Karl Morris | The Three Words That Could Transform Your Golf Game (+ How Ryan Fox Won The Open)

Ryan Fox has just become Champion Golfer of the Year.

Just days after his Open Championship victory, Ryan Fox’s long-time performance coach, Karl Morris, joins How Low Can You Go? to unpack the mental skills that helped produce one of golf’s biggest victories.

For decades, Karl has worked with major champions, Ryder Cup players and Tour winners. In this episode, he shares the simple mental framework that helped Ryan perform under the greatest pressure in the game—and explains how every club golfer can apply those same principles to play better golf.

The conversation centres around three simple words Karl believes can transform your golf:

✅ Intention
✅ Attention
✅ Attitude

Along the way, we discuss:

• How Ryan Fox dealt with the brutal bunker break on the 15th hole at The Open—and why acceptance was the key to recovering and ultimately becoming Champion Golfer of the Year.

• Why so many golfers are trapped playing “avoidance golf” instead of pursuing great golf.

• The simple mental shift that could lower your scores without changing your swing.

• How to access your best golf under pressure.

• Why chasing good shots is far more effective than trying to avoid bad ones.

• The attention techniques elite golfers use to perform when it matters most.

• How to build stable confidence that lasts beyond one good round.

Whether you’re trying to break 100, 90, 80 or simply become a more content golfer, this conversation is packed with practical ideas you can take straight to the golf course.

If you’ve ever struggled to transfer your range game onto the golf course—or wondered what separates Tour winners from everyone else—this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

In this episode: Ryan Fox, The Open Championship, Champion Golfer of the Year, Karl Morris, golf psychology, golf mental game, golf mindset, performance coaching, The Mind Caddy, intention, attention, attitude, acceptance, avoidance golf, golf confidence, lower scores, course management, golf improvement, performance psychology, golf podcast.

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How Low Can You Go explores how amateur golfers can improve their game, lower their scores, and actually understand what moves the needle — without wasting time on the wrong things.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 1:48

You see, what you just described there, I think, is, and we've all done it, is falling into the trap of playing avoidance golf rather than pursuit golf. It's it's like it's like, can I avoid a bad shot? Well, the best way to avoid a bad shot is to pursue a good one. I know that sounds a try thing to say, but it's a it's a subtle but important shift to go over the other side.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Welcome back to Hilo Can You Go Golf Improvement Podcast, Born in Scotland, where we don't just talk about getting better, we put these ideas to the test in our own games, and it has been an incredible couple of weeks in the golfing world. Ryan Fox becoming champion golfer of the year after an unforgettable open championship victory at Royal Burkdale. Today's guest has been working alongside Ryan for years, as his longtime performance coach Carl Morris has helped shape one of the strongest mental games in a professional game. But this is why every club golfer should also be listening to this episode. This is not a conversation about tour golf. It's a conversation about three incredibly simple ideas that could genuinely change the way you think about every shot you hit. Let's get into it. This is How Low Can You Go. How low can you go? Okay, welcome back everyone once again to How Low Can You Go, the golf improvement podcast, born in Scotland, the show where we talk the talk, but we also walk the walk when it comes to golf improvement. Isn't that right, Chris? Who shot his lowest round ever just a couple of weeks ago?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yes, I did. I shot three under, a 67, and life is good, and golf is even better, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Even better. That's great. And today we welcome a dear friend of our show. Uh, I would say the man of the moment when it comes to performance coaching, Carl Morris. Welcome back. Uh, Ryan Fox, the champion golfer of the year, the open champion, just pulled off an absolutely unbelievable win at Royal Burkdale just a few weeks ago. And you have been very much an integral part of that journey for him. So welcome back. And I think we should really dig in, start off with Ryan Fox. You've also got the book out, The Mind Caddy. I was gonna maybe tee up a little bit, Carl, to ask you because the Mind Caddy, it's it's a great kind of tome of like 25, 30 years of your experience and your lessons that you've taught people. So you can have like just miniature lessons in one chapter and then put the book down and then come back to it, which is great. What kind of mini lessons out of the mind caddy would you say has has really applied to Ryan Fox and what he did at the open recently?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah, thanks, Dave. Uh hi Chris, good to see you. Fantastic to you that you've uh you've actually got your personal best. That's brilliant. That's that that is walking the storm, so that's fantastic. Um yeah, in in in the book, as you say, it's it's 40. We we said it's the book for people who don't read books in the sense that you you can just pick it up, you can pick it up at any chapter and just read it. You don't have to read it from cover to cover. But I would say there's a a chapter in there on acceptance. And if we go to Royal Birddale in the final round of the open there, and we get to the 15th T and Ryan's joint leader with Cam Young, the open, they're both at nine under. And I was actually I was actually watching it uh at home at the time. I've been there on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for the practice days, and he's hit the T-shot on 15, and the and the crowd go, oh, you could the crowd go, what a shot. And you could hear the crowd really sort of getting it looked like the thing was flying straight at the flag. And I'm in that instant, I'm thinking he's gonna have a putt to go in the lead here, and then it f it falls. And Caddy said it was literally, it wasn't even feet short, it was literally inches short being perfect, and it's caught the lip of the bunker. And not only has he caught the lip of the bunker, it's then come back and spun round in the bunker. And uh I actually spoke to to Brian that night, and and he said he was walking towards the hole after he'd hit it, and he could see that Wayne Riley radar was actually said he said, You always know when you're in trouble, he said, because these on-course guys, if it's just a normal lie, they'll just look at it and walk off. But if it's a real bad lie, you can see them sort of standing in there and trying to get outstanding. And he said, he said radar was all over it. He thought, Oh my god, this must be a real, a real bad one. So he got there and he's he's had to play out backwards, as perhaps people remember, and then is it a great chip and and hold a six-footer for you know, one of the ultimate bogeys in championship golf. But to your point in the chapter, we've worked so hard on these last few years, we've probably had 500 conversations somewhere around the concept of acceptance, and and acceptance, this idea that you know, you're either dealing with the reality of the game in all its chaos and its unfairness and all the rest of it, or you're in a story. And at that point, Ryan Fox could have gone to a story like, I'm unlucky, why has it happened to me? I've just blown the open, you know, can I still make par from here? All these kind of things that would have led him away from the reality of it. And the reality of it was that his caddy Dean Smith said there's up there was only one shot, which was to play out backwards, and he just got to the ball. There was no, there was no sounding off, there was no histrionics, he just got there, played out backwards, and played the shot. And I actually think you could build a whole mental game seminar on those last four holes, really, and it just highlights so much.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Definitely. And did he tell you about what he was feeling at that point? Because he he looked very much like a man who had just got on with it and just accepted it and just played it backwards, as you say. Like, did he tell you, like, inside, was he feeling really annoyed about that bad break, or or how was he feeling about it?

