Golf Psychology

 

Golf in the Kingdom by Michael Murphy Paperback from Penguin (Non-Classics) ISBN: 0140195491 The director and co-founder of the Esalen Institute recalls his encounter with the mystical golf pro, Shivas Iron, and explains the philosophical truths to be gained from playing golf. Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy's divine meditation on the royal and ancient game defied categorization when it was first published in 1972, and it still does. Instantly hailed as a classic, Golf in the Kingdom is an altogether unique confluence of fiction, philosophy, myth, mysticism, enchantment, and golf instruction. The central character is a wily Scotsman named Shivas Irons, a golf professional by vocation and a shaman by design, whom Murphy, as participant in his own novel, meets in 1956 on the links of Burningbush, in Fife. The story of their round of golf together culminates in a wild night of whiskey and wisdom where, as Shivas demonstrates how the swing reflects the soul, their golf quite literally takes on a metaphysical glow. The events alter not only Murphy's game, but they also radically alter his mind and inner vision; it's truly unforgettable. For a golfer, Murphy's masterpiece is as essential as a set of clubs.

Every Shot Must Have a Purpose: How GOLF54 Can Make You a Better Player by Pia Nilsson, Lynn Marriott, Ron Sirak Kindle Edition from Gotham Books Media Published: 2005-   It's not about changing your swing--it's about changing your mind: Two legendary coaches give golfers a powerful new approach to the game... and to life. As coaches to some of golf's top players, Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott have designed and refined a revolutionary way of teaching the game, with phenomenal results. They don't believe in prescribing the same stance, grip, and swing to everyone, followed by hours of purposeless drilling. They don't even believe in beginning with physical technique. Their success has proven to them that a great game begins with a great vision. Unlike any other golf book, Every Shot Must Have a Purpose offers cutting-edge techniques for integrating the physical, technical, mental, emotional, and social parts of a player's game. The book's revolutionary pre-shot routine will improve your focus, leading to a golf swing that is not only successful but can be repeated under extreme pressure. Emphasizing the individual golfer rather than a rigid set of mechanics, their VISION54 method takes the frustration out of the game. Why 54? Because they believe it's possible to shoot a 54 (making a birdie on every hole of a par-72 course) if you have the right mind-set and well-honed intuitive power. An engaging read for the beginner or the seasoned golfer, Every Shot Must Have a Purpose is inspiration for life, not just the links. "I have been impressed by Pia ever since I saw her in action in the late 1980's, first as a player and then as my coach. Pia is open-minded and intelligent and possesses the desire to constantly help others develop... I have been inspired to follow her beliefs and life philosophy." --Annika Sorenstam, LPGA It's not about changing your swing--it's about changing your mind: Two legendary coaches give golfers a powerful new approach to the game... and to life. As coaches to some of golf's top players, Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott have designed and refined a revolutionary way of teaching the game, with phenomenal results. They don't believe in prescribing the same stance, grip, and swing to everyone, followed by hours of purposeless drilling. They don't even believe in beginning with physical technique. Their success has proven to them that a great game begins with a great vision. Unlike any other golf book, Every Shot Must Have a Purpose offers cutting-edge techniques for integrating the physical, technical, mental, emotional, and social parts of a player's game. The book's revolutionary pre-shot routine will improve your focus, leading to a golf swing that is not only successful but can be repeated under extreme pressure. Emphasizing the individual golfer rather than a rigid set of mechanics, their VISION54 method takes the frustration out of the game. Why 54? Because they believe it's possible to shoot a 54 (making a birdie on every hole of a par-72 course) if you have the right mind-set and well-honed intuitive power. An engaging read for the beginner or the seasoned golfer, Every Shot Must Have a Purpose is inspiration for life, not just the links. "I have been impressed by Pia ever since I saw her in action in the late 1980's, first as a player and then as my coach. Pia is open-minded and intelligent and possesses the desire to constantly help others develop... I have been inspired to follow her beliefs and life philosophy." --Annika Sorenstam, LPGA

Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game on the Greens by Joe Parent Kindle Edition from Gotham Books Media Published: 2007-   The bestselling author of Zen Golf (more than 100,000 copies sold) presents a new book of profound wisdom and proven techniques for achieving the confidence in putting that all golfers know is the key to peak performance on the greens. Blending Buddhist wisdom, modern psychology, and practical golf instruction, Dr. Joe Parent's 2002 book Zen Golf broke out to become the top instructional book in golf, and continues to be a steady bestseller. Now, in the eagerly awaited follow-up, Dr. Parent provides readers with a new approach to the aspect of golf in which mental skills have the most impact: putting. Zen Putting takes a thinking-outside-the-box approach based on the idea that by tuning into the process of putting rather than worrying about the result, golfers can get out of their own way and maximize performance. Key principles include using mindful awareness to recognize and clear away distractions and negativity, and that confidence increases when golfers take the attitude that there is something fundamentally, essentially right with them rather than focusing on what's broken or flawed. In succinct, informative chapters, Dr. Parent applies this Zen ideal to a variety of subjects for any putting situation. Chapters include: * "Unconquerable Confidence": brimming with strategies to cultivate confidence and turn frustration into enjoyment. * "Get Out of Your Own Way": exploring the obstacles we create for ourselves in putting, and how to recognize and overcome them to get the most out of our abilities. * "How to Make Every Putt": on reading greens; visualization; putting routine; the key components of a putt--path, pace, and roll; and taking the ideal attitude before putting. Unlike rigid how-to books on putting or fad coaching techniques, Zen Putting stirs each reader to cultivate their own unique style for synchronizing body and mind to achieve peak performance. The bestselling author of Zen Golf (more than 100,000 copies sold) presents a new book of profound wisdom and proven techniques for achieving the confidence in putting that all golfers know is the key to peak performance on the greens. Blending Buddhist wisdom, modern psychology, and practical golf instruction, Dr. Joe Parent's 2002 book Zen Golf broke out to become the top instructional book in golf, and continues to be a steady bestseller. Now, in the eagerly awaited follow-up, Dr. Parent provides readers with a new approach to the aspect of golf in which mental skills have the most impact: putting. Zen Putting takes a thinking-outside-the-box approach based on the idea that by tuning into the process of putting rather than worrying about the result, golfers can get out of their own way and maximize performance. Key principles include using mindful awareness to recognize and clear away distractions and negativity, and that confidence increases when golfers take the attitude that there is something fundamentally, essentially right with them rather than focusing on what's broken or flawed. In succinct, informative chapters, Dr. Parent applies this Zen ideal to a variety of subjects for any putting situation. Chapters include: * "Unconquerable Confidence": brimming with strategies to cultivate confidence and turn frustration into enjoyment. * "Get Out of Your Own Way": exploring the obstacles we create for ourselves in putting, and how to recognize and overcome them to get the most out of our abilities. * "How to Make Every Putt": on reading greens; visualization; putting routine; the key components of a putt--path, pace, and roll; and taking the ideal attitude before putting. Unlike rigid how-to books on putting or fad coaching techniques, Zen Putting stirs each reader to cultivate their own unique style for synchronizing body and mind to achieve peak performance.

