Introduction

Chapter one, your personal best.

Welcome to the audio book mind under par as read by the author, Dr. David F. Wright, Dr. Wright is a PGA tour instructor, a member of the professional golfers association of America and a full-time teaching professional at Pelican hill golf club and resort in Newport coast, California. He holds two doctorates, both in psychology. His specialties are psychophysiology and learning. Additionally, Dr. Wright has been a member of the clinical faculty of the university of Southern California school of medicine for 23 years. And he is a research and development consultant to Callaway golf in Carlsbad, California, Dr. Wright was elected by his peers as the 1996 teacher of the year for the Southern California PGA Metro chapter. The first section of this audio book is an introduction by three tour players. Dr. Wright works with.

1. Let’s begin with Patrick Burke, a PGA tour player.
2. The next introduction is by Dennis Paulson, a PGA and Nike to our player.
3. The last introduction is by Marta Figueras Dodi, an LPGA tour player.

Did you know when Sam Snead played for the first time in a major match in 1936, he said he was shaking so much on the first tee. He had to use both hands to tee up the ball. When he stood up, the ball was a total blur.

Byron Nelson taught Tom Watson to slow down his tempo by slowing down his movement in his routine,

PGA tour player, Vijay Singh never had any formal instruction. He learned to play golf by watching Tom Weiskopf swing.

Gary player did everything with a feeling of slow motion from dining to grooming. The week he won the us open in 1965.

Teaching great Harvey Penick said, if you can wash your mind clean each time while walking to your next shot, you had the makings of a champion.

Jack Nicholas said, correct thinking. Plus, a measure of self control will not only tame tension, but actually make it work for you.

Gary player says the difference between an ordinary player and the champion is the way they think.

After winning the 1993 PGA Western open, Nick Price said my concentration was unbelievable this week for the 10 seconds leading into every shot. All I focused on was target.

Greg Norman says, everybody likes to hear compliments when they hit good shots, but unless you play golf with your mother, you don’t hear it very often. So you have to learn to talk to yourself. Positively.

Johnny Miller says everyone has his own choking level. As you get more experience, you’re choking level rises.

Bobby Jones said the secret to every golf shot he ever hit was a focus on the outcome of that shot to the exclusion of everything else.

Early in their careers. Bobby Jones, Henry Cotton and Nancy Lopez suffered from such severe bouts of nervousness. They all had problems prior to a tournament with nausea and vomiting.

Johnny Miller said, if you have an ugly swing and had good looking shots, you can win major championships. If you trust the rest of your game and work on the mental side, the swing is just part of playing golf.

Meg Mellon says when I’m playing my best, I know I’m focusing right down to the leaf on the tree I`m aiming at.

Chichi Rodriguez said Putting is a state of mind. I have confidence that I can make the putts. I Putted. Okay. In the early seventies, then somebody gave me $50 to write an article on how I put, when I tried to break it down, I couldn’t figure it out. And I didn’t put worth anything for a long time.

Fred couples never hits a shot without thinking of that same shot. He has hit well at some time in the past.

And Tom Watson said, I know when I am playing my best. I’m not thinking of very many things. Maybe not even a swing thought, just whatever the shot requires.

Jack Nicholas said, if I could get inside the heads of most of the amateurs I’ve played with, and pro-ams, I’m certain, the pictures I’d see would be mostly about club swing and ball striking. That’s about as bad, a mental mistake. As you can make.

Johnny Miller said the following regarding advice to accomplish golfers, use your own darn swing and tell everybody else to shove it. Tell them to keep their swing thoughts to themselves.

Severiano Ballesteros says he paints positive pictures of smooth swings and successful results. In my mind’s eye,

Sam Snead says, you should think back on your good shots and try to repeat them.

PGA tour player Mark Wiebe says: The guys who are champions are guys who are really good at clearing their minds and just playing the shots.

Jack Nicholas and Ben Hogan expected to hit only a handful of shots around exactly as planned Walter Hagen expected to hit seven bad shots around. And finally, Gary player says, there’s absolutely no question. That golf is a game of mind over matter. During every major championship I’ve won. I concentrated so hard that I played rounds without knowing my score. I’ve often been in a don’t know who I am sort of days, total relaxation and complete control. In my opinion, the greatest golf psychologists are the tour players who have intuitively developmental strategies and apply them during play. There’s no theory, just application. Many of these players have been very articulate in describing their mental skills.