SPEAKER_02 8:35

No, he literally just he just accepted it, dealt with it, that it just is, which is a great phrase that you can use for anybody can use. It's just it just is, rather than oh, look at this lie, this is awful. It just is the ball is where it is, and you know the great credit to Dino is caddy. He just got there and immediately handed him the club to play out backwards, and and all of a sudden, then when you focused on the task, the next task, you're actually not dwelling, you're not letting the previous shot contaminate the current shot. So um, you know, I think it was just I think it was a great lesson for us all playing golf because we all nobody doesn't get drawn into stories because that's what the brain does, it creates stories. But the more you can begin to recognise the stories, then you don't realize then you realise you don't have to be the story. You can choose to come back to the come back to the task and and and get on with it. You know, and then he's rewarded because you know he's got on the he's got on the next T and that that bogey must have felt like an eagle almost, really, from where he was. Yeah. You know, and he's at a decent shot down 16, great approach shot into 16, um, rolled a putt in, and and all of a sudden it's all back on again.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah. And just on that point of acceptance, he also displayed a really, really good attitude. And I just wanted to kind of frame some of our conversation today around, I think what you say in the Mind Caddy book is maybe the three most important concepts or three really important words that you feel have changed a lot of golfers you've worked with, changed their game and turned their game around completely. So those three words being intention, attention, and attitude. And so obviously, you've talked a bit about acceptance, which I think is tied in with attitude. But should we maybe start with intention? Because I love this idea. Whenever you were saying this in the book as I was reading through the other night, just this idea of just even three words, three ideas that could potentially turn your golf game around. So, like talk us through a bit about intention. Like, what would be really, really good ways for club golfers like Chris and I to really make sure that our intention is is as good as it can be when we're going into a shop?

