📝 Show Notes

What does it actually feel like for an everyday golfer to play in a Top 100 event?

In this episode, I take you inside my mindset ahead of playing on the NCG Top 100 Tour - not from the perspective of performance, but from the perspective of experience.

Why? Because these are exactly the kind of days that used to make me enjoy golf less… not more.

🧠 What we cover:

• Why high-pressure or “big” golf days can feel harder to enjoy
• The hidden mental patterns that show up before you even hit your first shot
• How comparison, expectation, and over-preparation can shape your round
• Why playing well doesn’t always mean feeling good

🔑 The shift

Instead of focusing on score or performance, I’m approaching this round differently: Can I actually enjoy it?

✅ The 2 simple habits I’m using:

1. Pause before every shot - A breath, a reset, and a moment to arrive in the present
2. No immediate judgement after each shot - Good or bad - notice it, and move on

Simple, repeatable, and something you can actually use when it matters most.

🔬 This episode is an experiment

I don’t know how this is going to go.

I might play well. I might not. I’ll probably get frustrated at times.

But that’s kind of the point.

This isn’t about perfection, it’s about seeing whether I can experience golf differently.

🔁 This is part of a mini-series

In the next episode, I’ll reflect on what actually happened at Royal North Devon - honestly, and in full.

So make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast!

👉🏻 Check out the full NCG Top 100s Tour Schedule (use discount code GYH10 at checkout for 10% off your booking)

💬 Join the Community (Free)

If this episode resonated with you, come and join Happy Hackers — my free WhatsApp community for everyday golfers who want to enjoy the game more.

No pressure. No egos. No unsolicited advice.

Just real golfers, sharing the ups, downs, and everything in between.

👉 Join here: https://www.golfyourselfhappy.com/happy-hackers/free-community

🙏🏻 If You Enjoyed This Episode

• Follow / subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
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• Leave a quick rating or review — it really helps more golfers find the show

🏌️‍♂️ Final Thought

Happiness First, Handicap Later

I'm playing in a top 100 golf event, and if I'm honest, this is exactly the kind of thing that used to make me enjoy golf. Less, not more. You turn up and suddenly it feels like it matters a bit more than it really should. You start comparing yourself to the people that you're playing with. You feel like you should play well, at least not embarrass yourself anyway.

And before you've even hit that first tee shot, you're already thinking about what a good round should look like. I've had days like these where I've actually played all right, but I've had just as many where I've walked off tense and a bit flat, and that's always been the thing that has bothered me. Not the golf itself, but the experience of it.

Because if you can enjoy golf in moments like these, then when are you actually going to enjoy it? So today I'm using this as a bit of a test, not can I play? Well, I've done that before and it didn't really change anything. The real question is can I actually enjoy it?

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another.

Episode of the Golf Yourself Happy podcast with me. Chris Lynch, your founder and your head coach here at the Happy Hackers Club. Happy hackers, if you have no idea what that is or what I'm referring to, let me explain. It is a community of everyday golfers who love the game, simply adore the game. But you don't always like the feelings that come up during or even after a round of golf.

So happy hackers club is what it means to be a hacker is to be an everyday golfer and to be comfortable with that. And so if you want to be part of a community of like minded people who see themselves and see golf in that way, then please do join us using the link in the comments here on YouTube or in the link in the show notes.

If you're listening to this on an audio platform like Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. We are covered across most of the major podcast platforms. The Happy Hacker's Club is a free WhatsApp community. So do join us. I myself am really active in the community. I'm in there sharing my own reflections on my own game of golf, but also offering my coaching tips and advice.

I specialise in mindset coaching for everyday recreational golfers. I'm really happy to answer any questions or help you in any way I can with the challenges that you're facing in your game of golf. So make sure you join us! It's totally free to join! But without any further ado, let me introduce today's episode.

Let me start here by framing and contextualising my participation in this top 100 golf event today. That is Wednesday, the 29th of April, 2026, and it is on this exact day, uh, that by the time this is released, within hours of me releasing it, I will probably be on the road on the journey from my home in rural mid-Wales to Royal North Devon, which is the the course that I'm playing at.

The event is hosted by National Club Golfer Top 100 tour. So NCG, some of you watching or listening to this me know NCG. They are a golf media platform. They are one of the better known golf magazines here in the UK, but also with an international presence as well. And I think for about the last 8 or 9 years they've been running this top 100 tour they want to give.

I suppose everyday golfers like us a platform and an access point into some of the best golf courses in the country, but in a way which is competitive. Sure. But there's also a social side to it as well. And so as it happens, I'm playing today at Royal North Devon. Then in exactly two weeks time on Wednesday the 13th of May, I'll be playing at Edgbaston in the Birmingham area, and then I'll have a break from playing in these events, and then I'll come back in September to play an event at Ashburnham, which is quite close to me, where I live in Wales.

