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How Brendon Todd Improved His Golf Mental Game
Jarvis Coaching • Apr 12, 2020
How Brendon Todd Improved His Mental Game:
Lessons for Golf and the Game of Life
Seventeen months ago, Brendon Todd found his way back after Monday qualifying for the RSM Classic with a 61 and made his first cut in over a year. He aimed to keep improving his game, enter as many PGA TOUR events as he could, and qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. “That was as far as my mind could dream at the time,” says Todd.
Since then, many have written and discussed the specific changes made to Brendon’s golf swing, changes that took him from #2045 in the world at the end of 2018 to #54 in the world now. While work on his mental game has been briefly documented, little—if any—has been written about any specific changes. So, with Brendon’s permission, here’s a look into his mind and some of the most important changes we made to put him in a better position to take on his competitive challenges.
BUILD A MENTAL FRAMEWORK
We started working together in August of 2018 when Brendon was in the middle of his second career bout with the self-described “full-swing yips.” His greatest competitive challenge, during this time, was getting comfortable over the ball. Always the grinder who depended on ball striking to let his short-game shine, his mechanical struggles soon became mental blocks which led to increasing fear. “I’d get over the ball in situations where I needed to hit the shots pros hit— tight draws or little fades into greens...I’d take my last look at the target...take my last waggle...and by the time I started back...I’ve got so much unwanted tension in my hands and arms and my brain is shouting, ‘Oh my gosh, don’t hit it right.’”
Some may envision Brendon working mostly on thinking positively, not thinking at all, being in the moment, having a consistent pre-shot routine, setting goals, breathing right, blocking out everything but the target, relaxing, having a good attitude, or caring less about where the ball goes. But working on the mental game isn’t always what we think it is.
Instead of diving straight into a mental skills toolbag, we chose instead to begin with a concept the #1 player in the world has recently spoken about at length: mental structure. Reading Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way
introduced Rory McIlroy to a structured way to approach life which he quickly applied to his golf game. “I always knew the mental side was important…but I didn't have a structure around the mental side of the game. I was basically leaving it to momentum. That's the difference between then and now.”
At the beginning, I asked Brendon to tell me about his experience. He said the misses were so big they meant automatic double bogeys. He went on to explain “narrowing the miss up is hard because the mental challenge of not thinking about how far off-line you could hit it is very difficult.”
I’ll remember the moment the rest of my life. I said, “Brendon, you’re wrong. You’re not looking at the situation properly. It’s not just difficult. It’s impossible. And that’s a big difference.” Trying to fix the big miss by forcing mental changes during the ball striking experience was just creating more issues and not getting to the root of the problem. The root problem wasn’t any kind of emotional or mental brokenness. The mind was actually working as it should according to its default m.o. The root problem was an inadequate mental framework. Had Brendon had the agenda he now has he would have thought a bit differently about this situation and the experience he was going to have.
“I feel very similar to Rory,” he says. “Awareness became my path to improvement as well.” In particular, we worked to create a framework we call the Box. This breaks down the mental game into a series of three certain moments the performer must navigate. In the planning moment, we establish an intention for the shot with the goal of making the best decision possible. In the playing moment, we respond to our plan by attempting to execute the shot. And in the feedback moment, we experience thoughts and feeling related to both actual outcomes and potential outcomes. Just like the swing, the key to the mental game is to learn how to get from one moment to another with rhythm and timing.
As Brendon explains, “The Box has helped me manage the ball-striking experience efficiently enough once again to compete. I’m very comfortable with the mental organization we’ve created and confident I’m strengthening and developing the right mental skills for my challenges.”
BUILD MENTAL SKILLS
Two of the skills we work on tie directly into dealing effectively with the feedback moment: maintaining focus and creating helpful memories.
What do you do in the moment of unwanted feedback prior to the shot?
We’ve all been there. You’re planning a shot or walking into the ball or standing over the ball ready to take the club back and you have a thought or feeling that won’t help you hit a good shot. You have two options and if you forget there’s a shot clock in golf you might not understand why one option is better than the other. There’s thought replacement and there’s attention movement. We want to get comfortable, but we don’t have all day to get there. It’s not just about the ability to get comfortable but the ability to get comfortable quickly. The fact is golf pressure is time pressure. Attention movement ends the feedback moment quicker and takes less energy than thought replacement, allowing you to return your focus to the process that gets you across the finish line.