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, I think you know the the mental game can can get extremely complicated and it can get a bit fluffy and nonsensical if we're not careful, but I I think if if folks built the mental game around those three words, that they're never gonna go far off track. So when you look at and you could you you can actually look at intention, attention, and attitude through the lens of a single shot, but you can look at it through the lens of the whole round, and and this is a a big player, then you could actually look at your whole life through those through those three words. Yeah, because it doesn't just apply to golf. So making it relevant for everybody listening to a podcast about golf, let's look at an individual shot, you know. And when you come to a shot, if you think about your you're you're on your home course now, you're on a hole that you know well, you've hit a shot into the fairway, and you get to the ball. Everybody talks about the fact that golf is difficult because it's not a reactionary sport. That isn't true. Golf, we we we actually react to the images in our head before we step into our shot. So the images that we put in our head of what we're attempting to do will influence the movement, movement that we make. Now, in other sports, yes, a ball moves towards us and we we react to that, but with golf, we have to create the intention. So, for me, one of the single most important things with intention when you get to your shot and you've got you've got the hard data, you know, the yardage and the lie and all the wind and all the rest of it, is to ask yourself a really good question. And for me, there's no no no better question than what does a good shot look like here. Now, what seems a really simple question there, what does a good shot look like? By answering that question, you'll probably create a really vivid image of what the golf ball's gonna do. You'll you'll you'll get you know a really clear map for your brain to follow. So now now you've you've set that intention. I I want to I want the golf ball to do this, I want it to go to that target. And it this even applies, I think, for relatively high handicapped golfers because you know, even most inexperienced players will have been in the trees at times when they're trying to play a recovery shot, and they've only got a small gap in the trees, and they play this miracle recovery shot because the intention of the shot is really clear. You've only got you've only got that one option. The task for us all is to get good at doing that on every shot. So you've asked the question, what does it what does a good shot look like? You've got an image of that maybe, you perhaps verbalise it. Now then you can start to feel the movements in your swing, and this is a personal thing, then you start to feel what the golf club is going to do to produce that shot. So that then when you when you're over the ball and you've got 1.5 seconds to occupy your mind, your your attention ideally, I think, then should be focused on the on the feeling and the sensation of what would produce the shot, not swing thoughts or swing techniques, that's very different. You're actually focusing on the feeling of the movement that would produce the shot. So that's your your attention. And then, as you've already alluded to, Dave, what underpins it all, and it's the real, real holy grail, I think, is a willingness to accept any outcome. Because only I think only when we get to that stage do we reduce the threat in our brain where we can actually stand up there and give it a free movement and a free pass and make a movement that's as close as possible to our true capabilities. But nothing will ever protect you from bad shots. You'll that they'll always be in there, and I think if if there's a willingness to accept those when they come along and deal with them, as Fox did on the 15th, then there's a freedom that emerges from that. So, you know, we could literally do a three-day golf school on on those three words intention, attention, and attitude. But you know, in summary, if you if you stay with those three words, you're never going to get too far off with your with with your mental game, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Before we get back to Carl, if you're enjoying this episode and you're getting value from these conversations, we would massively appreciate it if you could follow the show wherever you're listening. It helps us continue to bring great guests like Carl Morris onto our podcast. Okay, let's get back into it.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

I think the first time that I ever um heard of you, Carl, was from my friend he talked about uh Louis Ustedesen when he won the open. I think we talked about this in the first episode with yourself. And it was about the was it the red dot on his glove? So my question with that is as a person that I've talked to you before about finding it, I lose concentration a lot of the time. And if if we're speaking about intention, attention, and attitude, what part, if I'm wanting to put that red dot on my glove, what part of it would I like be like looking down at the red glove? Is that is that intention, attention, or attitude?

SPEAKER_02 16:21

No, I I would say what the the red dot would do, Chris, would take you into the triangle of intention, attention and attitude. So, you know, you would have been you would have been coming from you know talking with your your playing partners or tuning into surroundings or whatever in in between the shot. But by looking at the red dot or whatever it is as a trigger you can use, then you go into that little wonderful sanctuary of those intention, attention, and attitude. You don't want to be in intention, attention, and attitude for five hours. You couldn't be. It's you know, you you you as a good player, you're gonna you're gonna have between 67 and 74, 75 opportunities to go into that to that place where you want to look at the dot and and and get into that into that sort of that that cycle of the three uh of the three words.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Okay the red dot was like it's almost like a trigger or I don't know, I'm gonna say gateway or something to try and just remind you, right? This is whenever you've got a lock in on intention, attention, and attitude. It's so funny though, Carl, I'm sure you probably saw this a lot because this was the work that you did with Louis Oosthuisen back when he won the open. When was that? Was that 2011, 2020? 2010? Yeah, 16, 16 years ago. 16 years ago. Wow. But I think after that, there were a whole lot of people up and down golf clubs with these red dots on their gloves, Chris included. And it's almost like voodoo, people are going, I don't really know what this does, but like hopefully it'll make me play better.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

So yeah, I think people can sort of look at these things like voodoo in some ways. It's almost like some sort of some sort of weird act that might help you play better. But if you understand the reason for it, then I think that helps a lot more.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah. You know, it's it's it's not a rabbit's foot, it's not something you rub the you know, you rub it should you rub the dot with foot and it brings you good luck. That there is there is a specific purpose to it to. As I said, I think a great frame if you look at the game of golf is this idea that when you go on the golf course, that the golf course will offer you a number of puzzles to solve. And it's a great frame to look at a game of golf like that. That you know, depending on your your skill level, it'll offer you between 60 and 90 puzzles or 80 puzzles or whatever it is. And you go out there now, think of any other situation in life where you were trying to solve a puzzle, you would you would need to pay attention to that puzzle to get it solved. You couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't work out seven across if you were thinking of five down. You know, if it was a crossword puzzle. So we we we need to attend to the the individual puzzle and and things like the dot can help you just go into that unique puzzle and then come out of it again.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah. And I and I think um, see, just uh we've talked about this a wee bit about the the best score that I ever had. Um I felt like in my head was very quiet. I was almost in a flow state. Is have you heard that before where people say that when they're playing their best golf, it's not like they're like, okay, I need to hit it to this flag, I'm gonna hit five feet and then put it in. Are they saying they're more in this kind of calm like feeling of just playing golf and enjoying it?