So I had this thought and I kind of was thinking, well, wouldn't it be a good idea to use this podcast platform to bring into focus what it is like for an average, everyday golfer like me? But I suppose like you as well, to play in one of these events, because I'm going to dedicate this first part of this podcast to talking about how I have felt in the past when I play in events like these, and I'll start by saying these kind of events would have made me absolutely fill my pants with fear, to the extent that I actually probably would never have bothered booking myself in to play one of these events, because I would have been so anxious, so fearful, and I definitely would have felt like I didn't belong there.

I wasn't good enough to be there. But, you know, on that point of not being good enough, just a quick point on handicaps, if I may. So the entry and eligibility criteria for this tour is that a participant cannot have higher than a 24 handicap on the World Handicap System Index. My handicap at the moment is 20.7.

It has been there for years and the reason for that is because these days I generally tend not to play competition golf. Kind of because if I'm being brutally honest, it doesn't actually really interest me. My preference is always to play casual golf, either to play on my own and or with some friends who I feel really comfortable with and who I know enjoy a similar version of golf.

They're there for the social side, for a laugh. They don't really care too much about score. We're all quite relaxed and you know, it's good just to catch up with people or to practice, but I guess where I'm excited, actually, is probably one of the prevailing emotions and feelings I've got right now about playing in this event.

You know, I have come on a bit of a journey, times trite, but I definitely have, you know, I've arrived a place in my golf now where, um, you know, I talk about acceptance, my happy framework here at Golf Yourself. Happy. The letter A stands for acceptance. And that is such a valuable skill to develop. And if you subscribe to my channel, then you will find that I will be talking about this more extensively over the course of time.

And in actual fact, in a previous episode, I broke this down a little bit more detail. I will make sure I link that episode here so that you can refer back to it and hear me talk a bit more about acceptance. But fundamentally what I'm saying is, you know, I have accepted at this point in time today that my handicap is what it is.

My playing standard is what it is, my swing is what it is, and something I'm going to speak about in a little bit more detail in the second part of this podcast episode is habits. So that is the H in the happy framework. And, you know, essentially we all as golfers get into automatic patterns, automatic behaviour patterns.

And, you know, if we really take a step back and analyse the way that we show up in golf, the way that we behave and the things that we do on autopilot, there are definitely going to be certain things that we do that are of benefit to us and will help us play in a way that maximises our enjoyment and helps us play well and perform well.

But there will definitely also be certain unhealthy or bad, dear, I see habits that are really just getting in the way of that enjoyment, that happiness and that performance as well. You know, one leads to the other. So I will be talking a little bit in a second bit about, you know, what are the habits that I'm going to try and consciously bring into my, into my round of, of golf today.

But if I reflect on how I would have approached these events years ago, see, in the previous version of myself as a golfer, I think there's a few things that spring to mind here. Right? So I would have had a massive sense of anticipation for the event. And what I mean by that is from the moment. So I've known, let's say, for a for a good number of months now, I'm talking months even probably since the back end of last year that I'd be playing in this event.

There was a point in time where I quite literally, at the very point of booking the event, I would have, um, researched the course. I would have looked at the, uh, the course slope rating. I would have analysed like, oh, with my, um, 20.7 index, you know, how many shots am I going to get there? And where am I going to get two shots in each hole?

And, you know, I've mapped out the entire round in my head. I kid you not like before I've even got there, in my experience, I don't know about For You. And again, I'm only sharing my experience. That is too much preparation too soon. So again, I've mapped out the first hole before I've even got there, and I've tried to almost map out every single shot that I'm going to hit, and that in my case, actually just builds to my sense of fear, anxiety and doesn't really set me up for success.

So I've learned to take a bit more of a relaxed approach to it these days, and I think is another critical one. Okay, is that I in the past would have also thought, well, you know, I'm a high handicapper. I bet you most of the people that play at this event are better than me. They've probably got lower handicaps than me, and even if they've got the same or even higher handicaps than me, um, they probably have a better swing than me.

You know, they they probably can, you know, they don't have as many blow up holes as I do. And, you know, they won't lose their temper as much as I do. Now, just a really quick word on this. If you're listening on a podcast platform, I'm going to describe this to you. But if I share my screen here for just a second, here is the t sheet that has been sent to me for this round of golf.

I'm going to doff my cap to the team for that, because I'm convinced that in other events like this, you would, um, you would maybe see, you know, people's handicaps in, in, in brackets next to their name or, you know, somewhere on the t sheet or somewhere in the kind of the event information. But that has helped me straight away because I'm looking at that and I see like a level playing field, I'm almost not being given an opportunity to compare myself to anybody.

So, um, yeah. So that that is really, really interesting. But but anyway, I hope you're getting that sense of, you know, actually how natural and normal it is for us everyday average golfers to go into these events and feel those sorts of feelings.

