Bree Noll on Mental Toughness, Big Goals, and a Season to Remember
Mindset · From Student of the Game
Bree Noll on Mental Toughness, Big Goals, and a Season to Remember
This episode of Student of the Game is built a little differently. Brad Noll's daughter Bree, a 16-year-old junior golfer at Homestead High School, agreed to journal her season on the podcast. Brad recorded with her the day before her first match, again at the end of the regular season, and once more after the state finals.
The result is a season told in real time, with goals set at the start and graded at the end. Brad makes clear this is not a story about a perfect athlete. It is a story about setting a goal you have never reached, handling the bad days, and learning to stay in the moment, and he connects each lesson to business owners, salespeople, and anyone chasing something big.
Starting Late and Falling in Love With Practice
Bree did not grow up playing tournament golf. She played a few parks and recreation events as a little girl and joked around on the course with her dad and grandpa. After stepping away from basketball in middle school, she turned to golf, and she likes that it is a game she can play for the rest of her life.
Brad says he intentionally let his kids stay a little behind in their sports, so that if they really loved something, they would have to fall in love with practice to catch up. Bree did. "I love practicing because I think it's so much fun just to go on the range and work on my swing and get better," she says. She defines the fundamentals of golf simply: the drive, chipping, and putting, with most strokes won or lost around the green.
Before the season, she set her goals. The team's only goal was to win state. Individually, Bree wanted to average 38 or below on nine holes, average under 79 on 18 holes, and finish in the top 25 at the state finals. The catch was that she had never broken 80 in a tournament. Brad admits he thought the goal was a little crazy.
“Confidence is key because without confidence in your game, without confidence in yourself, without confidence in your team, you're not setting yourself up for success.”
Bree Noll
Speak Championship Language
At the midseason check-in, Brad brings up a moment from social media. Bree had asked if the family could do something special if her team won state. Brad called out the word "if." In their house, he explains, they speak championship language. They do not gossip, and they talk better about people behind their backs than to their faces.
He admits business owners do the same thing he caught Bree doing. If I make this sale, if I lose this weight, if I reach this income. "If leaves things up to chance," Brad says. You are not in control of the outcome, but you are in control of your decisions and actions.
Then came the results. After 13 matches, Bree was averaging 78.3, below a number she had never shot once. Earlier in the summer she would play 14 or 15 strong holes, start adding up her score, and fall apart at the end. The turning point came at an invitational in Fort Wayne where she shot 75. On the last hole she thought her par putt was for a 79. She had stopped tracking the number, and that was the point. Focusing on the outcome added pressure, while staying in the moment let her play one shot at a time.
The Worst Round Before the Best
Brad says the real lesson of the season is the round Bree would rather forget. During the first week of school, she shot a 51 on nine holes, the worst round of her career. There were tears, both that day and the next. She went into her next tournament just hoping not to shoot 90.
During that round she turned her self-talk around, told herself to keep it going and forget the score, and shot 75. Her worst day was followed by her best. Brad thanks her for sharing it, because it is hard for anyone to talk about their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. There is real power, he says, in sharing your struggle with someone.
From there, Bree stayed in the 70s. She won an invitational as medalist with a second straight 75, helped her team win the Hall of Fame Classic with a run of 13 straight pars, and set a new personal best of 73, one over par, while her team shot even par for the tournament.
Preparing for What Could Go Wrong
The postseason did not follow a perfect script. At sectionals, Bree shot 82 on a day when her team won easily. Brad uses it to talk about playing to the level of your competition, and Bree says she should have focused on her own game instead of the players around her.
The night before regionals, while cleaning her clubs, she noticed her driver head was coming off the shaft. Brad and Bree went straight to what he calls the mind gym, rehearsing every scenario:
- What if it flies off on the practice range?
- What if it flies off on the first tee with everyone watching?
- What if it flies off with three holes to go in a great round?
She hit driver on only three holes, shot 81, and her team won the regional. Brad's challenge to listeners is to practice the hard moments in their own lives: the tough conversation, the sales pitch, the interview.
A Birdie on 18 at the State Finals
At the state finals in Indianapolis, Bree shot 80 on the first day. On day two, she was two over through seven holes when she lifted her head on an approach shot and made a triple bogey, followed by a bogey. Then she steadied herself and played the back nine one under par.
On the difficult par five 18th hole, with a crowd around the green, she chunked her tee shot, recovered with a five iron, hit a seven iron to about 12 feet, and made the birdie putt for a 77, her best score at a state tournament. Brad admits his eyes got a little sweaty. When he asks where her confidence comes from, Bree answers, "My confidence comes from one, Jesus. And then two, all the repetition and practice that I've put in."
Brad sees a bigger lesson in that back nine. He does not think Bree would have played it as well without the struggle on eight and nine. Sometimes a slump is there to refocus you. A mentor once told him that a recession is a terrible thing to waste, and the same goes for a bad stretch in business, sales, or a relationship.
What Happens When You Set a Big Goal?
Bree's season average finished at 78.9, under a goal she had never reached when she set it. She finished tied for 22nd at state, inside her top 25 goal, after finishing in the 50s the year before. Her team won sectionals and regionals and placed third at state, earning a spot on the podium.
The team did not reach its goal of winning state, and Bree admits they were a little disappointed. They were also proud of the work they put in. Brad says he struggles to celebrate wins because he always wants to move to the next goal, and he encourages listeners to stop and celebrate their progress.
For Bree, winning means "trying my best and putting all my effort into everything I do." She wants to play college golf and believes coaches should want her because she is a great teammate on and off the course. When it is time to send virtual flowers, she thanks her parents, her swing coach, and her team. Brad's closing challenge is simple: go set a big goal, something you have never done before, and then figure out how to do it.
▶ Listen to the full episode
Mental Toughness and Being a Goal Getter with Golfer Bree Noll, on Student of the Game.
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