PODCAST · sports
The Mental Golf Show
by Josh Nichols
The Mental Golf Show is all about helping serious golfers translate their game when it matters. Host Josh Nichols — a U.S. Mid-Amateur finalist and Golf Mental Coach — has spent years investigating one question: why do good players struggle to access their best game under real conditions? Through in-depth conversations with players, coaches, and performance experts — plus solo topical episodes breaking down what he’s learned — Josh investigates the gap between a golfer’s potential and what actually shows up on the course.
Episodes
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307: The Feel Fix: What to Do When Your Round Starts Going Bad
I get on-course with Mike from Chasing Scratch to talk through his thoughts on, well, his thoughts. We work through his process of how he manages his swing thoughts on the course. Mike is a great player and has improved a ton through gaining a better understanding of his own golf game. -----...
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306: Karl Morris - Why Golfers Struggle to Build True Confidence
In this episode, performance coach Karl Morris shares insights on how perception, mental models, and understanding the nature of golf can transform your game. Discover practical exercises and mental shifts to access your skills and enjoy golf more. Key topics (AI-generated 🤖) - The importance of...
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305: Manuel Elvira - Big Moments, Imposter Syndrome, and How to Gain Confidence Even When You Lose
Just a few weeks ago, Manuel Elvira was tied for the lead going into the final hole of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth after making eagle on the 71st hole. Some would say he collapsed on the 72nd hole. But how does Manuel feel about it? What can you learn from his experience? Key topics…
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304: Jim Waldron - Stop Fighting Your Thoughts: A Better Way to Play Under Pressure
Jim Waldron (balancepointgolf.com) works remotely with golfers around the world on yips and general mental game coaching. He also teaches full swing, short game, and putting mechanics. In this conversation with Jim Waldron we talk through controlling your attention, managing stress, and…
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303: Gary Wise - Hard Acceptance, Flow and Zone, and How to Deal with Bad Rounds
Gary Wise has been working with golfers for decades on their swings and their minds, and is the author of No Junk Reps. In this episode we discuss: Mental management and mindset in sports and life The importance of routines and rehearsals in performance Perception and acceptance as tools for...
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302: Jared Tendler - Handling Pressure, Good Swing Thoughts, and Building Mental Resilience
Join the October Group Coaching Cohort! More info here: https://joshnicholsgolf.com/group/ ----- Jared Tendler (author of his new book Everyday Golf Psychology) joins the pod to talk about: the importance of working on your weaknesses first how the different aspects of your game all have…
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301: How to Know You're Committed On the Shot
Want to join the Mental Game Group Coaching Cohort? More info here: https://joshnicholsgolf.com/group/ Commitment to the golf shot is comprised of two key checks: Do I KNOW what I'm trying to do Do I LIKE what I'm trying to do In this episode, we develop a framework for getting to a clear, final...
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300: Dr. Izzy Justice - Playing Your Best Golf Is a Choice
Dr. Izzy Justice is an author of 10 books, including Your Brain Swings Every Club, GYRA Golf, and Golf EQ. He joins The Mental Golf Show to talk the neuroscience of stress, negative thoughts, performing under pressure, and he makes some interesting claims about the term "flow state" that I had...
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299: Robert Linville - How to Be Truly Confident, Play Free, and Beat the Four-Hole Death Spiral
Robert Linville has been Josh’s coach for over 10 years. He was a pivotal part of Josh winning multiple events and making it to the finals of the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur. Robert has been a coach and swing instructor and owner of Precision Golf School in Greensboro, NC for 40+ years, working with…
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298: Michael Leonard - Why Scared Golfers Never Break Through
Listen to this episode ad-free: join Mental Golf Club Hello everybody, welcome to The Mental Golf Show, where we explore high performance through the lens of golf. On today’s episode we have Michael Leonard, host of the Wicked Smart podcast, author of several golf books, and phenomenal player...
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297: Julie Elion - How Wyndham Clark Overcame Adversity to Win the 2026 U.S. Open
Get Julie Elion’s new book Mastering Your Mental Game (link to Amazon) On this episode we’ve got THE Julie Elion. Most notably the mental performance coach for Wyndham Clark. She’s also the author of her new book Mastering Your Mental Game, which is excellent. So the timing of this one was pretty...
