Success in golf is usually measured by scorecards, rankings, and trophies. Julie Elion starts somewhere much simpler. Before discussing swings, routines, or tournament pressure, she asks every new client two questions.
What are you great at mentally?
Where do you need to improve?
The exercise sounds straightforward, but the answers often reveal far more than expected.
Elion, a mental performance specialist who has worked with top players including Justin Thomas and 2026 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, uses those two lists as the foundation for understanding how an athlete thinks. She typically encourages golfers to come up with ten answers for each category. The number itself is less important than the process of digging beneath the surface.
What Elite Golfers See in Themselves
For most golfers, identifying strengths is surprisingly difficult. Elion estimates that roughly 75 to 90 percent of her clients struggle to name ten mental qualities they do well. Listing areas for improvement, on the other hand, comes much more naturally. Even then, she carefully frames the question. She does not ask what players are bad at. Instead, she asks what they want to improve, shifting the focus from criticism to growth.
One pattern has stood out over years of working with elite competitors. Every golfer she has coached who was ranked inside the world’s top 50 has been able to identify ten mental strengths without hesitation. Players ranked well below that level often spend far more time talking about weaknesses than acknowledging what already works.
That raises an interesting question. Do the world’s best golfers recognize their strengths because they have already achieved success? Or does their willingness to honestly acknowledge those strengths help them reach the highest level in the first place?
Elion believes elite athletes are simply more comfortable recognizing reality. They understand what they do well, they embrace competition, and they openly acknowledge the areas they still want to develop. That honesty becomes the starting point for meaningful improvement.
Turning Self-Awareness Into Golf Action
The exercise is less about making lists and more about uncovering what is true. In her book, Mastering Your Mental Game, Elion describes the process as excavating an honest understanding of yourself. The strengths provide confidence and stability, but the improvement list becomes the roadmap. Rather than trying to fix everything at once, she encourages players to select one area and build practical habits around it, much like committing to a fitness plan with specific daily actions instead of vague intentions.
One golfer provided a memorable example. He admitted that his biggest mental obstacle was anxiety on the first tee. Standing over his opening drive, he imagined everyone watching and silently judging his swing. The pressure became overwhelming, and the results reflected it. Tournament data showed he frequently made bogey on the opening hole during the first round.
A Surprising Way to Beat First-Tee Nerves
Instead of trying to avoid those feelings, Elion took an unexpected approach.
During a pro-am, where the stakes were lower, she instructed him to intentionally hit his opening tee shot into the water. Before doing so, he imagined every uncomfortable emotion that might follow. On the first tee, she also had him shake hands with his playing partners, look each of them in the eye, and remind himself that everyone carries insecurities and struggles.
Then he deliberately sent the ball into the water.
What happened next surprised him. The embarrassment he had built up in his mind turned out to be far greater than the reality. The moment passed. The world did not collapse. The fear that had controlled him lost much of its power.
According to Elion, the golfer later reported that his first-tee anxiety had disappeared, although she acknowledges that mental challenges can always return. That is the nature of confidence. It requires ongoing attention rather than a permanent solution.
The lesson extends well beyond professional golf. Improvement often begins not with a dramatic breakthrough but with an honest inventory of what is already working and what still needs attention. Before changing performance, it helps to understand yourself clearly. Sometimes, the most valuable progress starts with two simple lists.
