Laura Scott Mental Performance

You probably don’t need another technical lesson if you’re creating magic on the practice green…

More likely is that you need to stop making a different swing when there’s a golf ball in front of you that means something 😬

Have you ever noticed this when you’re out playing?

🏌️ Practice swing = smooth, balanced, relaxed.
🏌️ Over the Ball = grip gets tighter, swing gets quicker, contact gets worse.

In theory the ball changes nothing… but your brain changes everything.

Here’s something to try:

Before every wedge shot, make your practice swings and really notice:
⏱️ The tempo.
🤲 The softness in your hands.
😌 How effortless it feels.

Now step in with a clear target and make your only goal this:

Copy that exact feeling.

Don’t try to ‘hit’ the ball.

Just let the ball get in the way of the same swing you just rehearsed.

It’s amazing how many clean wedge strikes come from simply keeping the same tempo and grip pressure you already had in your practice swings.

Save this and let me know if your on-course strike improves ⛳️🧠

Playing well in practice can sometimes make you score worse. Sounds backwards, doesn’t it? 😬😂

When you’re flushing it on the range, it’s easy to arrive on the first tee expecting that every shot should be good, but golf doesn’t work like that.

The best players in the world still hit poor shots. The difference is they expect to have to recover at some point. They don’t see a wayward drive as evidence that something has gone wrong. They see it as part of the game.

If one bad shot or one bad hole completely changes your mood, you’re inevitably going to add more shots because of your reaction more so than because of the original mistake.

The second thing to question is this…

Is your biggest goal today a score?

If your mind is constantly calculating what you need to shoot, it’s incredibly difficult to give the current shot your full attention.

It’s like trying to do an important / complex piece of work while thinking about the meeting you’ve got later. Your attention is split, and the quality of what you’re doing usually suffers.

So yes, be excited that your ball striking is in a good place… but don’t expect perfection.

Expect that at some point you’ll have to recover 💪

And instead of chasing a number, chase things you can actually control that will help you play well:
• Make smart decisions.
• Commit to every shot.
• Stick to your pre-shot routine.
• Speak to yourself like someone you want to play golf with.

Ironically, when you stop trying to force the score, you often give yourself the best chance of shooting one 🧠⛳️

Need a quick mental game tip for your next round? 👀⛳️

If you’re the type of golfer who instantly focuses on everything that went wrong after a shot… this one’s for you 🧠

Try using sarcasm to interrupt the negativity.

Instead of:
“Brilliant… another terrible shot 🙄”

Try:
“Lovely. Absolute masterpiece 😏… at least I committed to it.”

Or:

“Well that was special 😂… I can still get up and down from there.”

Sounds silly? Maybe.
Effective? Often.

Why? Because for a lot of golfers, forcing “positive thinking” feels fake. Sarcasm can be a much easier bridge between beating yourself up and actually finding something useful. (Speaking from experience 😉🙌)

You’re not pretending the shot was great… you’re just giving your brain something more helpful to work with before the next one.

Polish the 💩… then move on 😅⛳️

Can you tell if this was a good shot or a poor shot?

Most golfers react to a shot before they’ve even processed what just happened 👀

Bad shot?…
Head drop.
Club slam.
Negative self-talk 😤

Good shot?
Overexcitement
Expectation rises with adrenaline
Pressure builds. 📈

In order for you to play at your best there’s something you need to master…

The pause 🧠

That moment between the event and the reaction is where your power is 💪

In this video, you can’t tell if the shot was good or bad… and that’s the point.

Your body language, emotional control, and ability to respond calmly after a shot can massively influence what happens next ⛳️

The way you respond after a shot can either create more calm and composure… or more chaos.

The good news is that this isn’t something you either “have” or you don’t. It’s a skill 🏌🏻‍♀️

… and like any skill, it can be trained with reps.

The more you practise responding instead of reacting, the more emotionally stable, committed, and free you’ll become on the course 🔥🧠⛳️

Gratitude is a powerful tool to keep in the bag. Here are a few ways you could call on it…

👉 Gratitude statement: “I’m grateful for…”
👉 Shifting perspective: “What could be way worse than this?”

Sometimes it’s not about pretending everything is fine… it’s about reminding yourself that it probably isn’t as bad as your mind is making it out to be 🤷‍♀️

Gratitude doesn’t ignore frustration, it can just stop it from taking over.

You don’t necessarily need a better situation to feel better… you just need a better perspective to work with what you’ve got… then you give yourself a better chance of bouncing back 🧠⛳️

🫶

If you’re standing over the ball and currently very focused on mechanics (shoulder turn, club path, body movement etc), I’d question whether you’re trying to control a golf swing rather than playing a golf shot 🏌️

The problem with that is that there’s just too much going on! 🤯

You’re asking your brain to control a load of different movements in a 2 second window… while also trying to aim at a target you’ve probably forgotten about 🫣

It doesn’t work like that.

Sometimes you might pull the shot off… but it’s incredibly hard to repeat… so that’s where inconsistency creeps in…. and then…

You try even harder to control the mechanics of your golf swing 😱… (then repeat!) 😂

Wonder why you start hitting good shots again when you stop caring because your round’s already lost? 🤭

Great golf is played by reacting to a target… just like most other sports 🤷‍♀️. The trick is to learn that skill 👍

Next time you play, try this:

Pick your target.
See the shot.
Then let it happen.

I dare you! 😝🧠⛳️

Just a little reminder for those that need to hear this 😉⛳️🧠

You can’t control other peoples opinions in golf or life… and if you’re spending all your time trying to, you’ll know it’s exhausting! 🫠