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296: Joel Suggs (PGA Master) - These three stats explain everything…
On this episode we have Joel Suggs, a PGA Master Teaching Professional with decades of experience helping golfers of all levels understand their own games. Joel is the author of Golf Success Before Every Round, which was the number one new release in golf coaching on Amazon when it came out. By…
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295: Steve Kamb - How to Try Again, Play More Free, and Not Let Fear Wreck Your Game
Get Steve Kamb’s new book How to Try Again: An Approachable Guide to Navigating Chaos and Making Change THAT STICKS (Amazon link) ----- Steve Kamb is the author of the brand new book How to Try Again: An Approachable Guide to Navigating Chaos and Making Change THAT STICKS. In this conversation…
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294: Dr. Justin Ternes (Breath Expert) - How to Breathe To Play Better Golf
Take the FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment ----- Dr. Justin Ternes is a world expert on breathwork, physical therapy, and the connection of mind and body. I wanted to have Justin on because there’s so much pseudoscience out there about breathwork, meditation, and...
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293: Deep Dive Into How Josh Prepares for a Golf Tournament
FREE Brand New Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment ----- In this episode Josh dives deep into his tournament prep, what he's done this year different from past years, and how he readies himself for a competitive round. ----- Chapters & Topics: 00:00 - Intro 00:54…
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292: My Mental Game Has Gotten Worse (I Have Proof)
Click here to take the brand new redesigned Mental Game Assessment! I’m a Golf Mental Coach and the host of a golf mental game podcast. Yet my mental game has gotten worse. How do I know that? And what am I going to do about it? And what you can do to improve your mental game. All of that in this...
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291: How Well You Play and How Well You Score Are Not the Same Thing - Peter Melton
Peter Melton is a Golf Enjoyment Coach and author of Conversations with Par. He spent three decades stuck in the same trap most golfers never escape — believing his score determined his worth. In this conversation, we dig into the inner golfer versus the outer golfer, why your survival identity…
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290: Perfect Mechanics Don’t Matter If Your Tempo is Off - Chia Chou (Master Pianist)
Chia Chou is a classical pianist and has taught the best of the best musicians for decades. In the last 5 years he has grown his very unique approach to helping golfers through the use of audio. We even get into how Chia's method is different from (and potentially better than) Tour Tempo. You'll...
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289: The Mindset Shift That Almost Won Me the U.S. Mid-Amateur
I made a massive shift in my game between missing the cut at the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur to making it the finals of the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur. In this episode we get into two major ways I did that. ----- Join Mental Golf Club for FREE here: app.joshnicholsgolf.com
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Announcing: Mental Golf Club
Join Mental Golf Club here: app.joshnicholsgolf.com You guys comprise the best community of the smartest, most thoughtful, deepest thinking bunch of golfers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen and heard how much you guys have engaged over the years. It's been incredible. So we wanted a way for you to...
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288: Matt Myers - Become a Better Golfer One Pushup at a Time (Q2 2026 Check-in)
We've got another check-in with Nerd Fitness Matt. Ok, sure, these are thinly-veiled selfish conversations with my fitness coach. But also I firmly believe they're a peak for you into the mindset that builds real consistency and actual results with fitness, nutrition, habits, self-care, and just...
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287: Gary Belsky - The Mental Game Difference Between Pros and Amateurs
If you've ever played your best golf alone but fallen apart the moment others are watching, this episode is for you. In this conversation, Gary Belsky makes a compelling case that solo golf isn't just a scheduling convenience — it's a mental training ground that can rewire how you handle…
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286: Andreas Kali - Embracing Discomfort, Exposing False Practice, and Earning Real Confidence
Andreas Kali is a golf coach based in Denmark who works with nine professional golfers across four tours, including players ranked inside the top 50 in the world. He's spent the better part of two decades coaching, and his philosophy runs counter to a lot of what you see or hear — harder…
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285: The Question That's Rewiring My Golf Brain
You ever feel like the mental game advice you try doesn't stick? That's because most mental game advice is superficial and not effective in high-pressure moments. Including some of the stuff I've put out. That's because there has to be a deeper layer underneath that advice for your mental game to...