SPEAKER_02 19:54

I think what what ultimately happens with all of this, Chris, is when you've you've you've done it for a while, it works really well when it's kind of in the background and it's happening quietly, you know, and you and you just get into your you just get into your shot. You know, you've experienced it there with that that low score. I guarantee you when when Ryan Fox stood on the 18th green, he's not he's not asking, he's not asking himself, you know, am I am I in intention, attention, or attitude? He's just he's he's getting there and he's he's seeing, you know, he was definitely in pursuit of of of the win rather than trying to you know avoid making bogey or anything like that. But he he would have got up on that T and he would have been playing from a quiet place in the sense that you know he would have seen that shot that he wanted to hit and just got in there and and and hit it and executed it. But my goodness, if if ever there was um if ever there was a T shot, everybody should have a everybody should try and get to Burkdale and stand on that 18th T and see how difficult that shot shot is. The best description I've got, unless you live in a mansion, it's it's like looking at your driveway and try and imagine that you're hitting a ball to the width of your driveway with a crosswind with a crosswind left to right and and pot bunkers on your right hand side, and as hard as your driveway, by the way, as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Yeah, it's just quite remarkable what these guys can do out there in these conditions. And Chris, I was actually thinking of asking you about intention a little bit as well, because as a good player, do you feel like you're really really clear with what you want the ball to do when you're standing over most shots? Because I guess from my perspective, I've started Carl, I think, to try and lock in a lot more with what is it you're actually trying to do. But I think from being a really bad player for a while and now mid-handicap, getting better, Chris. I think for sure, quite gradual. But I think there's been a lot of where I would be maybe stand on a T and just go, anywhere down there, I'll do like come on, anywhere, just just let's hope this isn't too bad, and let's hopefully anywhere I'll do, and then maybe approach shots. It's just a bit like right, there's the green, right? I just I just hope this isn't that bad. And and and you just swing and see what happens. So I guess, Chris, do you feel like you're really locked in? Sorry, go ahead, Kev. I was just gonna say, I was sorry to interrupt.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

I think it's just such an important point that Dave that I think this is the key to it, and it's a leap of faith is is to do this on every shot, knowing that every shot isn't gonna turn out, even for you know a scratch player or a or a tournament pro. But if you don't give yourself an intention, you're not creating a map for your for your brain and body to interact with each other to follow. Now, you know, if you if you create 60 intentions in a round of golf and only 30 of them come off, that's a lot of failure. But I would say that's an awful lot of success as well. Yeah. Whereas if if it's like, oh, you see, what you just described there, I think is, and we've all done it, is falling into the trap of playing avoidance golf rather than pursuit golf. Yes. It's it's like it's like, can I avoid a bad shot? Well, the best way to avoid a bad shot is to pursue a good one. I know that sounds a trite thing to say, but it's a it's a subtle but important shift to go over the other side.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah, I I think to as well to answer your question, Dave, I do think I always have intention. I like, as growing up, I've always liked picturing the shot. When we spoke to Jim Waldron, I'd said that like when I'm standing on every shot, and I've done it a lot of the times where I'll speak. It through to myself, so like I'm saying, Well, I'm standing on here, the wind's coming off the right. I'm playing with a draw just now. I'm gonna play something that's holds up into the wind. I feel like I've always got that over a shot. I think even in my like worst rounds, or even when I'm playing my like C game golf or D game golf, I don't think I'm ever looking at a fair way going, I hope this just goes somewhere down there, because I think then that could become dangerous for me because I have no intention to play that good shot. And I just I think when I was playing that best round, I said that to you. I was like, every shot I had an intention stepping up to that ball and I committed to it 100%. And if it went wrong, then it's just golf. Like it's like what Alex Hong said, where he's like it's sometimes a bounce goes left and it's not your way. It's like Ryan Fox where it hit the liquid bunker and it fell in. On another day, that would have missed it, and then he's chipping in close and makes the bouty. So to answer your question, I definitely think I do have intention with most shots, but sometimes my concentration laps, like some shots, I'm just kind of getting up there and I'm like, why did I do that? But I think a lot of golfers, amateur golfers anyway, do that when they're playing golf personally. That's why I want to bring back in the red dot into my shot so I can see something visually and it's a trigger, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

