3 Mental Game Tips That Will Help You Shoot Lower Scores

You’re standing on the 13th tee. Water left, out of bounds right. You’re on track for the best round of your life. But you feel completely at ease. Same tempo as the 1st tee. Same commitment. No voice in your head telling you not to mess it up. And you stripe it down the middle, just like you've been doing all day.

Now be honest. Is that what it’s actually like?

For most golfers, it’s the opposite. Don't miss it. Your grip gets tighter. Your backswing gets shorter. Transition is rushed. You start steering it. And the ball finds the exact spot you were trying to avoid.

Your swing didn’t change between the 1st tee and the 13th. Your head did.

In this article, I'll show you the three mental game tips that changed my game the most, and that I still use every single round.

How I went from T2 to missing the cut

I remember playing one of the first pro events of my life as an amateur. A course I knew well. Close to home. I'd even tied the course record there with a -6 two months before.

Kicking things off early in the morning, a bit nervous, but playing okay. Then a few good holes in the middle of the round, and I was -3 after 15 in pretty rough conditions.

That's when I opened my phone to check the leaderboard.

Boom. Serbian flag. Dane Cvetkovic, T2.

Right in my face.

I bogeyed the next three holes and finished at even. The next day I shot two or three over par and missed the cut.

Nothing changed in my technique between hole 15 and hole 16. Same swing, same clubs, same course I'd shot -6 on before. What changed was what was going on in my head.

I stopped playing the next shot and started playing the leaderboard.

That's why you need to train the mental game of golf, too. It will help you save more shots than you may realize!

“Golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course: the space between your ears.” - Bobby Jones

Why the mental game decides your score

Most golfers hit a bad shot and blame their swing. But very often, the swing wasn't the problem.

The problem happened before you even took the club back. A doubt about the club. A quick look at the water. A swing made to avoid missing it, instead of a swing made to hit your ball to your intended target.

Physical mistakes will always happen. Golf is hard. But mental mistakes are the ones you can control, and they're the ones you should hate making the most.

Here are the three things that changed my mental game the most since that day.

Tip 1: Keep a mental game scorecard

A mental game scorecard is a second scorecard that doesn't count strokes. It counts commitment.

On every shot, ask yourself two questions:

1. Was I fully committed to my decision? Target, club, type of shot. No doubt about the club, no eyes drifting to the hazard, a clear picture of where the ball is going.
2. Was I fully committed to my swing? Not swinging harder. Swinging with full commitment and full trust in the shot you picked.

Two yeses: a green check ✅. One (or two) no's: a red cross ❌.

Where the ball ended up doesn't matter. You can be fully committed, leave the face a little open and miss the green. That's still a check. You can also hit the fairway after a swing full of doubt. That's a cross.

Be strict on both. Don't give yourself the pass if you didn't earn it. Count every shot, even a two-foot putt.

At the end of the round, add it up. What percentage of your shots were fully committed?

Your mental game score = checks ÷ total shots x 100. Your total shots is simply your score. In the example above: 19 checks ÷ 25 shots x 100 = 76%.

In my experience, tour pros sit at 90% or more. Most amateurs are around 20 to 30%. When I started doing this, I was at about 40%. But the moment you start paying attention to it, everything gets sharper, and your scores follow.

Look back at holes 16, 17 and 18 of my round that day. Three bogeys, and a few too many red crosses. My swing didn't fail me. My commitment did.

That's the real shift: you stop chasing a score you can't control, and start chasing a process you can.

Tip 2: Spot your "imaginary trouble" and play from your winning state

Imaginary trouble is the story your mind tells about what might go wrong, before anything has happened.

Course designers don't only put bunkers and water there to catch your ball. They put them there to trick your mind.

You stand over the ball and your brain starts talking. "Don't go right. If I go in the water, I drop there, make a double, and the round is gone."

None of that has happened. It's imaginary trouble, and you're putting yourself in a worse spot than you're actually in.

