Better Golf Academy: Strategy to Awesome Golf

Ever make a smooth backswing and then completely lose it on the way down for no reason you can point to? There's a real, physical reason, and it's not your swing plane. Episode four of the Golf Grip Pressure Series gets into how grip pressure actually spikes at the top of your backswing without you noticing, why that spike is the real cause behind casting and early release, and a simple pause drill that lets you feel it coming before it costs you a shot.

Back in episode one, I promised we'd actually settle the lead-hand-versus-trail-hand debate that got this series made. It turns out real data on tour pros flips a piece of popular advice most golfers have heard. Episode three of the Golf Grip Pressure Series resolves the hand dominance question using real motion-capture research, keeps the Fred Couples soft-grip story, and gives you the actual thing to check for on your next chip or putt instead of picking a side.

I just finished watching Josh Hill sink a three-foot putt to win the Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland, and while everyone else was watching the moment, I was watching his hands. Episode two of the Golf Grip Pressure Series uses that putt as the case study for Sian Beilock's research on why skilled performers choke, Debbie Crews' work measuring grip tension directly on golfers, and the one-word cue that can interrupt the spiral before you even start your stroke.

I went looking for one clean answer on grip pressure for this series and instead found an actual argument playing out across golf instruction, including real disagreement over something specific: which hand is supposed to be doing more of the gripping. Episode one of the Golf Grip Pressure Series opens with the questions that actually got this series made, plus a real motion-capture study on tour pros vs. amateurs that flips a common assumption about the short game. The full lead-hand-versus-trail-hand answer comes in episode 83.

Picture the four-foot putt that actually matters to you, heart racing, hands not quite steady. The question that cuts through all the noise in that moment isn't whether it goes in, it's what you can actually control right now. This is the finale of the Four Foundations of Golf series, and I'm pulling everything together, expectations, strategy, practice, and the mental game, into one system you can actually run on your very next round.

Every golfer knows the feeling — you groove your seven iron on the range until it's perfect, then step on the course the next day and none of it shows up. That gap isn't bad luck, and it's not you forgetting how to golf overnight. Part four of the Four Foundations of Golf series gets into why the practice that feels the best is often the practice that transfers the least, and exactly how to restructure a range session so it actually looks like real golf.

In 2014 a former pro with three math degrees built a golf strategy system that turned an unranked amateur into a world top-3 player in three months — and it worked so well the NCAA banned him from teaching it to college golfers in person. Part three of the Four Foundations of Golf series gets into the strategy behind that system: why you're actually playing with a shotgun instead of a sniper rifle, and how to pick targets that protect you even when you miss.

A scratch golfer and a 26-handicap golfer are separated by less than two birdies a round. The real gap, over five shots a round, is hiding somewhere almost nobody actually tracks. Part two of the Four Foundations of Golf series gets into Jon Sherman's "war on double bogeys," the real math behind why a fairway bunker might be scarier than the trees, and a two-second GPS trick that quietly turns your worst misses into safe ones.

The best putters alive only make about half their eight-foot putts, and even at the best events of the year, the leaders average under five birdies a round. That gap between what golf looks like on TV and what it actually is might be costing you more strokes than your swing ever will. This is episode one of a brand new five-part series based on Jon Sherman's book The Four Foundations of Golf, and today I get into his ridiculously simple happiness formula, plus exactly what a good shot actually looks like for a real golfer, not a tour pro.

A rundown tennis club in Moscow, usable outdoor courts only four months a year, has produced more top-20 ranked women's players than the entire United States. That's not a story about talent. It's a story about a system, and it's the same system we've been building all series. This is the finale of the Cracking the Talent Code series, and I'm pulling everything together, the wire, the gap, the spark, and the coaching, into four questions you can actually run on yourself before your next round.

wo researchers sat courtside at every single UCLA basketball practice for an entire season and wrote down every word legendary coach John Wooden said. What they found breaks basically every stereotype about what great coaching sounds like. Today, part four of the Cracking the Talent Code series, I get into why the best feedback in the world is almost never a speech, plus exactly how to run this same system on yourself the next time nobody's standing there watching your swing

A twenty-year-old rookie survives twenty holes of playoff pressure to win the 1998 U.S. Women's Open — and the real story isn't the win itself, it's what happened to an entire country's golf scene afterward. Today, part three of the Cracking the Talent Code series, I get into the idea Daniel Coyle calls "ignition," the spark behind why anyone actually puts in the reps to get good, plus a wild stat about kids learning music that says a lot about what's actually holding your game back.