By following a 3-step process, you too, like Brendon, can end the feedback moment once it begins and maintain your focus on proper involvement with the shot: Realize. Remind. Respond.
The first step is to realize or become aware that you are in a feedback moment. Once you realize, you can then remind yourself that you can’t "want your way to the finish line" in golf. Instead, you have to "do your way to the finish line" connecting along the way with your ability to control what you can control. And finally, you can then respond by moving your attention away from the feedback moment and focus on landing in the right headspace out of which to hit the shot. Brendon began practicing this attention movement on and off the course. Whether he was hitting golf balls, working out, parenting, doing dishes, he could become aware of whatever thoughts were present and move his mind away from the harmful or negative ones.
How do you keep one bad shot from leading to another bad shot?
The next skill we work on relates more to the post-shot feedback moment. Every golfer faces this scenario: you hit a bad shot then another and another and things snowball from there. We find ourselves knowing the last shot has something to do with the next shot and the pressure is then amped up even more to hit a good and do so quickly. The pressure is on to have a good experience when it counts.
Whether you like it or not, your brain is going to store a memory after every shot you hit. Yes, this includes the bad ones. We never just stand over the ball and move. Processes, including memory, prepare the way we move.
Following a “less than ideal shot” the same steps apply to ending the post-shot feedback moment: 1) Realize you’re in a feedback moment—having thoughts and feeling about an actual outcome in this case. 2) Remind yourself that a bad shot does not have to result in a bad memory. 3) Respond by neutralizing the would-be negative memory: staying objective as possible stating to yourself where the ball is located and any noticeable and doable mid-round adjustments to your swing (i.e. tempo, ball position, etc.). What you allow to count as success matters in the memory you bring to the next shot. So be sure to celebrate when you accomplish process goals in the moments. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s controlling the controllables and creating the small wins that lead to the big wins. In doing this, you not only neutralize your bad shots, but more importanly you give your memory something constructive (even tactical) to work with in the future over similar shots.
Mastering this feedback moment has been a game changer from Brendon. Just as he uses it to keep one bad shot from becoming another bad shot, so can you. Now a bad shot is simply just that…one bad shot.
While you may never have the ball striking capabilities or the short game touch of Brendon Todd, you can learn to execute his mindset and the mental skills that separate the best from the rest.
On March 9, 2020, I arrived at TPC Sawgrass to spend time with Brendon as he prepared for “Golf’s 5th Major” and the rest of the PGA Tour season. Our theme for the week was simple: deal effectively with challenges. On Thursday night—following a near flawless performance of 3 under with no bogeys in Rd 1...sitting ripe for the next 54 holes of opportunity—the tournament and a major chunk of the season was cancelled.
While he won’t be taking his mind down the legendary 70 th
, 71 st
, and 72 nd
holes of The Players Championship or down Augusta’s back nine on a Sunday anytime soon, he still finds himself as strong as ever, ready to take on the challenges whether on or off the course.
Looking back, Brendon wishes he could give his self of three years ago some assurance: “Don’t panic. You’re good enough. Get your mind organized.” Ask him if uncertainties still creep in and he’ll tell you they do. But ask him about his goals and he won’t hesitate.
“I want to compete to win every week out, win the FedEx Cup, and play for my country,” he says with certainty. When things fire back up don’t count him out. Even amidst challenges, Brendon Todd—with his renewed mental game—not only knows the way back, but this time is prepared to stay.
People of all ages and abilities are learning the game of golf though an approach focused almost entirely on the golf swing. Despite an uptick in golf lessons, players still struggle to go from the range to the golf course. The two are obviously not the same. In one space, you’re training your swing--caring mostly about getting your club and body in the right positions. In the other, you’re playing golf and focused on more than just the golf swing. You’re managing your mind and emotions under time constraints, picking the right targets, seeing shots, and connecting with an athletic response called the golf swing.
“It began the moment I let go of the last pitch I ever truly trusted, the one that went to the backstop and changed my life, and in the few seconds that followed.” --Rick Ankiel, Major League baseball player 1999-2000, 2007-2013. Are you an accomplished athlete suddenly unable to keep the ball in play, find the bottom of the cup from 3 feet, hit the mitt, or kick the ball between the goal posts? Are you suddenly unable to get your body to perform a movement or a sequence it has repeated effortlessly in the past? Are you overwhelmed with difficult thoughts and feelings?
Start mastering the moments that matter to you.
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