Instruction
5 Strategies To Keep Your Mind in the Present on the Golf Course
Staying in the present is one of the most important areas of the mental game that sport psychologists work on with golfers. Nearly every week, winners from the PGA Tour to the LPGA Tour will attribute a part of their victory to their ability to stay in the present. They may use different terms (staying in the moment, focusing on the task at hand, or concentrating on the process), but their overall message is the same; they were able to manage their mind and stay focused on the present. Keeping your mind focused on the present is not a principle only reserved for golf’s best players; it’s one that should be practiced by all golfers who want to play their best.
Being focused on the present is a relatively straightforward concept in golf psychology. While a golfer’s body can only be found physically in the present moment, a golfer’s mind can wander nearly anywhere. It can think back to past circumstances like a mistake a golfer made on a previous hole. It can also go into the future and think about a shot or hole that’s coming up. Sometimes a golfer’s mind will even stroll to thoughts outside of the course to something like an errand or a business deal. There is no shortage of places the mind can go that are not occurring in that present moment.
Unfortunately, the more a golfer’s mind strays away from the present moment, the harder it is for that golfer to play his or her best golf. This is especially true right before a shot. There is no time more important to be in the present than during the pre-shot routine and while swinging the club. Being immersed in the moment and giving each shot 100 percent is one of the most important factors to a sound mindset and mental game.
While being in the present moment is one of the simplest concepts for golfers to understand, it is also one of the most challenging skills for them to consistently implement in their mental game. No golfer has ever mastered it, and no golfer probably ever will. I see countless golfers put so much pressure on themselves to do it perfect or not do it at all. They impose an all-or-none attitude on themselves, and this is potentially one of the biggest reasons in golf psychology that players struggle to stay in the present. They figure, “I tried it, but my mind wandered after two holes (or maybe two seconds). So, I might as well just accept my mind can’t stay in the present.”
The truth is that everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Arnold Palmer to Jason Day to Dustin Johnson are tested by the golf gods; on the course, their minds wander more than you would believe. That’s because no golfer’s mind comes “golf ready.” Staying in the present is a part of the game we all battle each time we go out on the course. In golf, you have “outer-game challenges” like bunker shots and “inner-game challenges” like staying in the present. Just as you wouldn’t abandon your swing after one bad shot or bad round, you shouldn’t abandon being focused in the moment on the course. The more time and energy you dedicate to staying in the present, the better you will become at managing your mind to stay in the moment.
Just as the idea of being focused on the present is a simple concept, and so are many of the solutions. I have found from my experience as a mental coach that the simplest solutions are often the most powerful and easiest to implement. As with every strategy in sport psychology, the more time you dedicate to practicing these techniques (on and off the golf course) the more ingrained these mental skills will become.
Each of the 5 strategies are great ways to manage your mind to be present focused on the golf course. The key is finding the strategies that work best for you. Try each of the strategies and use the one(s) that fit your personality.
1. Gain a Better Awareness for When You Start to Lose Focus with Self-Monitoring
Many times, golfers lose focus without even realizing it. They will be on autopilot thinking about something from the past or in the future without any awareness that they are even doing it. Just learning to become aware of when your mind shifts out of the present is often enough to help it get back into the moment.
In psychology, the practice of paying attention to your thoughts and actions is called self-monitoring. It is a very powerful strategy that helps people learn to manage bad habits that they would like to learn to control. In this case, it would include golfers setting a goal to monitor their thoughts and pay attention to when and how their mind wanders from the present moment.
One simple exercise I use to help golfers learn to monitor their thoughts is called: “Left Pocket – Right Pocket.” I recommend you do this drill during a non-competitive round the next time you want to work on staying in the present. Put about 50 golf tees in your left pocket and start with your right pocket empty. Every time your mind wanders out of the present, take a tee out of your left pocket and put it in your right pocket. Do not judge the thought or even try to shift your thoughts in the beginning. The initial purpose of this exercise is to heighten your awareness. If you naturally have fewer thoughts or manage the thoughts you have, that is even better. But when starting, let the primary purpose be to recognize the thoughts and over time you can build on the exercise – especially with some of the other suggestions from this article.
2. Know What You Want to Focus on Before You Start to Lose Focus
Many times, when a golfer tries to refocus they either try to do too much or refocus on the “wrong” thing. For instance, a golfer’s mind may begin to focus on the future and think about birdieing a hole. Their mind then refocuses to the present, but they make an overly aggressive decision or decide to make a swing that doesn’t fit their game.
