June 22, 2026

296: Joel Suggs (PGA Master) - These three stats explain everything…

1 hour 25 minutes

On this episode we have Joel Suggs, a PGA Master Teaching Professional with decades of experience helping golfers of all levels understand their own games. Joel is the author of Golf Success Before Every Round, which was the number one new release in golf coaching on Amazon when it came out.

By the end of this episode, you'll learn why golfers already have the right answers for their game — and how to draw those out using facts instead of tips. You'll discover the three stats that cause virtually all big scores in golf, why analyzing batches of shots beats obsessing over individual ones, and what your tap-in count is actually telling you about your putting.

Joel is a unique and interesting guy so I’m confident you’ll learn some new perspectives from this one.

Get Joel Suggs’ Book & Workbook: Golf Success Before Every Round & Golf Success During Every Round

-----

Timestamps & Topics:

00:00 - Intro

2:18 - Golfer’s Already Have the Right Answers In Them

9:22 - How Do We Use Stats to Change Our Games?

15:34 - 🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

17:32 - Swing Change vs. Swing Improvement: What Even Is a Swing Change?

28:04 - 🏌️‍♂️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

30:29 - Play What You Have? Or Stubbornly Try To Play What You SHOULD Have?

36:51 - One Shot at a Time: How To Get Lost In the Golf Moment

40:53 - Why Tracking Tap-Ins is Actually a Valuable Stat

50:41 - ⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

52:53 - Actionables from Tracking Tap-Ins

55:30 - The Three Most Important Stats to Spend Limited Time Working On

1:06:15 - 🎯 Shot Pattern - Course Management Made Easy - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

1:08:14 - Why Do We Play Worse Than We Practice?

1:13:33 - Why We Should Be Grateful About Golf

1:19:42 - Joel Suggs

-----

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

-----

Mentioned in this episode:

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

🏌️‍♂️ Basic and Custom Practice Plans - Practice made simple, intentional, and accountable.

⛳️ PutterCup: Get 15% off your PutterCup order by going to puttercupgolf.com/mentalgolfshow and signing up for the PutterCup newsletter.

🎯 Shot Pattern - Course Management Made Easy - Start a free trial and get 20% off by using the discount code 'MENTALGOLFSHOW' or click this link to go straight there.

-----

Josh's stuff:

📊 FREE Mental Game Assessment: app.joshnicholsgolf.com/assessment - identify your mental strengths and areas for mental game improvement.

👨🏻‍🏫 1-on-1 Mental Coaching with Josh: Visit joshnicholsgolf.com/coaching to see plans and pricing to work with Josh on your mental game. Or send an email to [email protected].

🎓 The Perfect Pre-Shot Routine digital course - Dial in your pre-shot routine, play your best golf.

📧 The Mental Re-Grip Newsletter: Sign up for weekly mental game tips at **joshnicholsgolf.com/newsletter.**

-----

Other podcast partners:

⛳️ The Divot Board: Get 10% off at divotboard.com/mentalgolfshow using code 'MentalGolf10'.

🏋️‍♂️ FREE Golf Workout - Nerd Fitness - Get the Free MVP Golf Workout from Nerd Fitness here!

🍀 Fairways & Fundays - Ireland Golf Tours - Named World’s Best Golf Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards in 2024 and 2025! If you’re interested in going on a golf trip to Ireland, send me an email and I’ll get you set up with them - [email protected]

-----

🔥 🧈 Special thanks to Titleist for their support of The Mental Golf Show. Join Team Titleist here.

-----

10 Key Takeaways

Answers Already Inside — Golfers already have the right answers for their game — a coach's job is to draw those answers out through facts and honest conversation, not to impose new ones.

Batches Beat Individual Shots — Analyzing batches of shots rather than individual shots gives golfers a far more accurate and useful picture of their actual game.

Improvement Over Swing Change — "Swing change" is rarely real — improvement is more accurate and more honest, because there is no definitive before-and-after moment, only a continuum of progress.

Three Stats That Matter — The three stats that matter most in golf are drives out of play, missed pitches, and three-putts — these are the primary causes of big holes and high scores.

Know Your Longest Club — Knowing the longest club you can reliably hit in play off the tee is one of the most useful pieces of self-knowledge a golfer can have.

Tap-Ins Aren't Everything — Tap-ins are neither inherently good nor bad — fewer tap-ins often correlates with lower scores, because it means more putts from makeable distances went in.

Simple Stats Stick — The golf mirror is only useful if the stats are simple, direct, and non-convoluted — complexity kills the habit.

One Thought, One Round — Good players go into a round with one long-established swing thought and adapt using their own proven golf medicine when things go sideways.

Strengths Fix Weaknesses — Working on your strengths is as important as addressing weaknesses — the good shots you already hit contain the answers to fixing the bad ones.

Humility Means Accepting Facts — Humility in golf means accepting facts as they are — the golfer who can look honestly at their own game without illusion improves consistently over time.

-----

Top 5 episodes of The Mental Golf Show:

Mike & Eli of Chasing Scratch - Letting Scratch Happen

How to Trust Your Swing even when things are Going Wrong

Golf Thought Thursday: The Easiest (and Hardest) Way to Play Better Golf

Lean Into Your Golf Personality with John Weir (creator of Mental Golf Type)

How to Juggle Golf and Life with Andy Walker and Steve Hinks

...more

View all episodes

By Josh Nichols

4.7

123123 ratings