Getting to Know: Dr. Bob Winters, Sports Psychologist

American Golfer: When did you start playing golf?

Dr. Bob Winters

Dr. Bob Winters:  I first took up the game at the age of 13 after my oldest brother had entered the Army. He picked it up as a young soldier at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and after visiting him on a weekend leave, he introduced me to the game. Later that same year, I had gotten my first set, which was a junior set of Chi Chi Rodriguez Northwestern woods and irons. This was a very long time ago and to even have a set of junior sized irons was extremely rare. I was very small for my age and even when I was a senior in high school at the height of 4’ 10”, I had to use women’s clubs because they were lighter and a bit shorter. But even as a youngster, I was always outdriven by bigger boys and had to come to the realization that if I was going to excel in this game, I had to use my head and have a keen short game. This led me to value my practice time with the wedge and putter. This devotion to understanding the discipline of having a great scoring mindset helped me to play on my high school team and eventually enabled me to play Division I golf at Ball State University, of which I was the only walk-on to ever make the team without the head coach even knowing who I was when I tried out for the team. Thus, I attribute much of my early golfing success to the power of the mind and a strong short game.

AG: What does a mental-game consultant do for a golfer?
BW: This is a difficult question to answer, because not all mental game consultants are alike and many of them have different qualifications by which they say they are mental game consultants. I hold a PhD. in Sport Psychology from the University of Virginia with major concentrations in studies of Motor Learning and Motor Development and Educational Research and Counseling. I have Bachelor’s and Masters’ degrees in Physical Education and also minors in Speech and Theatre and Business Administration from Ball State University. However, I have also been trained in Sports Vision, Sports Medicine and have undergone Emergency Medical Training Certification and Neuropsychology and Hypnosis Certification classes. This is not to mention the 20-plus years that I spent doing intern work with athletes in sports vision and sport psychology in an applied fashion at major universities prior to me obtaining my doctorate degree. I also was a Division I golf coach for eight years and helped start the Nike Golf School Junior Golf Programs across America in 1992. So, with all of that academic and applied background, it gives me a ”hybrid approach” to working with athletes that others may not have. But I believe a mental coach should be able to accommodate any issues that may arise for a golfer and help him or her through those difficulties and create an optimal state of functioning, which is simply allowing them to access their talent base and play their best golf consistently. This can be done by classroom or on course training and developing personal intervention strategies that can be implemented by the golfer/student. For many golfers, understanding their personality and arousal levels is a great start because they are usually unaware of any blind spots that show up in a round and they generally repeat the same mistakes round after round and fail to show improvement. As a mental coach, my task is to help a golfer become aware of their strengths and their weaknesses and move towards making them a more balanced and total golfer. Being a former player of the game allows me to communicate easier with my golfer/athletes because we speak the same language versus getting caught up in the semantics of psychological jargon. Therefore, the mental game consultant should know exactly what and how he is going to implement the strategy for his athlete and then keep it simple and specific in application.

AG: How did you become a mental-game consultant?

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BW: As I have previously stated, I played amateur and collegiate golf and while I was doing my Masters thesis at Ball State University, I wrote about anxiety and the effects it had on modern golf performance. That was in 1977 and back then, there was little, if any, talk about sport psychology and optimal performance, so I decided to venture out and do my own research into the fields of self-improvement, hypnosis and positive psychology. In 1981, I met a wonderful man who was an optometrist by the name of Dr. Herbert Price who was doing vision work with athletes at a nearby town close to where I lived. Dr. Price was interested in helping athletes utilize their visual systems more effectively and I became his understudy with this voracious appetite to learn how the sensory systems could alter and ultimately, enhance one’s athletic performance. Together we formed a friendship and alliance where we would go and speak with colleges, law enforcement agencies and interested groups about how the visual system affects their performance. From this applied experience, I then ventured out onto the PGA Tour and took a few of these “vanguard” ideas and introduced them to several players who instantly started to putt better and started winning tournaments. A few years later, I went to a Sport Psychology summer conference at the University of Virginia and listened to the Director of the Sports program and his thoughts and ideas were similar to mine and I thought to myself … "this is for me." His name was Dr. Bob Rotella and as the next two years went by, I prepared myself for entering the doctoral program under him and Dr. Linda Bunker, a wonderful sport psychologist who was a genius in the world of motor learning and adaptive learning. By applying to the University of Virginia and studying under some of the best minds in sport science, I rapidly found out that there was so much to learn and so little time to do it in! But after years of research and studying and dissertation writing, I finally earned my PhD. However, during my years at UVa, I was also Men’s Assistant Golf Coach and was working with various sports teams and individual athletes as a sport consultant. These included football, lacrosse, soccer, baseball and basketball athletes as well as golfers. So, it was nice to gain a multiple sport perspective and applied work experience with such a wonderful group of motivated athletes. But, even to this day, I am constantly reading and researching new ideas to help my students become better than their best each and every day. So, I am always trying to stretch myself and make myself better as well.

