While I haven’t missed the pressure of tournament golf, I’ve not had my feet up in my first few weeks of retirement, writes Chris Paisley
In my last column I announced my retirement – or at least my break from competitive golf. The last few weeks have been the first real taste of what that actually means and, honestly, I’m loving it.
It started with a bit of drama. I was stuck in the UK waiting on a visa, watching the days tick by and knowing my daughter Ella’s seventh birthday trip to Disney was looming. In the end, the approval came through just in time and I made it back. It felt symbolic in a way – years of rushing around the world for golf and now I’m on deadline for a birthday party. It was a brilliant party too – pure family time, no tournament on the horizon, just time spent being dad.
The best part of the last few weeks has been the ordinary stuff – school runs, date nights, and being around. Most people probably take these for granted, and maybe I will one day, but right now it all feels like a blessing. In the past when I’d come home for two or three weeks, it was always nice, but there was a cloud over it. I wasn’t playing well, the next run of events was always looming, and even off days had a background hum of anxiety about form, rankings and making cuts. I tried to relax but part of me was always elsewhere.
That cloud has gone and the energy I’m bringing into the house is very different – lighter, more positive and more present.
I followed the scores from Q School and the final events on tour – wondering if I’d feel a tinge of regret. I had the exact opposite feeling as I realised that right now I simply wouldn’t want to be there. It’s brutal and while the guys who get their cards have done something incredible, the hard part is just beginning as they prepare to have limited starts on a fiercely strong tour with pressure every week. A few years ago, that challenge excited me. Given where my game has been recently, and how I’ve felt mentally, the thought of diving back into that grind isn’t appealing. The clarity has been strangely comforting, and it confirms I’m exactly where I need to be.
Dipping my toe into coaching properly has also helped. I’ve started doing in-person lessons at Eagle Creek, the course we live on in Florida. I can walk to the range in five minutes, which still feels slightly too good to be true, and it has been a big shift from doing online work on Skillest. With online lessons, someone sends a swing, you can stare at it all day if you want, think about it, record an answer, and start again if you mess it up. In person, there’s nowhere to hide. The player is right there in front of you, maybe not hitting it great, and there’s a real pressure to help without overloading them. I’ve been leaning on my coach, Andrew Nicholson, and my brother [Andy] a lot, using them as sounding boards, and I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the golf swing and how to communicate clearly.
I’ll keep the Skillest side going as I enjoy it and it’s a nice complement, but I’m most excited about Golf IQ by Chris Paisley. This is the direction I really want to go in. It’s performance coaching for ambitious players – from talented juniors and serious club golfers up to tour pros. I think there’s a real gap between the information players receive – from coaches, stats and launch monitors – and what they do day to day. Most players know what they should be working on, but they don’t always organise it well, stick to it, or hold themselves accountable. That’s where I believe I can add the most value – helping players design their practice, interpret their stats, stay on task and make their training ecosystem more efficient.
I’ve been on both sides – I’ve trained brilliantly and I’ve trained terribly – so I know how big that gap can be. I’m already working with a few players on a trial basis while I refine the idea, and I’m putting together an e-book alongside it to get all the philosophies out of my head and onto paper. It’s early days, but it feels right.
I might be semi-retired from tour life, but I’m already well on my way with a new career.