I encourage all my players to have a game plan and process goals established before they tee off. A game plan is a strategy for how they want to play the course. Part of that game plan are process goals, which are a few objectives that are under the direct control of golfer. These are things they want to focus on during the round like their pre-shot routine, a swing thought, etc. Having a game plan and process goals established before you tee off will help you know what to think about when you want to refocus so you don’t overthink when your mind begins to wander.
3. What’s Important Now: Ask “W.I.N.ing” Questions
Often times, when a golfer’s mind starts to focus away from the present moment, their thoughts can go in a million directions and they have difficulty grounding themselves to one key thought. They have many thoughts about what they could do or have to do. This is rarely helpful. The mind works best when it has one clear thought. A great objective is to identify the most important priority in that moment.
Asking “W.I.N.ing” questions is a powerful way to identify the most important thing to do in that moment. W.I.N. stands for: “What’s important now?” When you ask yourself this question, your mind will have little choice but to focus in the moment.
4. Have Well-Established Routines
As previously mentioned, before the shot and during the shot are the two most important moments for your mind to be in the present. A close third place is directly following the shot. This is the time you process the shot by accepting it, learning from it, or managing your emotions. Well-established and practiced routines are a great way to help you manage these three critical times.
- A solid pre-shot routine helps golfers get into the moment before the shot and prepare them for the shot.
- A solid execution routine helps golfers get into the moment during the shot and make a fluid trusting swing.
- A solid post-shot routine helps golfers manage the moment after the shot and either accept or build confidence from the shot.
Golfers should practice these three critical areas on the range so they know how to best be in the moment before, during, and after the shot. The best routines are a combination of mental skills and physical actions.
In addition to these three critical routines, I also encourage golfers to develop solid morning routines, practice routines, warm-up routines, and end-of-the-day routines. The more golfers know how they want to manage themselves in important moments, the better ability they will have to conquer that moment with a present mind.
5. Harness the Moment with the Power of Breath
There is perhaps no more time-tested method to get back into the moment then to focus on your breathing. The practice of focusing on one’s breathing dates back to before 1500 B.C. with the practice of meditation. You don’t have to be a monk or cleric to enjoy the benefits, though. Golfers can adapt this practice into their game without any major changes to their beliefs or lifestyle. Sport psychologist have been using breathing as a method to enhance performance, manage emotions, and regain focus for nearly a century.
Breathing is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to regain composure and get back into the moment. When a golfer is truly focused on their breath, they are in the moment because they really can’t be anywhere else. Breathing is one consistent function within the body that follows golfers around no matter where their mind might want to wander to. I do not recommend golfers wait to realize they are getting out of the present moment to begin building a solid breathing practice. Just like with all the mental training strategies discussed, the more you practice honing in on your breath the better you will be able to successfully implement it when you need to.
There are many schools of thoughts on breathing ratios and methods of practicing breathing that I discuss with golfers. If you have one already, I recommend you continue doing it. If you don’t, one of the most popular I teach is inhaling for 3 seconds and exhaling for 6 seconds. Set aside time each day to practice your breathing. It can be as little as 3 minutes or as much as 40 minutes (20 minutes twice a day).
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
‘Why would anybody want to change that swing?’ – Brandel Chamblee says PGA Tour star was wrong to change his swing
‘The stupidest freaking thing I’ve ever heard’ – Billy Horschel slams Open idea suggested by Padraig Harrington
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Golfer proudly posts photo of ball mark on iron, receives immediate roasting
WITB Time Machine: Matthew Wolff’s winning WITB, 2019 3M Open
Oakmont Country Club bans Wyndham Clark over locker incident; Reveals specific conditions to earn reinstatement
Adam Scott puts Callaway blades in the bag at Wyndham Championship
Report: LIV star fires caddie and coach in shock shake up
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’
The championship formula: How 3 key stats separate winners from the field
Peter Malnati WITB 2025 (August)
Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
Camilo Villegas WITB accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. Villegas was undecided on a 3-wood when we shot his bag. ...
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Brandt Snedeker fired a final-round 65 at the 2018 Wyndham Championship to outlast Webb Simpson and C.T. Pan. His 5-under...
Pingback: Unlock Your Golf Potential with Strategic Course Management – Linked Greens
Pingback: Mastering Golf’s Mental Game: Pro Tips Revealed – Linked Greens
Scott
Sep 5, 2017 at 9:10 am
good ideas. thanks.
Radim Pavlicek
Sep 5, 2017 at 3:24 am
You cannot stay in the present the whole round of 6 hours. That’s not possible.
Chipolte
Sep 3, 2017 at 1:26 am
staying in the present…. aka dumbing down