See, I I think the problem that we have with golf, we put so much emotional emphasis on score, and there's just so many infinite variables in putting a score together. As you as you've just said, Chris, you know, it bounces left, it's on the golf course, it bounces right, it bounces right, it's out of bounds. The wind gets up, it stalls and falls short of the green, and you screw back down the green and you're in an unplayable lie. You know, the wind drops and it goes over the back of the green. I mean, there's just a million things that can happen from a ball and a club colliding with each other to the actual outcome. That's why I think the more we could perhaps score process, like go out and play golf, and did I have just a simple thing, you know. Did I have did I have a clear intention on that shot? Yes or no? Tick or cross, how many, how many ticks do you get in around? How many crosses do you get in a round? You know, if you can come off your golf course and you've got more ticks than crosses, you you you've actually achieved success. Now, that may or may not result in lower scores, but my my my sort of experience with that, if you stick with that kind of thinking over a period of time, you know, what you've just described in your round there, you you've had crystal clear intention on on pretty much all of your shots. Well, the score of 67 to me is a byproduct of that intention. It's not it's not it's not a random happening, it's it's happen it's happened as a result of you doing that over and over and over again. But we've I think we've all got to just sort of really ask ourselves is it is it really beneficial to put so much emotion and so much energy into something that's so variable, like the score, that drives us crazy, that's that's so unfair and so unreasonable and so unpredictable when we could put our energy into something that's an awful lot more predictable.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, just picking up on something you said at the start when we talked about these three key concepts, key words that can really help people playing any shot at any given time, intention, attention, attitude. You said this could also be applied to a whole round. And so I feel like that's kind of coming out there with what you were saying in terms of you could go into a round and say, right, I'm going to have a clear intention with as many shots as possible. I'm going to focus my attention on something useful as often as possible. And I'm going to try and have a good attitude to the outcome as often as possible. You might not get it out every time, but at least you're you're kind of you're committing to doing something that you can potentially control a bit.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Well, if if you look at the opposite of that, Dave, you could go out if you look if you use intention, attention, and attitude with score. If you if you go out with the intention of shooting a low score, your attention is on every shot, pass or fail, in turn in terms of did you make par, did you drop a shot, did you make a bogey? And so your attitude is so it's it's tested so much because, as I said, it's so variable. Where if you set the intention right, I'm I'm gonna I'm just gonna focus on on asking a good question on every shot, that that focuses your attention when you're out there, and it's an awful lot easier to keep your your your attitude stable because that's what we're looking for, as Raymond Pryor talks about, you know, I know you've had Raymond on the show, you know, this idea of stable confidence. What is it that we can actually do that provides some stability? Well, you know, how often do the best players in the world follow 62 with 62? It's it almost never happens. You know, that's because even for the best, score is so unstable. But what isn't unstable is is our is is our uh what what we focus our attention on and what we decide we are going to focus on when we get out on the golf course. That's that's for us to decide, and we can create a lot of stability with that.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah, and I I find um see from like listening to all of the great voices like yourself. I have a few friends obviously now that we do the the podcast that send me their like handicap updates and he's talking me through his round and stuff like that. Another person that talks through the round is Dave because obviously we just want to see where we're both at. And but my friend was basically saying, like, I start the first um five holes trying to like just not be five or six over, he's trying to get single figures, and then he said that basically when he's seven or eight over, he's just like the round's done. And I was and it's like for someone that's doing something like that, how would you? I try to say to him, it's like, well, you need to take away that that got that five over being what you go to because as soon as you go over that, you're just gonna spiral, which he has been, and I just don't have enough kind of knowledge like yourself to basically I try my best, but it's trying to just say, try not have that as your goalpost before you even hit your first shot.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

It's it's it's creating a game within the game. Now, I think what can help a lot of people, Chris, is when you actually really, really strip it all back and you say to you say to people, we've got to realise that when we go and play golf, that the the objective reality is that we're walking around a big field with uh sticks in a bag and pieces of rubber that we're hitting in that field. That's the objective reality. What we decided to what we decide or make up that it means is it that's been given to us. So we've been given the idea, it's all made up. Par's made up, it's a construct. Now, if that construct isn't helping you, make up something else. You know, if if if you're a kind of golfer that goes out and focuses on par and it helps you get your handicap down and you're making great success of your golf and you're you're loving the game and you're getting better, that construct is working for you. But if you're going out and you're trying to just avoid dropping five shots in the first hole, and then when you when you blow it, you then pay play better. That construct of par isn't working for you. So so it it's it's there's a ri a big there's a great liberation in realizing that we're making all this shit up, and if what you're making, if if what you're making up isn't useful to you, make up something else. It's you know, that's why you know I I was fortunate to meet Rudy Geram, who was um Tiger Woods's first coach. You should try and get him on the on the show. I mean, he's a great, great guy. Um you know, and he talked to me when we're in in China and and he said that they they created famously, they created Tiger Par, whereby, you know, Tiger as a young kid would would be playing par 9s and par eights and par sevens and stuff like that. So, you know, if he made if he made a seven on a par nine, wow, that's a great score. Now, if he makes a if he makes a seven on a par four that somebody else has told him is a par four, that's a disaster. Yeah. So it's it's you know, if you if you if you're really into score and you can't get away from that, I would I would say start with par and make up your own par. Because how many club golfers stand on a par four and because the perception is that the par four is difficult, make stupid mistakes and stupid errors chasing a f chasing a four, where if they stood on that hole and they thought it was a par five, they'd play it very differently.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

