The Golfer’s Mind Lab

The Golfer’s Mind Lab

by BJ Stremple

Mental Health Golf

Season 1

The Glue — Building One Process That Ties Everything Together

Welcome back to The Golfer's Mind Lab — the podcast that trains the mental side of golf one experiment at a time. Every two weeks, host BJ Stremple breaks down one mental challenge, explains the psychology behind it, and gives you a real experiment to run in your next round. Episode 7: The Glue — Building One Process That Ties Everything Together Six episodes in, you have a reset breath, a target lock, a Caddy Tally, a tension scan, a two-column framework, and a mental anchor. Every one of those tools is powerful on its own — but if you're consciously running through all of them before every shot, you'll be standing over the ball for three minutes and driving your playing partners insane. Episode 7 is about building all of it into one process. In this episode: — Why a well-designed pre-shot process is a container for the mental game, not just superstition — The anatomy of a complete process: six steps, run in about fifteen seconds — How the reset breath, tension scan, target lock, and two-column check all live inside one sequence — Why consistency — not the specific steps — is what actually signals readiness to your nervous system — What happens to the process when it gets tested under real pressure — Input from the pros - Cory Pieper from Elite Club Performance and Garry Rippy, PGA Pro at Roy Kizer and Jimmy Clay GC The Golfer's Mind Lab. One concept. One challenge. Every two weeks. Share your process: @thegolfersmindlab Kabra Golf - 15% off - https://kabragolf.com/?ref=Golfersmindlab Forelinks Golf - 10% off use code GML10 at checkout Music written and produced by BJ Stremple

Your Mental Anchor — Building a Pre-Round State of Mind

Welcome back to The Golfer's Mind Lab — the podcast that trains the mental side of golf one experiment at a time. Every two weeks, host BJ Stremple breaks down one mental challenge, explains the psychology behind it, and gives you a real experiment to run in your next round. Episode 6: Your Mental Anchor — Building a Pre-Round State of Mind Five episodes in, you have a reset breath, a target lock, a Caddy Tally, a tension scan, and a two-column framework. Every single one of those tools works better when you walk onto the first tee already in the right mental state. Episode 6 is about building that state on purpose. In this episode: — Why the pre-round window is the most wasted mental real estate in golf — What sports psychologists mean by pre-performance activation and how to use it — The three elements of a personal mental anchor: physical cue, mental cue, and process intention — Your happy place — the specific peak memory or image that puts your nervous system in performance mode — Why your anchor gets stronger every time you use it — BJ's personal on-course recap — what his anchor actually looks like The Golfer's Mind Lab. One concept. One challenge. Every two weeks. Share your anchor: @thegolfersmindlab All music written and produced by BJ Stremple. This episode is supported by Forelinks Golf. Use code GML10 for 10% off your next purchase of premium golf gloves at forelinksgolf.com

The Control Illusion - Playing What You Can Actually Influence

Welcome back to The Golfer's Mind Lab — the podcast that trains the mental side of golf one experiment at a time. Every two weeks, host BJ Stremple breaks down one mental challenge, explains the psychology behind it, and gives you a real experiment to run in your next round. Episode 5: The Control Illusion — Playing What You Can Actually Influence By episode five, you've built a real toolkit. The reset breath. The target lock. The Caddy Tally. The tension scan. Today's episode is the philosophical foundation underneath all of them — because there's one reason we get tense, one reason we use bad self-talk, one reason we fixate on OB. We're trying to control things we can't control. In this episode: — The Stoic concept of the dichotomy of control and why it maps perfectly onto golf — The specific things on a course that are yours and the ones that aren't — Why the score isn't actually in your control and why that's a good thing — The Two-Column Practice: a 10-second mental check that redirects attention on purpose — What it actually feels like when you get this right — BJ's personal on-course recap The Golfer's Mind Lab. One concept. One challenge. Every two weeks. Share your two-column result: @thegolfersmindlab All music written and produced by BJ Stremple. This episode is supported by Forelinks Golf. Use code GML10 for 10% off your next purchase of premium golf gloves at forelinksgolf.com

Tension - The Invisible Swing Wrecker

Welcome back to The Golfer's Mind Lab — the podcast that trains the mental side of golf one experiment at a time. Every two weeks, host BJ Stremple breaks down one mental challenge, explains the psychology behind it, and gives you a real experiment to run in your next round. Episode 4: Tension — The Invisible Swing Wrecker The best swing you've ever made felt effortless. The worst ones felt tight, forced, muscled. That difference isn't talent. It isn't technique. It's tension — and it's almost entirely driven by what's happening between your ears. In this episode: — What tension physically does to your swing mechanics — Why trying harder under pressure guarantees worse results — How fear of OB, negative self-talk, and mental pressure all produce the same physical outcome — The Tension Scale: a 1–10 body awareness tool for every shot — The Heavy Arms cue: a pre-shot release technique used by elite performers — How tension connects everything covered in Episodes 1 through 3 — BJ's personal on-course recap — This week's listener challenge The Golfer's Mind Lab. One concept. One challenge. Every two weeks. Share your Tension Scan result: @thegolfersmindlab All music written and produced by BJ Stremple.

The Caddie in Your Head - Learning to Talk Nice to Yourself

You’d fire a caddie who talked to you the way you talk to yourself after a bad shot. So why have you been carrying that bag for years? In Episode 3 of The Golfer’s Mind Lab, BJ breaks down the psychology of self-talk — what negative inner dialogue actually does to your nervous system, why golfers are so much harder on themselves than they’d ever be on a playing partner, and why the fix isn’t forced positivity. This week’s challenge: the Caddy Tally. No behavior change required — just a tally mark on your scorecard every time the inner critic shows up. The data from one round might be the most useful thing you take off the course. Plus: BJ’s personal on-course recap from his own round running the Caddy Tally. Share your Caddy Tally result: @thegolfersmindlab

The Boundary Fence — Making Peace with Out of Bounds

There's a hole at almost every course that gets in your head before you even tee it up. Usually there's a white stake involved. In Episode 2 of The Golfer's Mind Lab, BJ breaks down exactly what happens in your brain when you see out of bounds - why the harder you try to avoid it, the more likely you are to find it - and introduces the Target Lock, a three-step attention technique used by elite performers to redirect focus from trouble to the target. This week's challenge: run the Target Lock on every shot where OB is in play and track where the ball goes versus where your attention was. Plus: BJ's personal on-course recap from his own round testing the technique on a course with plenty of white stakes to work with.

Welcome to the Lab - The One Shot Rule

Welcome to The Golfer's Mind Lab — a podcast that trains the mental side of golf one experiment at a time. Every two weeks, host BJ Stremple breaks down one mental challenge golfers face at every level, explains what's actually happening in your brain, and gives you a real challenge to run in your next round. Episode 1: The One Shot Rule Most golfers are wired to replay mistakes. It's not a character flaw — it's negativity bias, an evolutionary survival mechanism that gives more weight to negative experiences than positive ones. On the golf course, it's costing you strokes. In this episode: — What negativity bias actually does to your game — The One Shot Rule and why "play one shot at a time" fails without a mechanism — The reset breath — a breathing technique that activates your parasympathetic nervous system and signals your brain that the last shot is done — This week's challenge: the reset breath for one full round — BJ's personal on-course recap The Golfer's Mind Lab. One concept. One challenge. Every two weeks. Music credits: All songs written, recorded, and mixed by BJ Stremple.