Golf Guru Aims To Bring Mental Coaching To The Masses

Golf’s most influential figures agree that managing the mental rigors of the game is the key to finding success in the sport. The great Bobby Jones joked that competitive golf is played “primarily on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears,” and on Tiger Woods’ how i play golf Tell-All, which devotes a chapter to the psychological component of golf, revealed that his greatest weapon is his “creative mind.”

All four of this year’s big winners have cited the virtue of patience as a contributing factor to their victories. In last weekend’s Wyndham Championship regular season finale, eventual winner Joohyung Kim began his tournament with a sobering quadruple bogey on his first hole. The 20-year-old shrugged off the adversity and embarrassment of the blowout, clawed his way into contention and surged to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday in style with a commanding five-shot win.

“I had a lot of patience this week. That was the thing,” she told CBS’s Amanda Renner in a post-round interview. “I felt like after that quad, once I started laughing, I was in a better state of mind. Instead of getting angry and depressed, I stayed in the moment,” Kim continued.

With millions of dollars on the line, top players often tap into the expertise of a mental coach when they need to get their heads straight. The caliber of mindset required to muster championship-level patience can cost a pretty penny. Of course, the cost benefit to recreational players hasn’t really been there, causing casual golfers to pay little into the business of sharpening their mental acuity, but golf gurua subscription-based app that launched in June, aims to change the dynamic.

During the early phases of product testing, players were approached on a handful of development tours across the pond, including the Clutch, PGA europro Tour and the Ladies European Tour.

“We saw a very good response from people who may not be able to afford their own psychologist. We’ve had quite a few players who have seen various levels of success—Gabriella Cowley, on the LET, is one of them. I think there is a real opportunity for us as we go forward to be a sort of psychologist for these developmental Tour players who are on the rise,” explains Golf Guru co-founder James Sinclair.

High handicap players can also benefit from mindfulness exercises aimed at promoting calm, confidence and concentration on the golf course, as well as developing a positive and healthy attitude towards the game.

“Almost every golfer is struggling with something they can get into, whether it’s lack of confidence, difficulty concentrating, or difficulty staying calm under pressure,” explains Sinclair.

“We want people to be focused and present and to have a high level of self-confidence. We also want them to have the tools to stay calm under pressure to deal with whatever a round of golf throws at them,” she adds.

The audio content itself runs the gamut from guided meditations at home or in the car to put you in a positive mindset to real-time immersive sessions meant to be listened to on a situational basis as you play or practice. One that falls into the latter category is a high-stakes matchup simulation, pitting the listener against Justin Thomas over a sequence of putts of varying lengths on Sunday at the Masters.

“There is a tremendous opportunity for every golfer, whatever their ability, to improve their mental game. It’s almost as if that side is always second fiddle to the physical side. It is the thing that is most often neglected, but can potentially have the biggest impact on his ability to play his best, even if he is a more casual golfer,” says Sinclair.

Golf Guru is currently forging partnerships with leading golf psychologists who advise renowned players on major courses to bolster their mindfulness content and are also about to close a pre-funding round. While it is early days for the nascent platform, they have amassed 8,000 users and forecast to have 13,000 paid subscribers by the end of 2023.