[no image] Golf and the Spirit: Lessons for the Journey by M. Scott Peck Hardcover from Wheeler Publishing ISBN: 1568957513 Golf. It's the ultimate head game. And when nothing but the best advice will do, along comes M. Scott Peck, M.D., the celebrated psychiatrist and author of the best-selling self-help book of all time, The Road Less Traveled. In Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck writes a book for beginners and masters alike--and even for nongolfers. It goes beyond mechanics to explore the deeper issues, ways of successfully managing the emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of this most wonderful, maddening, deflating, and inspiring game. Playing side by side with M. Scott Peck on an imaginary course of his own design--complete with illustrations of each hole--you will come to see the profound truths in this seemingly simple game. Appreciate that life is not linear. Come to understand your own anger and how to heal that which gets in your way. Accept the gifts of humility. Appreciate kenosis, the process by which the self empties itself of self. Benefit from teachers. Know that in weakness often there is strength. Realize that to experience the blessings of golf and life fully, you must accept the divinity that underlies all things. Like the best-selling volumes of Harvey Penick and Michael Murphy, Golf and the Spirit makes a unique contribution to the literature of golf and life. It goes beyond the body to address the heart and soul of the game, creating a rare opportunity for transformation in the lives of its readers, both on and off the fairway. It seems to me the human condition is most basically that we are willful creatures living in a world that, much of the time, doesn't behave the way we want it to. We live in the tension between our will and reality. Sometimes with great effort and expertise, we can change reality or bend it to our will. At other times--also with great effort and expertise--it is we who must change by coming to accept the limitations of the world and of ourselves. How we do this--how we deal with the hazards of life--is quite akin to how we deal with the hazards of a golf course. Sooner or later golfers who stick with the game long enough will almost always come to see it as a metaphor for life. But the word metaphor fails to do justice to all that golf has to teach us. I would go even further and say that, in its own way, golf is life and, not only that, life condensed. If we choose to use it as such, I believe that golf, next to marriage and parenthood, can routinely be the greatest of life's learning opportunities. Having toured The Road Less Traveled in previous bestsellers, psychiatrist and self-help guru Peck finally sets out on the cartpath. His destination? A journey into the mysteries of the royal and ancient game. Given the tenor of his earlier work, it's surprising he took so long to take aim at this particularly pilgrim-filled target area. Peck, a golfer since his army days in the '60s, fairly and fittingly uses the game as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Dividing his book into 18 holes with titles like Civility, Human Nature, The Invisible, Deftness (and, for good measure, a 19th called Closure), he navigates his course prudently and self-referentially with a bag full of mysticism, religion, and psychology, and acquits himself with a safe par performance. Nothing particularly dangerous or spectacular emerges from his thinking about the game. Instead, he puts a New Age spin on it--"Golf is probably the most nonlinear pastime on the face of the earth"; "A day of golf may seem like a personal holiday ... but it is hardly a holy day"; "I do believe that golf can be a wonderful spiritual path of growth toward God, but only if one chooses to use it as such"--on the roads already well traveled by such masterful analysts of golf's raptures and ridicules as Harvey Penick, Michael Murphy, Jim Flick, Tommy Armour, Bobby Jones, and Bob Rotella. Peck, of course, is right about golf being a spiritual journey; it's an inner game of personal demons that demands its players to get as much of a grip on themselves as on their clubs. The bogey on his scorecard is that those who play golf already know this. --Jeff Silverman