Throughout this book, you will find quotes from the world’s top golfers over the past 90 years regarding their mental and physical behaviors. During peak and poor performances, you can learn from their experiences in the same way they learned from their peers. Their first few years on tour, I have provided explanations for their descriptions and strategies, which you can begin to incorporate both on and off the golf course.

First let’s look at your personal best, your personal best. Let’s start with a discussion of what your best on-course performance felt like and build from there. Now, first, I want you to consider the best round of golf You ever shot.

• Answer each of the following questions with a yes or no.
  • Did it require effort?
  • Did you think about swing mechanics?
  • Were you worried about what others were thinking during your round?
  • Were you thinking about your score during, in between shots?
  • Did you feel tense and nervous?
  • Did you confidence?
  • Did most shots feel guided or steered?
  • Did you have intrusive in swing thoughts?
  • Did you change your priests wing routine, Every few shots?

Now think about the worst round of golf, you ever shot and ask yourself the same questions.

• Once again, please answer these questions with a yes or a no.
  • Did it require effort?
  • Did you think about swing mechanics?
  • Were you worried about what others were thinking during your round?
  • Were you thinking about your score during, in between shots?
  • Did you feel tense and nervous?
  • Did you confidence?
  • Did most shots feel guided or steered?
  • Did you have intrusive in swing thoughts?
  • Did you change your priests wing routine, Every few shots?

It is likely that you answered no to most of the questions about your best round of golf and conversely you likely answered yes to most questions regarding your worst round of golf. The best rounds of golf are described by tour players and amateurs alike as consisting of six basic characteristics.

Number one, a that routine is followed. The routine is repeated in the same sequence on each shot, pre swing and swing and post swing routines are the same on each green, each tee box, each fairway and for each troubleshot, every top athlete, regardless of sport follows the set pre-performance routine.

PGA tour player Greg Norman has positive supportive conversations with himself before and after shots. As part of his mental pre swing and post swing routines.

LPGA tour player, Meg Mellon says she follows the same pre swing routine, whether she is hitting a shot on the range or during a tournament.

Number two, these players say they feel relaxed in their swings. Feel effortless. The swing feels fluid and relaxed movement around the course is relaxed. Some players report a feeling of moving at a slower than normal pace while others purposely slow their pace.

Senior PGA tour player. Ray Floyd says when he is playing his best, he feels as if he is moving at half speed.

Current and past PGA tour players. Davis Love Gary player, Johnny Miller, Byron Nelson, and Tom Watson, all described periods of purposely quieting their movement to calm their nerves.

1995, British open champion. John Daley describes slowing down his movement during his opening round 64.

Number three, they have a concentration focus only on the shot. Their airplane fats are focused. 100% in the present and everything feels completely automatic. Each shot is played without consideration of anything, but the present shots are played. One at a time, the judgment of others, the last shot, their score or off-course concerns never entered the mind.

Jack Nicholas describes a systematic process of going from a very broad to a very narrow focus until he hits his shot. Danny returns to a broad focus.

Byron Nelson describes concentration as standard equipment with all champions.

Similarly, Gary Player said during every major championship I’ve won, I’ve concentrated so hard that I played rounds without knowing my score player goes on to say concentration takes years of practice to acquire. It’s difficult to come by and easy to lose. If you let up.

Number four, great players are non-mechanical. There are no thoughts about swing mechanics during play many players slide from greatness and attribute their performance to Mies, to becoming too mechanical.

These players include Greg Norman, David Frost, Hal Sutton, Bob Tway and Sandy Lyle.

Greg Norman, David Frost, and Bob Tway resumed their previous swing styles and made major comebacks other great players escape the plunge by catching the mechanics focused before they slid too far. These players include Lee Trevino and Jack Nicholas. The insights of each of these players and their mechanics struggles are discussed in the following chapters.

And then there is PGA tour player, Bruce Litsky. He is a player who takes long summer breaks from the tour to be with his family and to coach little league baseball, reportedly Litsky seldom picks up a club to work on his mechanics. He always has, and likely always will hit a big cut. His mechanics just don’t change. And why should they? He has had great success with what he has playing a limited schedule with limited practice and amusing story is told by one of his former caddies who didn’t believe that Litsky didn’t practice during his winter layoff. So he put a banana into Litsky his driver head cover months later when he took out his clubs for a tournament driver banana we’re still together. Bruce Litsky has the ability to compete and win. He won the May, 1992 PGA tour colonial playing the last 42 holes without a bogey through the weekend. And without having touched a club for a month prior, he had won the same tournament in 1980, his plans after his win. Take another month off again in 1994, let’s get one. The Las Vegas invitational returning to the tour, following an extended period off.

