Confidence in golf often feels like it comes and goes with your scorecard. But what if there’s a way to build confidence that doesn’t vanish after a bad hole or a bad round? In this episode, we’ll explore where true confidence really comes from—and why most golfers never find it.
Alright folks, welcome back to the show.
Today I want to talk about confidence. And I want to start with a simple question: where does your confidence come from on the golf course?
For most of us, the answer is results. If we’re playing well, we feel confident. If we’re hitting good shots, making putts, posting good scores—then confidence is high. But if we’re struggling—if the ball isn’t going where we want, if we’ve had a couple bad rounds in a row—that confidence tends to disappear.
And here’s the problem with that kind of confidence: it’s fragile. It comes and goes with your scorecard. It’s outside of your control.
Before I get into how to build durable confidence, I want to take a quick moment to thank today’s sponsor: The Divot Board.
The Divot Board is one of my favorite training aids because it gives you instant feedback on your contact. You can see exactly where the club is striking the ground—whether you’re catching it clean, hitting it fat, or coming in a little thin. And that feedback is huge, because it helps you focus on the process of getting better rather than just guessing at what went wrong.
I use it myself, and I can tell you: even just a few swings on the Divot Board can reveal patterns you never noticed before. It’s portable, easy to set up, and one of the best tools I’ve found for building trust in your swing.
So if you want to train with more purpose and build that durable confidence we’re talking about today, check out The Divot Board. You can use my link in the show notes [or insert your affiliate code here] to grab one for yourself.
Alright, back to the show.
So the real question becomes: how do we build durable confidence—the kind of confidence that doesn’t vanish just because you had a rough hole or a rough week?
Well, to start with, you have to base your confidence on something you can control. And in golf, you can’t control your results. You can’t control whether every drive finds the fairway or every putt drops. But what you can control is your effort.
You can control your process. You can control how you prepare, how you practice, how you approach your routines. You can control the way you commit to shots. You can always give effort, no matter how much time you have, what time of year it is, or how well you’re currently playing.
Now, here’s the catch: you won’t always see the results of that effort right away. Sometimes you’re working on the right things and the progress doesn’t show up for a while. But deep down, you know when you’re doing the work. And that knowledge—that you’re investing in the process—creates a steadier, more reliable sense of confidence.
But there’s actually a deeper layer to this. Because even effort and process, while controllable, don’t always guarantee things will go the way you want. You can do everything right and still hit a bad shot.
So what’s the ultimate source of confidence? It’s acceptance.
True confidence sounds like this: “I can handle anything.”
Think about the difference:
That shift changes everything. You don’t have to fear mistakes, because you’ve already accepted that mistakes will happen—and you trust yourself to handle them.
So here’s my challenge for you: next time you’re on the course, check in with yourself. Instead of asking, “Am I playing well right now?” ask, “Am I controlling my effort? Am I sticking to my process?” And instead of hoping everything goes perfectly, remind yourself: “I can handle it when it doesn’t.”
That’s what durable confidence really is. Not confidence in a perfect round, but confidence in your ability to respond when the round isn’t perfect.
So remember: results-based confidence is fragile. Effort- and acceptance-based confidence is durable.
Confidence isn’t needing everything to go well. Confidence is knowing you can handle it when it doesn’t.