AG: How is the mind of a golfer different than other athletes?
BW: There are similarities and differences in all sports. But I’m not sure if it is any different in the fact that the golfers of today view themselves as athletes and train and prepare themselves in ways that are quite similar to other athletes in competitive and team sports. However, the greatest athletes in team and direct competition sports that I have had the opportunity to consult with such as Mike Schmidt, Charles Barkley, Dan Marino and others all address the difficulty of golf as compared to their games of choice. That is, they all say that golf is the toughest sport they have ever played. The consensus of their reasoning is that a golfer has only himself/herself to praise or blame. The responsibility of execution is entirely up to that athlete. There is no place to hide or any teammates to mask your poor play. So, with that in mind, I think that a golfer has to realize that it isn’t about anyone else, but if it is to be … is has to begin and end with me! This may be a selfish mindset, but every golfer must realize that the only person they can control is his or herself. Also, a golfer has a different venue to play on each day and that environment is changing constantly from moment to moment, so no one moment or day is the same as the next. Therefore, adaptation and flexibility of one’s mindset has to be fine-tuned in order to deal with the extreme variations in feel, conditions and environmental factors that other sport athletes don’t have to deal with to a large degree. Also, the level of intensive focus and self-discipline that is required to channel energy and dismiss anger and frustration is different for golfers than it is for a football player or soccer player. In aggressive or dynamic motion sports, the athletes can simply run it off or aggressively take out their frustration on a hit or block. In golf, anger is not an option and ultimately can lead to a meltdown. Therefore, patience, anger management and arousal control are paramount to optimal and consistent golf performance.

AG: What’s your favorite thing about being a mental-game consultant?
BW: The aspect that I get up every day and can enrich someone’s life by giving them my advice or counsel is empowering and humbling to me. I can honestly say that the people that I have met and the places that I have gone doing what I do … is pretty cool. Not too many people get to say that they are living their dream, but that is exactly what I am doing. I have created a living reality and I am a living example of the “Little Engine That Could!” I say this without arrogance or conceit, I just know that I have worked so hard and given up so much to do what I do … but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The hardships that I encountered to get here are worth it when I realize that my mission now is helping others reach their goals and create their own dreams into living realities. Knowing that I had a role in helping them get to where they wanted to go is absolutely fulfilling as an educator, counselor and facilitator. In truth, it makes me feel good about me being me. But, I never forget that if it wasn’t for others helping me get here, I wouldn’t be doing this interview in the first place. So, I think it’s also the ability to reflect on where you come from, look at what you’ve done and get ready for what’s ahead.

AG: Conversely, what’s your least favorite thing?
BW: Ideally, I’d like to say that there isn’t a least favorite thing, but that wouldn’t be honest and if anything is called for in this game of golf, it is honesty. So, when I hear people say that they don’t believe in sport psychology or that all mental coaches are the same or that they don’t help, that gets my ire up a bit. As I have already stated in this interview, no two sport psychologists or mental game consultants are the same. It is up to the player who is looking for a reputable mental coach to do their homework and give the science of sport psychology a fair chance. I know that when players come to me and who have seen other consultants prior to me, they always say “you are very different.” That is a compliment to me because I want to make learning fun and enjoyable for my students. I am very passionate about my profession and I love what I do. So much so that I did it for nothing for many years and didn’t charge my students. Which leads me to my next peeve and that is so many people want to have the great information but are unwilling to pay for your services to obtain it. What many of these golfers forget is that Sport Psychology is a rigorous sport science with many years of validated and reliable research and accreditation and that those of us who have spent over four decades promoting applied sport psychology feel the need to charge a certain fee structure, then so be it. After all, you only get what you pay for.