A study split students into two groups learning the same material — one group studied it four times, the other studied it once and got quizzed on it three times instead. The quizzed group studied a quarter as much and scored fifty percent higher. That backward result is basically the whole secret to productive golf practice. Today, part two of the Cracking the Talent Code series, I get into the exact zone where practice reps actually count for something, and why hitting shots you can already pull off, or ones way beyond you, might both be a waste of a bucket of balls

Brazilian kids playing a shrunk-down version of soccer called futsal are basically forced to struggle on every single touch — tight space, no time to think, constant mistakes to correct. That's not a flaw in the sport. That's the whole secret. Today I'm kicking off a brand new five-part series based on the book The Talent Code, and episode one makes one simple point: you don't get better despite struggling, you get better because of it.

Four down with seven to play, and Justin Leonard didn't just come back — he closed the door so hard it's still one of the most replayed moments in Ryder Cup history. This is the last episode in the How to Win Match Play series, and it's about the quiet mental flip that turns a comfortable lead into a blown one, plus how to make sure it never happens to you.

One six-foot putt decided an entire Ryder Cup in 1991. Bernhard Langer missed it by less than an inch, and what he did the very next week says more than the miss itself. There's a study on golfers choking under pressure that genuinely surprised me, plus a ridiculously simple one-word fix from Harvard research that actually changes how you perform under pressure. Both are in today's episode.

Walter Hagen once had a rival come out of the clubhouse mid-change just to watch him drain a putt he didn't even need to make yet. That's not nerves, that's a strategy. Today's about the most underused weapon in casual match play, and it has nothing to do with being obnoxious on the course. It's actually kind of boring, and that's exactly why it works.

Down 10 to 6 with one day left. That's basically over, right? Except it wasn't, and what happened next is still called one of the greatest comebacks in golf history. Today I get into what the players actually say was going on in their heads during that comeback, and it's a lot simpler — and more useful for your Saturday match — than you'd think.

Ever notice how your opponent playing great golf suddenly makes YOU want to abandon your own smart play and go match them shot for shot? There's actual research on that exact impulse, and it explains a lot about your worst match play decisions. Today I'm kicking off a brand new series, How to Win Match Play, with the single most repeated piece of advice in the sport's history, from the guy who might have been the best match player ever. Simple to say, brutally hard to actually do.

Mariano Rivera — five championship rings, first unanimous Hall of Fame closer ever — also blew the lead in Game 7, twice, on baseball's biggest stage. His own sports psychologist uses those nights as proof of something most golfers get backwards. This is the finale of our five-part Suckville series, and it's where all four earlier ideas turn into one simple exit plan. No dramatic breakthrough required — just one decision, on purpose, that you can actually start using in your very next round.

In 2005, scientists actually studied the physics of quicksand — and found that fighting it is exactly what pulls you under. Turns out there's a version of that exact trap that happens to golfers almost every single round. Episode four of the Suckville series borrows Dr. Bhrett McCabe's own metaphor for getting stuck in a bad stretch, and the science backs up something that sounds almost too simple to work. Here's what to do with your hands, your pace, and your next shot when a round starts sliding.

Two golfers shoot the exact same score. One's onto lunch in five minutes. The other is still replaying one swing on Tuesday. For years I assumed that meant one of us was doing it wrong. Episode three of the Suckville series gets into Dr. Bhrett McCabe's idea of a "psychological fingerprint" — why there's no universal right way to handle a bad round, and how copying some Tour pro's mental routine might be working against you instead of for you.

In 1978, researchers tracked down actual lottery winners and compared their day-to-day happiness to their next-door neighbors — and also to people who'd just survived life-changing accidents. The results were not what anyone expected, and they explain something about golf that most of us have never quite put into words. Episode two of the Suckville series picks up where we left off: why hitting your goals almost never feels the way you think it will, and why chasing a number is quietly setting you up to be disappointed no matter what you shoot. There's a shift you can make today that actually fixes it.

So Jon Rahm wins the U.S. Open, throws himself a party, and turns to his sports psychologist to ask what's next. The answer he got — with Michael Phelps standing right there agreeing — was not the pep talk you'd expect from a guy who just won it all. Today I'm kicking off a brand new five-part series based on a book that gave a name to the thing every golfer feels but nobody talks about: the gap between how good you think you should be and how you're actually playing. Turns out even major champions live there. Here's why that's actually good news.

Jack Nicklaus said he never hit a shot, even in practice, without seeing it happen first in full color in his head, like a movie. He called it going to the movies, and for years I thought it was just one guy's quirky mental trick. It's actually backed by real research on why some golfers perform consistently and others don't. This is the final episode of Golf Flow, and it ties everything from the last four episodes into one repeatable move you can build this week. It's simpler than you'd think, and it has almost nothing to do with your swing.

In 1908, two researchers ran a study on mice getting mild electric shocks, just to see how shock intensity affected how fast they learned. It sounds like the strangest possible setup for a golf lesson, but the curve they found explains something that happens to basically every golfer at some point in a round. This is episode four of Golf Flow, and it's about why "just relax" is only half the advice you actually need. I'll show you why your driver and your putter need two completely different levels of nervous energy, and what to do about it mid-round.

