Jos Vanstiphout (1951–2013) was a Belgian

sports psychologist Sport psychology is defined as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. One definition of sport sees it as "any physical activity for the purposes of competition, recreation, education or health". Sport psychology i ...

who was specialized in

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

. Despite having no professional training as a psychologist, he has worked with notable clients, including

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is nicknamed "the Big Easy" due to his physical stature along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victories are four major ...

Thomas Levet Thomas Jean Roger Levet (born 5 September 1968) is a French professional golfer who is a member of the European Tour and former member of the PGA Tour. Career Levet was born in Paris, France. He turned professional in 1988 and won the French PGA ...

Retief Goosen Retief Goosen (born 3 February 1969) is a South African professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He has won two U.S. Opens, in 2001 and 2004, headed the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002, and was in the top ten of t ...

Michael Campbell Michael Shane Campbell (born 23 February 1969) is a New Zealand professional golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and, at the time, the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the ...

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three men's major golf championships, major championships: The Open Championship in 2 ...

Barry Lane Barry Douglas Lane (21 June 1960 – 31 December 2022) was an English professional golfer. He won five official European Tour events between 1988 and 2004. He played in the 1993 Ryder Cup and won the inaugural Andersen Consulting World Cham ...

Sergio García Sergio García Fernández (; born 9 January 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He turned professional in 1999 and played on the European Tour and PGA Tour prior to joining LIV Golf in 2022. García has won 36 international tournaments as ...

and

Søren Hansen Søren Hansen (born 21 March 1974) is a Danish professional golfer. Hansen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He won the 1997 Danish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and turned professional later that year. Hansen collected his first profession ...

. He was a member of

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics *IMG (file format), file that stores a complete and uncompressed copy of the contents of a storage device * IMG, a prefix for camera ima ...

Early life

Vanstiphout was born in

Houthalen Houthalen-Helchteren (; ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. Houthalen-Helchteren consists of Houthalen-centrum, Houthalen-Oost, Helchteren, Sonnis, Laak, Meulenberg and Lillo. On 1 January 2020 Houthalen-Helchteren had ...

and grew up in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. He left school when he was 14 years old and took on a number of odd jobs. He formed the band

The Mayfair Set ''The Mayfair Set'', subtitled ''Four Stories about the Rise of Business and the Decline of Political Power'', is a BBC television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It explores the decline of Britain as a world power, the proliferation ...

which was the Belgian selection for the

World Popular Song Festival The , also known as Yamaha Music Festival and unofficially as the "Oriental Eurovision", was an international song contest held from 1970 until 1989. It was organised by the Yamaha Music Foundation in Tokyo, Japan. The first edition of the World P ...

, but their only album failed to gain further popularity.

Career

Vanstiphout started working as a newspaper ad salesman, and got interested in psychology. His main interests were

Edward de Bono Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono (19 May 1933 – 9 June 2021) was a Maltese physician and commentator. He originated the term lateral thinking, and wrote many books on thinking, including ''Six Thinking Hats''. Life and career Edward ...

and sports guru Timothy Gallwey, author of ''The Inner Game of...'' series. After he met Gallwey, he developed his own similar ideas. He then followed the

PGA European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

for three years before signing a contract with his first client, either Ross Drummond or Rolf Muntz. He started working with

in 1999 when he was ranked number 83 in the world, and helped bring him to world ranking number 4 and a win at the 2001 U.S. Open Golf Championship. This brought him to the attention of many other top golfers. Goosen publicly acknowledged the work of Vanstiphout in helping him win the 2001 Championship. Over the next few years, Vanstiphout became the sport psychologist for a number of the top professional golf players, including

and

. As of 2009, he worked with a.o. Ernie Els, Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Michael Campbell and David Howell. He also has worked with a few other sportspeople, including cricketer

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977), is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

. Jos died in December 2013.

Clients

Aaron Baddeley Aaron John Baddeley (born 17 March 1981) is an Australian professional golfer. Early life Baddeley was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire in the United States. However, his family moved to Australia when he was two years old. As a teen, Baddeley ...

Rich Beem Richard Michael Beem (born August 24, 1970) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is best known for his upset victory at the 2002 PGA Championship. Early life and amateur career Beem was born in Phoenix, Arizona, g ...

Thomas Bjørn Thomas Bjørn (born 18 February 1971) is a Danish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won fifteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1997 he also b ...

Ángel Cabrera Ángel Leopoldo Cabrera (; born 12 September 1969) is an Argentine professional golfer who has played on both the European Tour and PGA Tour. He is known affectionately as ''"El Pato"'' in Spanish ''("The Duck")'' for his waddling gait. He is a ...

Darren Clarke Darren Christopher Clarke (born 14 August 1968) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions and has previously played on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He has won 21 tournaments worldwide on ...

* Ross Drummond *

* Gary Evans *

Grégory Havret Grégory Havret (born 25 November 1976) is a French professional golfer. Amateur career Havret won the French Amateur Championship three years in a row from 1997 to 1999, and in 1999 he won the European Amateur. He also won a minor professional ...

* David Howell *

Raphaël Jacquelin Raphaël Jacquelin (born 8 May 1974) is a French professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. Career Jacquelin was born in Lyon. He turned professional in 1995, after winning the French Amateur Championship. Jacquelin began his profession ...

Maarten Lafeber Maarten Lafeber (born 11 December 1974) is a Dutch professional golfer who won the Dutch, Swiss and Spanish amateur championships before turning professional in 1997. Lafeber was born in Eindhoven, North Brabant. He earned a European Tour card at ...

Carl Mason Stuart Carl Mason (born 25 June 1953) is an English professional golfer. Mason was born in Buxton, Derbyshire. He won several amateur tournaments before turning professional and becoming something of a journeyman on the European Tour. After twe ...

Paul McGinley Paul Noel McGinley (born 16 December 1966) is an Irish professional golfer who has won four events on the European Tour. At the 2002 Ryder Cup, he famously holed a ten-foot putt on the 18th hole in his match against Jim Furyk at The Belfry which ...

Mark McNulty Mark William McNulty (born 24 March 1953) is a Zimbabwean-Irish professional golfer. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and featured in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking f ...

* Rolf Muntz * Gary Murphy * Eduardo Romero *

Justin Rose Justin Peter Rose (born 30 July 1980) is an English professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first reaching that position in 2018. Rose came to prominen ...

* Adam Scott *

Marcel Siem Marcel Siem (born 15 July 1980) is a German professional golfer who plays on the European Tour where he has six victories. In 2006 he won the World Cup paired with Bernhard Langer. Early life Siem was born in Mettmann. Professional career Siem ...

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( ; born 22 February 1963) is a Fijians, Fijian professional golfer. In 1982, Singh turned professional and played on the local Asia Golf Circuit. However, his early career met with controversy, as he was accused of numerous rules ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanstiphout, Jos 1951 births Living people Belgian psychologists People from Houthalen-Helchteren