“Most golfers recognize that golf is a mental game, but when it comes to improving they spend their time and money on swing lessons and the latest club technology … not the mental game. Despite investing billions of dollars every year to hit the ball better, few golfers make long-term improvements to their game. New drivers stop working and swing changes can be too frustrating to work through.”

– Jared Tendler

 

By Kim J. Harmon

 

There is not a golfer alive who hasn’t tasted bitter frustration after hooking a tee shot into the woods, skulling a chip shot over the green or hacking away in the sand trap two or three times without getting the ball onto the green.

But their solution has always been to go out and purchase the latest Big Bertha II titanium woods, the newest Big Bertha fusion irons or the latest V-SOLE wedge.

Jared Tendler is ready to show them another way.

Jared, a 1996 graduate of Newtown High School, has 15 years of competitive golf experience (three-time All-American and two-year captain of the Skidmore College golf team) and five years experience as a teacher, consultant and mental health therapist (with a LMHC from Skidmore and a MS in counseling psychology from Northeastern University) and he has combined the two worlds and formed Jared Tendler Golf, LLC.

“This has been a very clear plan for me,” said Jared. “It’s called – Golf Therapy. It was born out of competitive experience and psychology. What I’m trying to do for the average golfer who doesn’t think the mental approach to the game can work for them is to teach them the mental fundamentals which are just as valuable as swing fundamentals.”

Jared first implemented his golf therapy program during his work with high-risk adolescents at Solutions For Living in Massachusetts. He was able to the show kids – like one with a bipolar disorder – how the challenges he faced on the golf course were the same as those he faced in his own life.

“What I started doing in golf therapy groups,” Jared said, “was to use the golf experience to re-shape the things people had the most difficulty with. One kid was abused and neglected and thought he had no control over his life. He lives with his grandmother and his behavior was out of control there and what I wanted to do was help him build some control through golf. We spent the whole day picking out targets and he chose where to hit the ball – he had control.”

Another client suffered from a bipolar disorder and Jared watched as he hit a tee shot left and was about to grab a club and attempt to hit a ball right through the trees.

“I had him take a step back and look,” said Jared. “I told him, ‘You’re in trouble and you don’t even see it. Accept the consequences of a mistake and move on.’ The feedback (from the program) was very good. The kids were getting something.”

What surprised him the most was that the program worked with kids who had never played the game before.

“I though it would be just for golfers,” he said, “but it was for everyone.”

The success of his work at Solutions For Living helped the Newtown native move on and open Jared Tendler Golf (check it out on the web at www.jaredtendlergolf.com).

Jared – who has won nine tournaments while also competing in several professional tournaments – now tries to convince the average golfer that the game is not that hard and that most golfers possess a swing decent enough to provide a successful round of golf … if it weren’t for the mental gremlins playing havoc with their confidence and focus.

“With some mental discipline and strategies the average golfer can significantly reduce the occurrence of their bad shots,” said Jared, who may indeed detect swing flaws in his clients but will step aside and let the teaching pros handle that.

The techniques are simple and straightforward: a little discussion to probe the onset and severity of the problems and then some hands-on instruction where Jared will, for instance, teach his clients to 1) pick a target and focus on it; 2) visualize the swing and result; 3) take a deep, relaxing breath and call up a confidence cue; 4) step up to the ball and; 5) swing.

Imagine what hitting two fewer bunkers or losing two fewer balls in a round could do to your golf score.

One of the keys, of course, in this whole process is to relax.

“It’s physically impossible to be stressed when you are relaxed,” said Jared, who needed to call upon his own methods when attempting to qualify for the U.S. Publink championships (after shooting a 36-hole score of 149 in the brutal heat and humidity, though, he didn’t make it.

The golf therapy process can be comprehensive. In his mental strategy program, golfers can examine a number of sections such as game analysis, improving without practice, beating your best, competitive success, reading the course, risk management, effective pre- and post-shot routines, and the driving range golf game.

But like his work at Solutions For Living, Jared will also use golf therapy as a method of real-world training (not to mention, learning how to conduct business on the golf course). As he points out on his web site …

“Golf is often described as a metaphor for life and therefore is an ideal setting for psychotherapy. In a single round a golfer is tested physically, mentally and emotionally while experiencing situations that reflect those in daily life. A golfer’s approach to situations such as a bad break, being in trouble, playing a difficult hole or missing a shot provides valuable information to the golfer. Information that can then be used in psychotherapy to facilitate goals both related and unrelated to golf.”

Yes, golf can be one of the most frustrating games ever invented and the frustration doesn’t always go away with the purchase of a new club or extensive lessons with the club pro.

Now there is help.

Now there is golf therapy.