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284: Jeff Troesch - Great Golf Requires Imbalance, Confidence is Overrated, and How to Think Like a Better Golfer
Jeff Troesch is a mental performance coach to major champions on PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, Olympians, and athletes in nearly 100 other sports. He has just released a new book titled One Day Better: Mental Performance Concepts to Transform Your Game and Life. It contains 150 one or two-page lessons…
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283: Matt Young - Why Your Golf Game Spirals (and How to Regain Control)
Matt Young is an Emotional Change Specialist. His expertise is in helping people move past their limiting beliefs and protective/automatic emotions in order to access their best as often as possible. Matt's an avid golfer himself, and in this episode we we dive in to some real-world case studies…
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282: Rye Stinson - How to Be Great At Golf, Successful at Work, and Avoid/Navigate Injury
Rye Stinson is perhaps the only person in the world who is all of these things: Occupational Therapist, Certified Hand Therapist, TPI M3 Certified, AND has qualified for a U.S. Mid-Amateur, which he did in 2024. So I took that as an opportunity to dive right into how on earth he is so successful…
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281: How to Take Your Game from Indoors to Outdoors
It's that time of year. You've been working hard on your game all offseason, grinding on your swing, getting things dialed, and now it's almost time (or is already time) to get outside and play. But what typically happens when you do that? If you're like me, everything you worked on all winter…
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280: John Dunigan - You Care Too Much About Your Golf Swing
John Dunigan is the cofounder of the Practice Golf Coach app. I haven't used the app personally yet, but one of my mental coaching clients uses it and he swears by it. He's sent me screenshots and it looks awesome. It uses AI combined with John and cofounder Dr. Will Wu's expertise and experience...
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279: Andy Gorman - Putting Better is Easy
Andy Gorman is ThePASS (The Putting And Shortgame Specialist). And this episode is truly all about putting. If you wonder why you don't putt better, whether you have the right putter for you, why you don't putt well under pressure, why you under-read so many putts, and then exactly how to address...
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278: Cameron Strachan - Master Golf By Being Lazy and Stupid
📕 Click this link to get Cameron Strachan's book UNF*CK YOUR GOLF BRAIN, plus bonus videos, a pre-round cheat sheet, and more: https://bit.ly/ufygb-josh ----- Cameron Strachan was not a name I had heard before this. But when he reached out to me expressing interest in being on the show and…
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277: Alex Fortey - Why Do We Make Golf So Complicated?
I had the pleasure of hosting Alex Fortey on the podcast. Alex is a content creator with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube (The Art of Simple Golf). He's a pro golfer with some very strong opinions on the golf industry and golf instruction, and has some very honest takes on how to make golf...
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276: Brendon Post - Why Trying Harder Makes Golf Harder
Is chasing consistency actually hurting your golf game? In this episode, I’m joined by Brendon Post — a longtime competitive player, coach, and caddie with decades of experience at the college and professional levels. Brendon brings a rare perspective from living on both sides of the rope:...
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275: Steven Yellin - There Is Only One Way to Play Good Golf
I had the honor of hosting Steven Yellin on the podcast. Steven is an author of the book Simplicity. He holds some very strong positions on how good golf must be played. But he claims they aren't his ideas, they are just the way the brain and the body work. I truly can't spell it all out here,...
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274: How to Play Fearless Golf
🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf. ----- I used to always play golf with a ton of fear. And frankly, I still play golf with fear. But not as much as I once did, thanks to an understanding of some of the core reasons we as humans...
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273: Dr. Gio Valiante - Fear, Flow, and Mastery vs. Ego
I had the great honor of hosting Dr. Gio Valiante for a conversation that had me thinking from the moment he started talking. Something about the way Dr. Gio explains things makes me feel like golf is on the one hand deep and rich and complex, but on the other hand incredibly simple and…
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272: Matt Myers - How to Make Golf Fitness Stupid Easy (Q1 2026)
🏋️♂️ Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here! ----- I worked with Matt Myers at Nerd Fitness for the entirety of 2025 as my personal trainer. But far beyond building workout plans and keeping me accountable to nutrition goals, he was a partner on a journey. I know for a fact I…
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271: 10 Lessons 2025 Taught Me (and What I’m Carrying Into 2026)
I've done a goal-setting episode at the end of every year for the past 6 years, but I don't think I've ever done a review of the year that just ended. This episode will show you a simple, proven way to review your year (or your day or your round of golf) that you can and should use. And I of…
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270: Steve Wheatcroft - The Unseen Struggles of Being a PGA Tour Player
Steve Wheatcroft played professional golf for 19 years, almost all of those on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour. In this episode we get into the experiences he had, the fallout of retiring, and the journey since. Topics discussed: The Silence After Professional Sports Identity Beyond the Game The...