That's a very good way to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

That's a very good way to look at it. And yeah, I just building on that, Carl. I feel like this might be affecting me. Is these days you hear so much from great people and people who we respect and people who we've had on our show saying the key to getting better at golf is not making more birdies, it's avoiding doubles and avoiding triples, right? Or worse. Cannot disagree with that. That that that that makes that makes sense, and I and I get that. And and you know, it sounds brilliant, you know. Let's go out and just avoid those big numbers, and then our handicaps are gonna come down. From my perspective, I kind of and I'd love to get your take on this. I feel I've almost become a bit obsessed with oh, I want to avoid double bogeys, I want to avoid triple bogies, I want to avoid, avoid, avoid all this. And I feel like ironically, I end up just making a lot of the same errors and end up with three to five to maybe worse on the card at the end of the day. I'm capable of stringing a lot of powers together, but it's those big numbers, and I I worry that it's that obsession with avoidance that is hurting me.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

See, this is a I think this is a massive subject where you know I maybe I may be sort of saying a few unpopular things here, but you know, the the theories are the theories around the quickest way to get better is to reduce your doubles and your triples is unarguable. That that is that is an absolute given. The problem with all these, the problem with all these systems, I think, is they don't take into consideration enough that we're human beings. And, you know, these systems look great on paper, and you know, all all the all the you know, play golf like poker and all the math math as we we get told and all this kind of stuff. All well and good and indisputable in many ways. But the problem is you've just highlighted there, we can all relate to this. What did what did our mother say to us when we were kids? Don't spill the milk. And what did you what did you do when you were trying to avoid something? It's the it's it's you know, we we we find it very difficult as human beings to avoid stuff. There's a different set of chemicals going through our system when we're trying to avoid something, as opposed to pursuing something. Now, I would much rather you play golf, Dave, where you were out there pursuing something rather than trying to avoid something. And I and I don't mean saying, you know, be ridiculous and try and pursue 18 birdies. I'm not saying that. But you could go out there in pursuit of something that might be far more productive for you than trying to avoid doubles and triples, because it's the don't think of a pink elephant scenario. You you have to be thinking about what you want to avoid to even think about it. And I and I I I just think, as I say, they're unarguable statistics, but when we're we're we're human beings, and if again, if what you've made up doesn't work for you, make up something else.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Hmm. What would you recommend, Carl? Someone like me, mid-handicapper, so you know, shooting 78 to 8586 is a decent round of golf for me, right? You know, I haven't broken 80 yet, but it's gonna happen soon, Chris, isn't it? 78. I like it though. I just think, you know, that that that's sort of the range that I should be trying to aim at if I'm trying to get lower, right? So, like, do you have any recommendations about something else that I could pursue rather than this whole because I I just I do think, Chris, this whole just avoid doubles, I I just think it's it's had an inverse kind of detriment to me.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

I I I see that all the time these days, David. Everybody's so, you know, I'm not gonna name the system, but it is everybody's so wedded to this system of of trying to avoid stuff that exactly to your point there, as I say, it's unarguable in terms of the statistics, but the human element. Now, if you think about it, you know, we touched on this at Murrayfield, you know, you're you're touching on, you know, a decent level of golf. I would much one that springs to mind straight away would be I'd love you to go in pursuit of greens in regulation. So you know, you you could you could look at Murrayfield or wherever you play your golf, and this actually will help you reduce your doubles and triples, is just look at every single hole and actually think to yourself, right, uh realistically, can I hit this green in regulation? Now there'll be a few holes where probably that's not the case. Now, I would say to you then, you should be you should be pursuing handicap greens in regulation. So on a tough path four, your handicapped green in regulation, you'll hit it in three rather than two. But it's a positive pursuit-based effort rather than avoidance mode. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

And so at the end of a round, I could be looking at two, just two very simple stats. How many greens in regulation, like legitimate greens in regulation, did I get? And then how many handicapped greens in regulation did I get? And just see see how many I can accumulate as I move forward.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

See, see, I think I think handicap greens in regulation is a great way to avoid doubles and triples because you know if you're out of position on a on a long par to get the handicap green in regulation, it would make a lot of sense just to get it back in play somewhere and find the green somehow with a wedge or a nine-iron, and you you've got your handicap green in regulation. You're probably going to make bogey, but you're avoiding doubles and triples.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Yeah, see that some yeah, sorry you go. Sorry, Chris. So that's something that I've found which has really, really helped my game. Is say if I find myself out of position, then I'm like, okay, bogey at worst, try bogey. It's not like I'm like, oh no, if I get a double, that's game over, but I'm just going, bogey at worst, get yourself back in play. And then when I make a part, I'm realizing that kind of like dopamine hit that I'm getting to be like just for a part, it feels like a birdie. I've found that recently as being a because a lot of the times, silly, I I know better as well. But like if I found myself out of position, I'm trying to hook something round the corner, it hits the tree, then it's right back at my feet. Then I'm looking at double like straight in the mouth. But now I'm looking at it as bogey at worst. But if it's more than that, then I've kind of like feel like I'm getting this monkey off my back, which feels great, just from detaching from the scorecard. And I found thought that was going to be really hard to do. But I I played up in Aberdeen at a really nice course the other day, and was it's one of the tightest courses I've ever played. And I went out there just with the I just want to enjoy this round, and after nine, I was uh counting up everybody's score, and I was two over, and it like we were all kind of like this is excellent, and then in the back nine where I was like, it's two, it's two over, like you could go quite well here. What happens? I fall apart because I started watching the scorecard again. So I think like Dave, I think for like yourself, what I'm finding is like that kind of say it's double at worst, and then if you make a double but you make a bogey, then who knows? You're you could be like, This is excellent. I don't know. That's from my side.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