Today isn't about playing well for me. It's about how I show up to each shot. So I'm keeping it really simple. I've got just two habits. The first is before every shot I pause. Nothing complicated, just a breath, a moment to actually arrive where I am instead of rushing in with the thoughts that I already have going in my head.

And the second is after every shot. I'm not judging it straight away, good or bad, I just notice it and move on. That's it. I'm not focusing on my swing or my score today, just what happens before and after each shot. And I know you might be thinking that sounds really simple, but that's kind of the point, because normally this is where this stuff starts to unravel for me, because it's not the shot itself, it's what happens around it.

You hit a bad one straight away. There is a reaction, frustration, tension, trying to fix it on the very next shot, or even allowing that bad shot, that quote unquote bad shot to follow you around the golf course for the next few holes or the rest of the round even. And it builds and it builds from here. So what I'm trying to do is just to create a bit of space for myself between the shots, my reactions to those shots and seen before the shot as well, you know, pause.

I can really get ahead of myself thinking about outcomes score, how the round is going, you know, for example. Right. Uh, a double bogey the first, which happens. That does happen to me. Uh, you know, actually, if you were to look at my data over the course of me playing over the years, the first hole, I typically never perform well in that hole.

And actually today I accept that I'm not talking myself into having a terrible first hole at Royal North Devon today. But what I'm saying is in one hole in one moment, I'm not going to allow that to You dictate the outcome of that round. I'll let it go. I'll let it happen and let it pass and move on. Bring myself back into the present.

Back in the moment. And this, these two habits I've talked about here, that I'm going to practice that pausing before every shot, taking a breath. And then the second one of not judging a shot after hitting it. That is something that you'll hear me refer to from time to time as dropping the anchor in a moment of turbulence while I'm.

When I'm all rough at sea, I will drop that anchor down with those two habits when I need them. So I don't think this is a particularly clever stuff per se. It's just something that I can do and you can try to if it might help you every time I'm presented with those situations. Because at the end of the day, I think what we really need is every day golfer us is we don't need more information.

You maybe heard me say in a previous podcast on YouTube, for example, there are 7 million different swing type instruction points. There is so much information out there. All we actually really need is just a simple habit. Something that works in the moment when it truly matters. So those are the two habits I'm going to adopt and deploy today at Royal North Devon.

Now. The honest part here is that I have absolutely no idea how this is going to go in practice.

I might play well today. I might not. It's likely I'll get frustrated at times, but that's the whole point. This isn't about perfection. It's about seeing whether I can experience the round differently. And I'll tell you exactly what happens, warts and all. Believe you me and you are going to be able to find out exactly what happens if you come back here in two weeks time for the very next episode of this podcast, because I'm kind of treating today's episode and the next two that follow this one as somewhat of a mini series because, as I mentioned earlier, I'm playing this event today.

In two weeks time, I'm playing another one of the top 100 events at Edgbaston. So make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss out on that. But bringing us back into the present, dropping anchor. So just again, want to sort of reflect on I think this way that I'm approaching this round of golf today is quite an unusual way, because normally everything is about outcome in golf.

What did you shoot? Did you play well? Did you meet your expectations of yourself? And I have spent most of my golfing life thinking that way, but the more I've reflected on it, I've realised that that stuff does not lead to enjoyment for me. Um, and so today, that's what I'm trying to shift just slightly.

I'm not ignoring my score, I do, if I'm being completely, again, brutally honest. I do care about that. Of course I want to go there. Play well. Score the score well. You know I want to. I'd love it if I want it. I'd love to feature and score well enough that, you know I win a prize. Because at these events, there's, like, all sorts of prizes to win on, on one of the halls, there's an opportunity to win a new pair of golf shoes as well.

So these are distractions for me I would say. So again, that's going to be a bit of a challenge, and I might reflect on that over the next few episodes. But you know, so like I say, I do care about playing well and performing well, but I'm determined not to let that dictate how my round feels. You know, I expect there's going to be moments where that's hard.

I'll drift, I'll get distracted, and I'll need to drop anchor, come back to the present. There will be moments where I get annoyed myself, frustrated with myself. I'm just making space for that to happen. I'm acknowledging that here now, um, I'll slip back into old habits at times, but that's all part of it, right?

It's not about getting through a round without experiencing any negative thoughts. It's more about how I. It's about how quickly I notice them and what I do next. So this is really just an experiment, to be honest. Two simple habits, a bit more awareness, a bit less judgement, and just seeing what happens.

So wish me well, come back here in a few weeks time to hear me reflect on today's event. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and remember if you would like to join me as part of the Happy Hackers Club, then make sure you click the link in the comments or in the show notes. See you next time! And remember folks, happiness first handicap later.