Step 1: Catch it

When the story starts, name it: "That's imaginary trouble." You don't have to fight it or push it out of your head. Just let it live in 10% of your mind.

Step 2: Replace it

Put the other 90% on what you want to happen. What is my target? What would perfect impact feel like? How would I execute this shot if I knew I'd hit it exactly how I wanted to? What is my swing feel in this moment?

The water is still there. It just isn't making your decisions anymore.

Step 3: Find your winning state

Think back to the last time you played your best. How did you feel? Maybe calm and quiet. Maybe upbeat and switched on. Chest high, not slumped. That's your winning state.

Between shots, your job isn't to analyze your swing or add up your score. It's to get back into that state.

Because when you're in it, your mind stops asking "what if I miss?" or "don't mess this up". It only asks one thing: where is my target? And that's when you make a fully committed swing.

You won't hit every shot the way you pictured it. Nobody does. But one rule to play by: if you miss it, you miss it. We won't miss it by not committing to it.

Tip 3: Real confidence comes from skill

The real secret to a strong mental game isn't in your head. It's in your clubface control.

If you have no idea where the ball is going, no amount of positive thinking will make you trust a tee shot with water left.

Confidence follows skill. The more control you have over the clubface, the more competent you are. And when you're competent, confidence follows on its own.

So if you want to get everything out of your mental game, you need the skills to back it up.

Most golfers try to build those skills by working on their technique. Positions, checkpoints, a better-looking swing.

But the ball doesn’t care how your swing looks. It only responds to impact: where you strike it on the face, and where the face is pointing. That doesn't just come from technique. It's a skill, and it can be improved, with specific drills, targets and feedback instead of positions in the mirror.

Focus on that, then even on the days your mind isn’t perfect, you still know where the ball is going. Because now you’re not hoping you'll hit it straight, you know you will. 

Want to build that skill? Read How to Practice Golf Effectively.

Train your mental game like you train your swing

Your mental game needs training too, and most golfers never train it at all.

Besides the mental game scorecard, here’s my favorite on-course mental game drill.

Play 9 holes. Then every shot you didn’t fully commit to costs you a penalty stroke, even if the ball ended up exactly where you wanted.

Suddenly, a half-committed swing isn’t free anymore. And after a few rounds, committing stops being something you try to do. It becomes how you play.

Use this on your next round

1. Keep a second scorecard. Check or cross on every shot, and count your percentage at the end.
2. Catch your imaginary trouble. Name it, give it 10%, and put 90% on your target and your feel.
3. Find your winning state. Decide before the round how you want to feel, and get back into it between shots.
4. Train it. Add a penalty stroke for every shot you didn’t fully commit to.

Don’t judge the round by the score. Judge it by your mental game scorecard. Get that number up, and the score comes with it.

Golf mental game FAQ

How do I stop getting nervous on the golf course?

You won't stop feeling nervous, and you don't need to. But that doesn't mean you can't re-focus on the task at hand. Give your mind a job: two commitment questions on every shot, and your winning state between shots. Nerves get quieter when your attention is on what you control.

How do I stop thinking about hazards?

Don't try to make them disappear. Notice the thought, call it imaginary trouble, and put your attention on your target and how you want the shot to feel. The more you train yourself to focus on that which you need to do, instead of the things you don't want to do, the better you'll get at it. 

How do I build confidence in golf?

Build your clubface control, and train your mental game. Test yourself in practice with targets and scores. Put yourself out there. Confidence that comes from evidence holds up under pressure. Fake confidence doesn't.

What is a mental game scorecard in golf?

A second scorecard where you mark every shot with a check or a cross: were you fully committed to your decision and to your swing? Pros are at 90% or higher. Track yours and work on getting it up.

Build the skills behind your mental game

A strong mental game needs skills to back it up. My practice programs give you the exact drills, tests and routines 25,000+ golfers use to build clubface control and shoot lower scores. Download your copy today, and start changing your game tomorrow.

Take a look at the practice programs →

Play golf, not golf swing.

Dane