You know, for me, Dave, I would I would suggest you play 10 rounds where that's your commitment every round to to see how many greens in regulation you get, and how many handicap handicapped greens in regulation you get. And you know, you can almost score that. You could score a green in regulation as two and a handicap green in regulation as one. How many points can you score? It's it's this it's this pursuit of something as opposed to avoiding something that's crucial with this. You know, back back to you know, inevitably back to Ryan Fox, he definitely pursued a three up that last hole rather than trying to get in a playoff. He was he was he was in that moment decided to go for now. He he also said on the commentary, you know, he made peace with himself that in pursuit of a three, there was a possibility he could end up in the bunker, but you know, far better to do that than be on the T. You know, what you're describing is avoiding doubles and triples. All that's gonna do is magnetising your brain, all the trouble on every hole. You you you know, you're inevitably gonna be drawn towards that.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, definitely. Absolutely, and Ryan Fox, I think, just clearly just so so locked in, as we were talking about earlier, just going after it and pursuing something, I guess, at that level, knowing okay, this could cost me three to four places on the leaderboard, maybe more. But I've got this within my sight, so I'm gonna pursue this. And I think we want to get this on a t-shirt, Chris. It came on the back of our conversation with Dr. Raymond Pryor was you can't go low if you're afraid to shoot high. And uh, you know, I I think, yeah, and he was pretty much just saying that you know, pursuit-based thinking is way, way more effective in golf than avoidance-based thinking.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Yeah, definitely. And I think, see, for myself, who's I'm in a really good space in my golf, and I'm trying to stay in this positive, positive mindset, and I and I don't feel like that kind of avoidance is creeping in yet, but I feel like it's uh you golf's like a circle where uh Mark Emblem was saying it's like good golf, indifferent golf, bad golf, indifferent golf, good golf. Golf, circle of life, the circle of life and golf. I feel like I'm in good golf just now, and when I go into indifferent, I just need to go back to my foundations, but I'm almost worried in case I go into bad golf. Um, for someone that's like sitting on that fence, like how how would you say to for myself, if I'm in pursuit mode just now and really enjoying my golf and I'm detached from the scorecard, how would you say to just kind of like kick on for the rest of the season? Would you just say be in pursuit mode and whatever happens, happens? Like just enjoy it. How do you play well forever?

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah. I I would I I would also I would also, Chris, say you've got to deal with reality and and just one one of the most important things, and I was talking with a guy earlier about this, who this guy is a client in the States. He because of his family and his situ his family situation, and he's I mean he's a very successful uh guy, works in Manhattan, and he and he he's been able to play 15 rounds of golf this year because of time constraints. And he's played 15 rounds of golf this year, and he's got his handicap down from plus one to plus four. Who's exactly the same thing? It's just but we we talked about at the beginning of the year, don't fall into the trap of a story that the story could easily be I've not got enough time to play, I can't work on my game, I don't deserve I don't deserve to play well with the amount of golf I play and all the rest of it. None of that, none of that is real. That's just a story that you've made up. So what you're saying there, Chris, is that your your mind is wanting to make up a story that oh, this is gonna end at some point. And you know, what I would say we need to all keep saying to ourselves, and this is what what um the guy in America was saying, it it's the biggest breakthrough for him as being constantly saying to his brain, I'm gonna be okay whatever happens. I'm I'm okay if I shoot 90. Not and not this flippantly trying to say that, genuinely meaning it to his core.

unknown 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

And I think this it's the inverse of what we've all been told. We've all been told to think positive. That's fine. Fine, but what you've actually really got to deal with is make your brain so it's not of it's not afraid of the inevitability of some bad days on the golf course. Because if it's not afraid of it and it doesn't see the golf course as a threat, paradoxically, then that's when the best golf comes out. Your best golf doesn't come out as a result of just hitting good shots. Your best golf comes out when your brain is perceiving a golf course as an opportunity, not a threat.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Yeah, and you told us that before you'd said that you wanted us in the winter to write our old story and then write our new story, and I think that's just like so powerful and to take on. Yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

So we've obviously talked a lot about uh intention, we've covered acceptance, and you know, we talked about that at length on our last podcast episode with you, Carl, so we'd strongly recommend anyone to go and check out some of that. Just mindful of your time here, but we haven't really talked a lot about the attention concept and the attention part of that. Do you want to just give us a really a really quick nugget from the mind, Caddy, that can help players like Chris and I with our attention? Because I think again, similar to what I talked about earlier, I certainly am prone to standing over a shot when it's time to pull the trigger, and I'm thinking of various different things that aren't focusing on what I want the ball to do. It might be, oh, I really hope it doesn't go out of bounds, it might be something else, but there's a lot of distraction. So so what would you say from like the mind caddy that people could really lock into to improve that attention? That's a tough one in five minutes.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