Sam Snead once called fear the worst hazard in golf, worse than water, worse than sand. I used to think that was just an old-timer quote. Then I found the actual research behind why he was right, and it's not the reason you'd guess. This is episode three of Golf Flow, and it's about what fear of failure actually is on a golf course, because it's almost never about the shot itself. I'll show you the one question that shrinks it down to something you can actually swing through.

In 1977, a group of adults with lifelong snake phobias walked into a Stanford lab, and by the end of the study, some of them were comfortable holding a boa constrictor. Six months later, they weren't just less afraid of snakes, they were negotiating raises and speaking up in meetings they used to avoid. What happened in that lab has everything to do with why you miss short putts. This is episode two of Golf Flow, and it's about the difference between hype confidence and something much sturdier called self-efficacy. I'll show you exactly how to build it before your next round, one proven rep at a time.

You know that round where you genuinely can't remember hitting half your shots, and you get in the car afterward wondering how you actually shot the number you shot? Turns out there's a researcher who spent his whole career studying exactly that feeling, interviewing surgeons, chess players, and rock climbers who lost total track of time. What he found flips almost everything golf instruction tells you about getting "in the zone." This is episode one of a new series I'm calling Golf Flow, and we're starting with the one idea that changes how you should be picking your targets today. Spoiler: it has nothing to do with relaxing.

Here's a stat that shouldn't be possible: something like 80 to 90 percent of missed greens are missed short. Not long, short, almost every time. If golfers were just randomly bad at distance, the misses would go both ways. They don't. This is the finale of the series, and it ties back to a bias a researcher named Tali Sharot has spent her career studying, the same one that makes us all terrible at estimating how long anything takes. Turns out it's costing you strokes on every single approach shot, and the fix is free.

You know the line, "man, if I'd just made a few more putts." I've said it, you've said it, we've all said it walking off 18. Turns out it's probably not true, and there's a stat that proves it. I get into research from the guy who invented strokes-gained, and where amateur golfers actually lose shots compared to better players. It's not the putting green, and once you hear the split, you might rethink how you spend your practice time entirely.

Quick — what percentage of the UN is African nations? Whatever number you just guessed, I can tell you exactly how to make you guess higher or lower, and it has nothing to do with facts. Researchers proved it decades ago with a rigged wheel of fortune. Turns out you're carrying around your own version of that wheel every time you play, and it's called your score. I get into the research on anchoring bias and why the number on your card might be the quietest saboteur in your whole round.

Every golfer knows the moment — ball in the trees, easy bogey right there if you just chip out sideways. But almost nobody takes it. Instead we go looking for the hero shot, and when that fails, we go looking for another one. There's a decades-old study on why we do this, and it's got nothing to do with the club in your hand — it's about ego, and what happens the second something becomes "your" mistake. I get into the research and the one rule that can save you from turning a bogey into a blowup.

One of the biggest collapses in major championship history happened — and it wasn't bad luck, and it wasn't bad swings. He had a comfortable lead, he pulled the one club he didn't need, and he lost. I'm kicking off a new series about the hidden math behind the decisions we make on the course, and this one starts with the decision that's cost more tournaments — and more Saturday rounds — than any swing flaw ever has. Come find out what it actually is, and the one question that stops it before you swing.

Before he was anything close to a Navy SEAL, David Goggins was a three-hundred-pound exterminator eating a chocolate milkshake at midnight. Twenty minutes into a documentary, he decided who he was going to become — with nothing about his actual life at the time backing it up. Today, in the final episode of our Becoming a Champion series, I get into why that decision, made with zero evidence, is the same exact move underneath every story we've told this month — and how to make it yourself, on your own game.

In 1925, a golfer's ball moved a fraction of an inch in the rough. Nobody else on the course saw it happen. He called a penalty on himself anyway — and it ended up costing him the U.S. Open. Today I get into why that's actually the deepest version of "controlling the controllables" you'll ever find in golf, and why we're still telling this story a hundred years later while almost nobody remembers who actually won that tournament.

Vijay Singh once turned down a machine that would've saved him hours of work on the range — and his reason why says everything about what actually separates a champion from everybody else. Today I get into why motivation was never the answer, and what actually was. Turns out the golfers and athletes who make it look effortless aren't running on inspiration at all. I'll show you the exact three-part system you can start using on your very next range session.

Ever wonder why some golfers shrug off a bad shot and others fall apart over it? Today I get into why fear of failure isn't really about nerves on the tee at all — it's about something a lot deeper, and a lot more common than you'd think. There's a specific, almost invisible shift some people make without ever choosing to, and it's the real reason a bad shot can feel like a threat to who you are. I'll show you exactly how to catch it, and the one sentence swap that starts to undo it.