The Kingdom of Shivas Irons by Michael Murphy Hardcover from Broadway Media Published: 1997- ISBN: 0767900189 Originally published in 1972, Michael Murphy's Golf in the Kingdom has become one of the bestselling golf books of all time and has been hailed as "a golf classic if any exists in our day" (John Updike) and "a masterpiece on the mysticism of golf" (San Francisco Chronicle). Golf in the Kingdom introduced Shivas Irons, the golf pro and philosopher with whom Murphy played a mythic round of golf on Scotland's Burningbush links, a round that profoundly altered his game and vision. Shivas's insights about competition, life, and "true gravity," all instilled in him by his elusive mentor Seamus MacDuff, captured the imaginations and the devoted following of students of the inner game of golf. The Kingdom of Shivas Irons is the enchanting story of Murphy's return to Scotland to investigate reports of further visitations by Shivas Irons and to answer questions about him and MacDuff that have haunted Murphy since his original trip to Burningbush some thirty-one years before. Murphy and his companion, Buck Hannigan, a skeptical physicist fascinated by Shivas's connections to metanormal events, embark on a magical quest for Irons and MacDuff--and their wisdom about golf and human potential. From the mystical golf course surrounding MacDuff's estate in Scotland, across the world to the first Russian Open Golf Championship, and finally to Pebble Beach on the California Coast, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons is a delightful exploration of the deep truths about the game of golf and a provocative inquiry into our remarkable possibilities for growth and transformation. The long-awaited sequel to Golf in the Kingdom takes Murphy back to Scotland in search of another encounter with the mystically enchanting Shivas Irons, a man--if that's indeed what he is--who's part golf professional, part shaman, completely wise, and thoroughly fascinating. Filled with myth, mysticism, metaphysics, advanced string theory (courtesy of fellow searcher and friend, physicist Buck Hannigan), and at times other-worldly golf sequences from Scotland, to Russia, to a climactic round at Pebble Beach, Kingdom resolves its quest in the most unlikely and hard-to-find place of all. "Keep coming," Irons implores his seeker. "Imagine. Practice. Start again. I'm not so far away." Indeed, more than fairways that glow in the dark and drives that can fly 450 yards, it's Irons's ultimate whereabouts that infuses Kingdom with its magic and its mystery.

Golf for Enlightenment: Seven Lessons for the Game of Life (Random House Large Print) by Deepak Chopra Hardcover   Deepak Chopra has discovered the delights--and frustrations--of golf, and he is passionate about the game. Confronted by the wild ups and downs of his own play, he consulted with golf professionals and developed a new approach to the game that any golfer can follow--from the novice to the expert. The results can be measured not only in increased enjoyment and skill, but also in greater wisdom about life beyond the 18th hole. Chopra's own game has improved dramatically since incorporating the elements of his program. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of a "perfect" swing, Chopra reveals how golf can be mastered through mindfulness, a form of awareness that combines sharp focus and relaxation at the same time. Expanded awareness, he tells us, can accomplish much more than external mechanics to improve one's game. But Golf for Enlightenment is also an engrossing story about Adam, an Everyman who is playing a terrible round of golf when he meets a mysterious young teaching pro named Leela. In seven short but profound lessons detailing spiritual strategies, she teaches Adam the essence of a game that has much to explain about life itself. Chopra has spent the last year taking the unique message in Golf for Enlightenment nationwide, teaching the essential tenets of his program at lectures and seminars to golfers everywhere. His message continues to help players turn an obsession into a positive life path.

Billy Boy: A Novel by Bud Shrake Hardcover from Simon & Schuster Media Published: 2001- ISBN: 0743224809 Not since Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show has a novelist captured the poignant contradictions of young manhood in the American West the way Bud Shrake does in Billy Boy. There are tough times ahead for sixteen-year-old Billy. He's just come to Fort Worth with his father, Troy, after the death of his mother back in Albuquerque. Troy's drinking and gambling will leave them all but penniless, and he'll soon move on and abandon Billy in this strange town to fend for himself. With only a vague idea of how he's going to live, Billy heads over to Colonial Country Club, where he hopes he can get work as a caddie and where he just might see his hero, Ben Hogan. What he finds there, under the watchful eye of his guardian spirit, teaches him unforgettable lessons about golf, life, love and honor. Shrake skillfully weaves historical figures and his richly drawn characters into the fabric of the town and the tenor of the time. Billy must face down his fears and doubts, and he does so in a climactic confrontation that combines the yearnings of youth with the redemption of the spirit. Billy Boy is an unforgettable novel of coming of age in a time and a place filled with mythic echoes and frontier dreams.

The Scientific Truth of the Golf Swing by Steen Winther Paperback from Lulu.com ISBN: 1411697170 The difference in driving distance between short and long hitting professionals is remarkably small. How can short and skinny players hit the ball 280 yards with what appears to be effortless swings? What do they know that we do not know? What is the true source of power in the golf swing and how do you apply it to your own game? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this guide.

 
 
 
 

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