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269: Best of The Mental Golf Show (2025)
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here. ----- This year has been a monumental one for The Mental Golf Show. It's the most interviews I've ever done (33 up to this point) and I feel like my skill as an interviewer has drastically improved across this…
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268: Will Knauth - Why You Need Swing Thoughts to Play Good Golf
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here. 🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice 🏋️♂️ Nerd Fitness: Head to nerdfitness.com, and when (not if) you go through onboarding just mention…
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267: David Buck - Transform Your Game with Truth and Joy
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here. 🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice 🏋️♂️ Nerd Fitness: Head to nerdfitness.com, and when (not if) you go through onboarding just mention…
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266: FundaMENTALS - Expectations: The Psychology That Makes Good Golf Harder
📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement. ----- In this FundaMENTALS episode, we look at how expectations add tension and narrow your options, and why shifting to clear standards helps you swing with...
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265: Carly Hunt - How Your Brain Shapes Golf, Pain, and Performance
📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement 🗓️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans: Get more organized with your practice at joshnicholsgolf.com/practice 🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in...
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264: How to Lean Into Golf Discomfort, Not Eject
🎓 The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in your pre-shot routine here. ----- How do you lean in when the round of golf starts going sideways? It’s so easy to eject mentally and just go through the motions. Let's dive into the concept of Exposure Therapy as a tool to build your mental...
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263: Paul Salter - Fear, Confidence, and the Secret to Consistent Golf Success
FREE Mental Game Assessment: joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement ----- Paul Salter joins The Mental Golf Show (for the second time). Paul is a mindset and performance coach who uses hypnosis to help his clients get unstuck, uncover...
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262: Caddie Yourself into Full Commitment
Most of us don't have caddies helping us get fully committed to shots, so we have to be our own caddies. Learning how to be your own caddie effectively can give you a huge advantage over your opponents and your own unhelpful tendencies. ----- The Perfect Pre-shot Routine digital course: Dial in...
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261: Dr. Doug Tataryn - Inadequacy, Self-Betrayal, and Core Beliefs are Affecting Your Golf Game
Dr. Doug Tataryn is the founder of the Bio-Emotive Framework. And we get into things like integral theory, the Four Facets Model of Human Transformation, and the effects of your childhood experiences on your worldview. But, and this is very important, Dr. Doug is very good at grounding these...
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260: Bruce Chalas - College Golf Recruiting and Performing Under Intense Pressure
Special guest Coach Bruce Chalas and I talk all about college golf, the psychological demands of college golf, and the recruiting process for junior golfers. So if you’re a junior golfer, college player, a parent of one, or a coach helping players navigate this stage, this one’s for you. And even...
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259: FundaMENTALS - Handle Pressure Better in Three Simple Steps
Welcome to Episode 3 of the FundaMENTALS series, where Josh Nichols will be walking through the core components of a good mental game. This week: Handling Pressure On this episode, I want to talk about that feeling in your chest, that slight tremor in your hands, that racing thought pattern that...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Mental Golf Show is all about helping serious golfers translate their game when it matters.
Host Josh Nichols — a U.S. Mid-Amateur finalist and Golf Mental Coach — has spent years investigating one question: why do good players struggle to access their best game under real conditions? Through in-depth conversations with players, coaches, and performance experts — plus solo topical episodes breaking down what he’s learned — Josh investigates the gap between a golfer’s potential and what actually shows up on the course.
HOSTED BY
Josh Nichols
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Mental Golf Show have?
The Mental Golf Show currently has 306 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Mental Golf Show about?
The Mental Golf Show is all about helping serious golfers translate their game when it matters. Host Josh Nichols — a U.S. Mid-Amateur finalist and Golf Mental Coach — has spent years investigating one question: why do good players struggle to access their best game under real conditions? Through...
How often does The Mental Golf Show release new episodes?
The Mental Golf Show publishes regularly with 306 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Mental Golf Show?
You can listen to The Mental Golf Show on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Mental Golf Show?
The Mental Golf Show is created and hosted by Josh Nichols.
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