In 1949, a golfer was told he might never walk again. Sixteen months later, he won the U.S. Open. This is episode one of a new series here called Becoming a Champion, and I actually walk you through how he got from one to the other — half a block at a time — because the real story is a lot more useful than "he was tough." Recovering from a bad round works the exact same way recovering from a shattered pelvis did. I'll show you the one small question a champion asks on the very next shot.

Part 5 of 5, the finale of our Science of the Swing series, inspired by the book The Science of Golf by Will Haskett. Tour pros with coaches and endless video still say the same thing, what they feel in their swing and what's actually happening are two different things entirely. Today we get into why that gap exists, and why it's the real reason swing changes feel so wrong even when they're completely right. If you've ever made a change, hated how it felt, and gone straight back to your old habit, this episode explains what was actually happening in your brain, and how to give a good change the time it actually needs.

Part 4 of 5 in our Science of the Swing series, inspired by the book The Science of Golf by Will Haskett. Two golfers, identical swings, wildly different results. Today, we get into the real science hiding inside your golf bag: shaft flex, center of gravity, and a little thing called MOI, and why equipment that doesn't match your swing can create problems that look exactly like swing flaws. If you've been grinding on the range trying to fix a miss that just won't go away, this episode might point you somewhere you haven't looked yet.

Part 3 of 5 in our Science of the Swing series, inspired by the book The Science of Golf by Will Haskett. For decades, golf instruction got the main reason your ball curves slightly backwards. Today we break down what the ball flight laws actually say, why your clubface is doing most of the talking, and why the classic advice for fixing a slice can sometimes make it worse. If you've ever fought a slice or a hook that just won't go away no matter what you try, this episode gives you the real diagnostic tool the pros use, no expensive equipment required.

Part 2 of 5 in our Science of the Swing series, inspired by the book The Science of Golf by Will Haskett. Pros and amateurs use the exact same muscles in the golf swing. So why does one look effortless and the other looks like work? Today we get into the kinematic sequence, the hidden order your body is supposed to move in in every swing, and what happens when that order breaks down. If you've ever been told you're "casting" or "coming over the top," this episode explains what's really going on underneath those phrases, and gives you a simple way to feel the fix on your very next range session.  

Part 1 of 5 in our Science of the Swing series, inspired by the book The Science of Golf by Will Haskett. There's a moment in your golf swing that lasts less than half a millisecond, and it decides everything about where your ball ends up. Today we break down what's actually happening at impact, why chasing clubhead speed can be the wrong move, and the one number that separates a bomber from someone who just swings hard. You've probably mishit a shot and had it curve in some strange direction you didn't expect. That's not bad luck, that's a real thing called gear effect, and once you understand it, your misses start making a lot more sense. Tune in for the physics that actually moves your golf ball.

I used to think the shakiest part of my game was the part where I got mad. Turns out that's backwards. In this one, I'm closing out our five-part series on Jared Tendler's Everyday Golf Psychology with the idea that changed how I think about every bad shot I hit. There's a reason the best poker players in the world don't try to calm down when they're furious — and the same logic applies the next time you slam a club after a three-putt. I'll walk through exactly how to use that feeling instead of fighting it, and how it ties the whole series together.

Greg Norman had a six-shot lead at the Masters and the exact same swing that got him there. By the back nine, it was gone. Same motion, same guy — so what actually changed? Today on Close the Gap, we're looking at why the range and the course are never really the same task, even when the swing is identical. It's the reason "just practice more" doesn't always fix Sunday

In 1997, a college golfer stood over four short putts at a U.S. Open qualifier — and missed every one, losing a playoff spot by exactly one shot. Most people would've spent the rest of their life trying to forget that afternoon. This guy went the other way. He turned it into a twenty-year career studying exactly why golfers fall apart under pressure — and today I get into what he actually did with that failure, and why your worst round might be more useful than you think.

Ever notice how one guy takes a bad bounce in stride, and another guy is still complaining about it three holes later? Turns out that reaction says more about your scorecard than your swing ever will. Today we're getting into one of the most misunderstood parts of the mental game — and it might explain more of your bad rounds than you think.

There's a line about golf so famous almost everybody's repeated it without ever really thinking about it — and it turns out it might be completely wrong. Today kicks off a five-part series built around a brand new book from a coach who's worked with Tour pros and world champion poker players. Stick around for the story of a missed four-footer that changed one man's whole career, and a much better way to think about what your mental game is actually there to do.

Every golfer thinks replaying their worst shots is how they get better. Turns out there's real research showing that's only true if you do it a very specific way, and most people are doing the exact opposite without knowing it. There's a tiny shift, something as small as one word in your head, that decides whether a bad shot teaches you something or just ruins the rest of your round. This one closes out our Bad Advice series, and it might be the most useful habit in the whole run.