy for Golf Mindset & Performance

So many people tell me, "I just want to have fun when I play." ​ But the question is...how do you do that? Or more specifically...what makes golf NOT fun for you? In my opinion, I believe we over use or misuse the word "fun" when it comes to golf. ​ In this episode, I break down how we define fun and how to reframe it for your game ​ I share 4 steps including some questions to...

This is a special episode. I am sharing a conversation I had with Jesse Perryman and Justin Tang on the Flag Hunters Podcast.  We dive into all kinds of topics on the mental side of the game.  This is the three of us having a conversation about how we get in our own way, the role the mental game plays in golf and your performance and so many more topics relative to playing to your potential.  You...

Golf isn't always great. I know you know this. We certainly wish that everyday was amazing.  But if everyday was awesome then no day would be. We want the contrast. If we don't know what bad shots are we won't know what good shots are. If we don't know what hopeless feels like, we won't recognize hope when it happens. This is a concept of 50/50 that shows up in our lives a...

Whether you are a golf pro, former college golfer, accomplished athlete, high achiever or a person whose handicap just dropped a handful of strokes, you can relate to the feeling that you are not as good as people think you are. Imposter syndrome can produce a lot of anxiety, fear, worry, and doubt in people. In this episode, I talk about what imposter syndrome is relative to the game of golf. I u...

In this episode I challenge you to try on different lenses in any area of your life and your golf game where you are aggravated, annoyed, or upset. Those emotions are indicators that perhaps you are "wearing" glasses that are filtering your world in a way that doesn't serve you. This works on and off the golf course. By trying this challenge and finding evidence of shifting your len...

Have you been accused of taking the game too seriously?  In this episode, I talk about how to differentiate the difference between being a passionate golfer and a "too passionate" golfer. It could be that you spend most of your days practicing and playing the game, all of your conversations revolve around golf,  and all your spare time is spent watching videos and taking lessons. It coul...

We all filter our golf experience through a personal lens. It shapes how we feel on the course, and the results we create for ourselves. We do this off the course as well. Some lenses work well and some we never question or change. In this episode, I share a different perspective on how you view your golf experience and what you can do if you want to change it. Contact Kathy at Kathy@KathyHartWood...

Ever feel like you constantly have blow up holes or a series of bogeys that keep you from playing consistent golf? Maybe you struggle with putting a few good rounds together.  It can seem like you just keep making stupid mistakes.  If you have a pattern like this there are steps to take to minimize erratic holes and rounds.  In this episode, I share with you three areas where we can get erratic in...

I wish I could wave a magic wand and give everyone a beautiful swing and a peaceful mind full of useful thoughts.  Unfortunately, our brains like to create habits and once we create them in our swing or in our brains, it takes some work to break the habits and replace them with new ones. While we may not have a problem with doing the work, we are actually working against our own brain’s desire NOT...

Getting off to a bad start with a big number or a double bogey is going to happen if you play enough golf. The urge is to press for birdies and good holes to make up for the double bogey. Or you may think that the task is too big to overcome and you throw in the towel on the round. In this episode, I respond to a listener question about how to get past a bad start. I share with you some truths to...

If you have a handicap, and you probably do if you are listening to this podcast, you have a story about it. That story is either hurting or helping your game. In this episode, I talk about the story or drama you have about your current handicap and the identity you have around your future/goal handicap. Getting your mind around the number (handicap) is key for you playing your best golf.  And, I...

Do you get impatient with your golf results ? Or with your swing, the pace of play or yourself? Maybe you consider yourself an impatient person and you just can't help it. In this episode, I discuss how patience and impatience play a role in your golf experience and the results you create. I share with you how you can go about creating the capacity for more patience for yourself on and off th...

Your attitude about golf definitely plays a role in your success.  Bad attitudes happen. The key is how long you stay in an unproductive attitude that matters. It matters for how you get to feel, it matters how it affects your playing partners or friends and family, and it matters to the results you create. In this episode, I share 4 dominant golf attitudes to be on the look out for this golf seas...

Do you have golf goals for this year?  Maybe you want to play in a tournament or lower your handicap.  You might be wondering if your goal is realistic or doable. In this episode, I share with you not only why realistic goals are BS but how to tell if you have actually picked a realistic goal for yourself. There is a process to reaching a goal or an achievement or a simply a want. I get you starte...

Karen Rainey is a private client who proves the work is never done. She chose to keep leveling up her game and her mental skills as she challenged her self to work through discomfort and vulnerability to have her best golf year to date. She had several personal bests, took her game on the road, and showed up for herself in some challenging moments in 2023. Karen talks about how desire to live a fu...

If you feel you are on an island all alone trying to sort out your golf brain and that no one else can relate, you are so mistaken, my friend.  You are not alone. Or as I told a client, " you aren't a f-ing unicorn."   (In a very loving and kind tone. 😇) This thinking implies there is something wrong with us. All of us experience the same mental things on the golf course, regardles...

If you think you need to be a low handicap or competitive golfer to benefit from mental coaching, Christy is going to share her experience. She went from anxious and frustrated to playing with more calm and patience. She uses several of the tools that I teach in this podcast to set intentions before the round which helps her enjoy the game more and play with more certainty. Christy also shares how...

In this episode, I share insight and stories with another client, Kathleen Foley. She shares how she went from thoughts of quitting to creating big goals for herself. Over 60% of the time, she uses her mental golf skills off of the golf course to level up her personal and family life. She talks about being in other people's heads, believing without evidence and coming to terms with all the ne...

It is one thing to listen to all of the content in this podcast. It is another thing to apply it to your game and life. In this episode, I talk with my client Holly Pihl about perfectionism, people-pleasing and crappy drives. She shares with you how, through coaching, she has learned the skills to swing with certainty off the tee while not "giving a rat's ass" what people think abou...

There is a lot of football played on Thanksgiving week.  So I took the opportunity to make analogies between football and your golf game. And yes, there is a connection to how you root for your favorite team, how you root against teams and the emphasis you place on the outcome of the game with how you show up in your own golf world.  That includes you on the course, you in competition and you with...

Managing your golf thoughts can seem overwhelming some days and super easy on other days.  You may find your brain is quiet one day and super negative the next day.  Or you may notice that you have a very loud negative thought that you hear all the time.  You are not alone. In this episode, I share with you how to make sense of your thoughts with a couple analogies to hamsters and buses.  If you w...

If you have ever had a bad round, a couple blow up holes, finished poorly or just couldn't stop the negative chatter in your head and felt like...you have lost all the progress you THOUGHT you made. You are not alone.  And nothing has gone wrong. In this episode, I talk about a few different scenarios where golfers feel like they lost progress.  One bad round or bad hole or mental lapse doesn...

Swinging powerfully and repeatably requires a good pivot.  Thinking powerfully requires us to mentally pivot...and in golf it needs to happen quickly. If we don't pivot away from crappy thoughts or states, we get in our own way. We prevent our best swings from coming out. Often in a rush to feel better or quiet our brain, we change our circumstances. It is an easy and fast way to feel better....

Sometime the mental game can seem complicated or overwhelming. Managing all the thoughts in your head can seem like an insurmountable task. Instead of feeling like you aren't making progress, I suggest you look for tendencies and lump them together into a bucket. In this episode, I share with you 3 different areas for you to look for your personal tendencies: learning styles, traits and off-c...

If you use the golf genius app in tournaments, you want to listen to this podcast. I discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of using this app during competition. I bring up a few different ways to look at the app for scoring and decide if it is useful for you to use during the round. I talk about creating boundaries for you phone, claiming your own agency on making decisions relative to the app, a...