About Swing to Flow

These writings explore what happens in your mind between shots, and how developing that awareness can transform your golfing experience.

You have them. Shots where your swing was effortless, the ball sprang off the clubface, piercing the sky as if on a mission, homing in on the target.

Why can’t there be more of those great shots during a round? In a quest to find an answer, golfers are very busy: we hit balls on the range, watch videos, read books or blogs, talk to playing partners, maybe even take lessons. Those things are great and should be done, but the number of things the brain can process as conscious thought during a 1.5 second golf swing according to neuroscience research is less than three (see sources below).

Are you still using those tips you picked up last year, or the year before? You need something more durable than a tip to unlock your best swing and repeat it on-demand while playing (not practicing).

Why Your Best Shots Remain Elusive

Here’s what I’ve realized after fifty years of playing golf and forty years studying psychology. Most of golf’s challenges aren’t mechanical problems requiring mechanical solutions—they’re consciousness problems that require consciousness solutions. And by consciousness I mean something more than the mental game. I mean the quality of awareness you bring to every shot.

The Missing Piece

I’ve asked hundreds of golfers to describe the mental part of their golf game. Most look at me like I’ve asked them to tell me about the last time they time traveled. Eventually things do surface—concentration and focus are frequently cited. A good start—but when asked to say more they hesitate and struggle to come up with crisp responses. Some say, avoid three-putts or double bogeys, but these are outcomes, not inner conditions that can unlock better swings.

This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the role our minds play in golf. Golfers are trying to get better with mechanics alone and believe that thinking about mechanics is the same as their mental game. That approach is just mechanical practice happening in the head.

Most golfers are trying to fix their swing, when it would be much more helpful to fix the relationship with the swing they already have.

A Different Approach

Swing to Flow offers a way to develop a stronger mental game that works as one with the physical game. It’s a practical system that treats golf as a precision sport and mental discipline, promoting greater access to your best golf more often.

When all three align, you can enter a State of Flow where peak performance emerges naturally. Golf feels effortless. You’re fully absorbed in each moment. And those pure contact swings start appearing not five or six times a round, but twenty or twenty-five.

Not Starting Over

This is not rebuilding your swing. It’s about adding mental mastery to the swing you’ve already built.

Somewhere out there is your perfect round. It’s not waiting for you to develop a flawless swing or to master every possible shot. It’s waiting for you to show up fully—mechanics prepared, mind present, intuition engaged, ready to flow with whatever the course presents.

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Research Sources

Libet, B., Gleason, C.A., Wright, E.W., & Pearl, D.K. (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness potential): The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. Brain, 106(3), 623–642.

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2024). Motor learning in golf—a systematic review. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1324615

Frontiers in Psychology (2015). Evidence for skill level differences in the thought processes of golfers during high and low pressure situations. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01974

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (2020). Elite golfers are characterized by psychomotor refinement in cognitive-motor processes.