That's that's that's that's a too that's a two-day golf school. In summary, I would I I would say what you've got to do, and I would I'd strongly recommend everybody to explore this. It's this concept of the one point of of can you keep your attention in one place for the duration of the golf swing, the 1.4, 1.5 seconds of a golf swing. And you know, to speedily run through it, there's there's I think there's five options for that for everybody to explore. One would be the target, one would be ball flight, one would be the club, your body, or something that's unrelated to the task. But I I would say if you're struggling to access your skills from the range to the golf course, that should be the number one thing that you explore is find out what your best one point is. Have the goal have the goal of keeping your attention in one place for the duration of the swing. And that'll I'm sure Jim Waldron said similar things when he was on about fo he calls it focal points. It's it's I I think that's the next frontier in coaching is coaches who really understand more about finding out, exploring and becoming an attention detective and finding out what what your one point is.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Yeah, I really like that. Next frontier of coaching. Yeah, Jim Waldron, he does. He talks about getting his students to sit and focus on a candle for increased lengths of time, see how well you can focus on that. But that was, yeah, you as you said, just to recap, you find the kind of big five that people can focus on are target, ball flight, club, body, or something completely unrelated. Maybe that'll work for some people. But to go and experiment and see which one maybe helps you the most as a golfer.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

You know, to wrap this up, the the one that stood the test of time in terms of eliciting performance has been rhythm and tempo. That's a one point where you're focusing on the rhythm of your body, you're focusing on your balance, perhaps. That's a perfect example of why rhythm as a as a focal point works really well to elicit your best golf because your mind's settled in one place.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

And this is really good for me to hear. Because Chris, I wasn't sure if I was going to confess to Carl what just happened to me out there in the golf course. You were Chris wasn't there to witness it. Thankfully, no one was there to witness it, but it was really, really pretty bad, Carl. And I was thinking, it's good that I'm about to speak to Carl here because you know, this is tough going here. It it was actually apocalyptic, it was it was probably the worst I've I've ever played in the last three or four years. And I just completely lost access to my skills. Like I've I've developed much more skill than I had a year ago or six months ago, and I completely lost access. And what you said there is placing your attention on some of these, or like preferably one of these things, helps you regain access to the skill that you have, right? Absolutely like yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great, Carl. Uh, I'm going to experiment with those and see which one of those helps me the most. I'm sure it probably shifts around a bit as you evolve as as time goes by, but certainly want to look into that. And just a big thank you once again. Do you want to tell everyone, Carl, where people can get the Mind Caddy book? I strongly recommend everyone check that out.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

And anything else, any other stuff that you want to tell people about Yeah, I mean just start with the book, just go to Amazon, it's available there, and you know, Amazon across the world, so you can you can start with start with that, and then there's the uh the app that's the companion to it, the mind caddy app that's got the AI uh coach on there. So, but yeah, just just kick off with the book and have a look at that and see where to dip your toe in the water with that. But uh it's just it's just on average.

SPEAKER_01 51:29

These these lessons in the Mind Caddy are good enough for the open champion, Ryan Fox, then I think they're good enough for most people. Just final note on that, Carl. Uh Chris and I had the pleasure of dining at the Marine Hotel in North Berwick during the Scottish Open weekend with Mark Emmelman. He was on the show a few weeks ago, and we had a fantastic evening. Like honestly, and we'd played a bit of golf with him and everything. It was just a wonderful time. But Ryan Fox, this was the week before he won the British Open, he was actually at the table next to us, and Mark knows him obviously from CBS announcing. So Mark was speaking to him and he was kind of waving over. Uh, so all I'm saying is I feel like the how low can you go vibes and energy might have also played a part uh with Ryan Fox and his open win. You two were the catalyst, clearly, to that win.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Oh brilliant way to end it. We'll take the credit for that. Thank you very much, Carl. Always a pleasure. All right, guys. Thanks for asking me.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Take care.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Thank you so much once again. And huge congratulations to Carl for everything that he has achieved with Ryan Fox. And to be honest, everything he's achieved in the game of golf, that's now a long string of major winners who have worked closely with Carl and have obviously seen significant success as a result. From our perspective, more importantly, more selfishly, thank you to Carl once again for giving us so many brilliant ideas that I think every single club golfer listening can actually just go ahead and take onto the golf course this weekend. I strongly recommend to anyone to just go ahead, try out some of these ideas, try that for a few rounds, see where that leads. If you enjoyed today's episode, please just follow us wherever you're listening. Leave us a really good five-star review. Why not? Uh just take a moment and do that. It really helps us grow the podcast, reach other golfers, and get really top drawer guests like Carl Morris onto the show. So, really great stuff once again. Thank you all as ever for your support. Thanks for listening. Keep the DMs coming in, we really appreciate them. And we will see you next time on Howlow Can You Go. How low can you go?