AG: What’s the most common mental issue amateur golfers take to the course?
BW: Perhaps the most common mental issue is the idea of score. So many amateur golfers step onto the first tee thinking about what they are going to shoot and how they are going to play certain holes even before they place their tee into the ground. This constant inner mental chatter about what they are going to shoot for the day plays like a broken record over and over and leads to doubt, worry and tension … all killers of a fluid and smooth golf swing. By projecting what they are going to shoot and setting an expected score goal before they go play, places self-imposed pressure on a golfer and when they fail to meet or match that expectation, they become frustrated, disappointed and angry. Having expectations of score and perfect play gets in the way of golfers playing each shot as it comes and staying in the moment. If we could just get away from the scorecard and play each shot to the best of our ability at that moment in time … golfers would enjoy themselves more and shoot lower scores.

AG: Any self-help tips you can offer an amateur golfer?
BW: The first thing that I would offer to any golfer is simply this: Let go of what everyone else is doing around you and get into your own game! The pre-occupation with what we think others are thinking about us gets us wrapped up in a paranoia of panic and self-distracted thinking. So, let go of others and get into your game would be the first tip.

A second tip is this: Never … ever … hit your shot when you are not ready or are feeling uncomfortable or just want to get it over with quickly! The golf ball is simply waiting for you to hit it and you should never rush yourself just to keep things moving. I realize that everyone wants to speed up play, but I want players to hit good shots that go far and straight. I don’t think short and crooked just for the sake of getting things over with quickly is a good strategy. How many times do golfers hit a shot and then say … "I should have backed off!" I hear this a lot. So, never, ever hit a shot until you are ready to swing with trust and confidence and have a clear idea that your ball is going to the target or into the hole. Those are two tips that will really shave strokes off your game.

AG: Charles Barkley has a well-chronicled case of “swing yips.” What would you do to help him?
BW: It’s interesting that you’ve asked me this question because in 1995 when I was doing my NIKE golf schools at Boca Raton Resort, Sir Charles stopped me and wanted some help. He told me that he had “psychological warfare” going on in his head! What I did with Charles was get him into a rhythm and we started with him having a very structured and disciplined pre-shot routine procedure that ensured fluidity at the start and at the top of his swing. What he developed was an overthinking and coercive movement because someone told him to pause a bit at the top. Over time, he created a bad habit of stopping and wasn’t able to make a transition. I simply gave him some drills that allowed him to swing freely to the top, make a slight transition and move into the ball. The one thing that I was able to do was get him to be a bit more fluid and not so “tight and coercive” at the ball. Interestingly enough, his short game shots were very good and his putting was quite accurate. For nine holes, Sir Charles went from (before our work) 67 on nine holes to 43 (after our day-long session). However, the one thing Charles has done is over-instruct himself and going from instructor to instructor with so many things that he hasn’t mastered one swing thought or movement. But to his credit, I have never seen anyone work harder or with more enthusiasm to get better than Charles Barkley. His work ethic is why he was a success on the basketball floor and also as an announcer. And by the way, he was a joy to work with and be around!

AG: What’s your “dream foursome” (living or dead, golfer or non-golfer)?
BW: My dream foursome would include my Father, Dale Winters, my older brother Bill Winters, Arnold Palmer and a wonderful neighbor Howdy Mack. I realize that many people have famous celebrities in their foursome, but these four individuals played such a huge part in my life that I would love to have the chance for all of these men to get together. However, three are no longer with us, but my dream would be these men: My Father, the late Dale Winters, was known as The Big Cheese and was one hell of a great putter and chipper. There was never a short shot that he couldn’t make or putt too long that he couldn’t sink. Uncanny. The second member of my group would be my older brother Bill Winters. Bill is a great athlete with so many holes in one that it is almost a crime to talk about (he has 35). Oh, by the way, he plays a lot of golf! The third member would be the great Arnold Palmer. Mr. Palmer and I go back to when I made a hole in one at The Arnold Palmer Golf Academy at Stratton Mountain, Vermont in 1971 on a par three hole that measured 215 yards. It was uphill and I struck a driver and knocked it in and Arnold gave me my first hole-in-one trophy personally. Over the years, when Arnold would see me, he would always shake my shoulders and make me feel like I was one of his very own. He had a way with people that makes me tear up even to this day. The last member of my foursome is Howdy Mack. Taken down by lung cancer a few years ago, I cannot remember a stronger competitor or someone that just loved to be out playing golf. In fact … every one of these men loved the game more than anyone else I have ever known … and I have met a lot of golfers over these past 50 years. If I had one wish that could be granted … this is it. It would be one helluva day!

Learn more about Dr. Bob Winters at www.drbobwinters.com and order his latest book, "Mistake-Free Golf: First Aid for Your Golfing Brain" HERE.