They say half the battle out on the golf course is played within your mind.

So when Victorian Steve Jones hit rock bottom with his mental game a few months ago, he knew he was in trouble.

Jones was regularly overcome by negative emotions out on the golf course; a pattern of thought that was severely hurting his game.

A bad shot on one hole would turn into an even worse one on the next as he struggled to get on top of his mental game.

Enough was enough for Jones, who turned to sports psychologist Jamie Glazier to help him address his mental issues.

The results have been good so far.

Jones rated his eighth-placed finish at last week’s China Masters as his best ever result as a professional.

And the 28-year-old has a chance to improve on that when the Perth International concludes on Sunday.

After three rounds of the $2 million tournament, Jones is in a tie for sixth at six-under par; six strokes adrift of leader Bo van Pelt.

Jones, who is ranked 873rd in the world, says he feels more confident now that he’s addressed his on-course mental demons.

“I’ve just been working on building up my subconscious belief systems, because sometimes the game can get you down and you can lose your confidence, which happened to me,” Jones said.

“I sort of hit rock bottom a few months ago.

“I’ve been building up and putting in some processes (since then) and it seems to be working out well.

“It’s little things like the post-shot routine on the course.

“A lot of sport psyches talk about pre-shot routine.

“The post shot gets overlooked, and I was reacting negatively to a lot of shots and sort of getting really emotional about bad shots, and that stuff sits in your subconscious.

“I just felt like emotionally and from a golf point of view, I couldn’t go further down.

“But I’ve been fortunate enough the last couple months to do the right things and found some good form.”