Nicholas described his early years after turning professional and working on his golf swing. He said he grew up in an era of Ben Hogan and everything he saw read and heard indicated that Hogan had reached mechanical perfection. Nicholas noted that he felt that all he needed was time to work, to develop this perfection. Nicholas commented on his perceptions of those early years. No matter how much work I did one week, I would have it. And the next I couldn’t hit my head. This is still true today. I am a far better golfer than when I started out on the tour 12 years ago. And this was written in 1974. And I feel that I have improved to some degree each year, but that is more the result of maturity and competitive experience. That of improvement in the mechanics of my game.

Number five, great players have confidence in every shot they play. If they don’t have confidence in a shot, they don’t play it. There’s never a doubt before or during a shot about the ability to execute it. They focus on the success of each shot as they play. Their internal dialogue with themselves is positive. They are great coaches for themselves.

Great players like Sam Snead, Greg Norman, Johnny Miller, Gary player, and Jay Siegel. Describe the importance of focusing on your success rather than your failures. If you’re going to build confidence in the following chapters, they each describe how they talk to themselves. After his shot.

Number six, top players described visualization as part of their pre swing routine. Many of the top tour players described seeing ball flight, their swing, the ball landing on a specific target, a similar shot they’ve hit well before or any combination of these visual images. Most amateurs do not.

Visualization is like every other mental strategy. It takes practice during an interview at the 1993 Hawaiian open PGA tour player. Paul Azinger says he started to play well. When he began to visualize senior tour player, Dave Hill has won 10 regular tour events, three senior tour events, Varden trophy and played on three Ryder cup teams. He says a visualization. Imagination is very important in shot-making. If you can’t picture it, you can’t do it.

The most written and talked about visualization strategy is that of Jack Nicholas, a variety of imagery, strategies, and player quotes are presented in the chapter titled visualization, pictures, equal performance.

I have repeatedly heard how the top players watch the methods of other top players, Gary Player, Bobby Jones, Henry Cotton, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf and Nancy Lopez are a few of many who acknowledged this as a strategy of their early days on tour. Etas says they observed top players modeled their behavior and improved.

Tom Watson describes how he watched Nicholas during his early days on tour. I learned more playing with him than I did watching him hit balls. I really didn’t try to copy a swing, but I learned the way he played shuts.

Johnny Miller advocates, finding a pro model you like and imitating his swing. I refer to this as banking or storing the memory of a swing and your nervous system. Johnny Miller says he used images of different pros depending on whether he wanted to fade, draw or hit a straight shot.

Similarly, PGA tour player, Vijay Singh watched Tom Weiskopf swing on television as a child and modeled what he saw. His father taught him the basics. He had no formal instruction other than watching Weiskopf swing.

Interestingly, Tom Weiskopf says he learned by watching Sam Snead and Tommy Bolt. He also noted that he learned by watching and competing with Jack Nicholas.

So what can you do to increase consistent effortless focused one shot at a time confident play on the course. First it requires an understanding of the six major characteristics of peak performance periods. Second, you must begin to practice the strategies presented in this book, both on and off the golf course.

These strategies include the following, developing a consistent repeating routine, controlling your nervous system, being non-mechanical with your swing restructuring and focusing your thinking and behavior to the present.

Building confidence through positive internal dialogue, and finally recalling images and feelings of past success and creating positive images for future success.

Just these strategies, you will have more frequent periods of peak performance, both on the course and in your day to day life, your behavior off the course dictates the way you will behave on the course.

If you are going to change the way you mentally approach golf, you need to change the way you mentally approach your day-to-day life. Practicing the mental strategies off the course will provide you with well-rehearsed skills for play.

This book will show you specific techniques for making changes both on the course and in your day-to-day life.

As you read, please remember what one of the greatest golfers of our time Jack Nicholas said about attitude during play. He said that the more he approached golf as something to have fun doing the better he played.

let’s begin with the first characteristic of On Course peak performance, a consistent repeating routine.

Please continue with: Routine,The Links to Success