Patrick Burke, a PGA tour Player.

I began working with Dr. Wright and April of 1991. My career was going nowhere and I was completely stressed out. I was as close to wanting to quit the game as one could get.

I played the PGA tour the year prior and had a horrible year. I then proceeded to misread qualifying for the tour by bugging the last hole to miss by one shot beginning the 91 season on the Hogan, which is now the Nike tour. Let’s just say I wasn’t very confident.

I had spent three years on a merry-go-round of swing “experts” in an effort to find the “perfect” swing. My obsession with mechanics had basically left me paralyzed on the golf course.

I’d searched for a sports psychologist for quite some time. Read articles, books, even listened to a few of the well-known guys speak, nothing I read or heard seemed to register. So I just kept digging deeper into the mechanics of my swing.

Luckily for me, a good friend of mine had a son who at the time was playing competitive golf. He had just begun working with David and I had heard a lot of good things from them about David. I sat and watched one of the lessons on the range and had the opportunity to meet and talk with David for a while. It was one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to me.

It didn’t take me long to realize that things just “clicked” with David. Like I mentioned before, I had researched many of the well-known people in the field, but everything I read or heard seemed more confusing talking with David was very easy in our first lesson was even better than I hoped for.

We went to the driving range for our first lesson. David was there with his clipboard and drills, and I was there with about five in swing thoughts and a lifetime’s worth of negativity. David took me through a drill which consisted of hitting about six groups of 10 balls and rating them on one to 10 scale, (10 being best). After each group of ten, we added another step and appreciate routine, and also added more focus of visualizing the shot I was hitting.

The end result was in my last 10 balls. I hit a series of nines and tens with an additional five to six yards increase in distance with a seven iron. The first 10 balls I hit weren’t too bad, but I had three or four mechanical thoughts in each swing. I was completely focused on my swing, not the results. By the time I hit the last 10 balls, all I was doing was picturing the shot I wanted to play and visualizing that shot through the swing. The results were incredible. David asked what thoughts I had on the last 10 shots. I just stood there with a blank stare on my face and the realization that I just begun, the process of relearning, how to play golf instead of making golf Swings.

Since that first day, my game has continued to improve. We expanded on drills, pre swing and swing and post swing routines and work both on and off the golf course. I won two tournaments in Australia and were requalified for the PGA tour. In 1994. David has been a major reason for this success.

You’re probably asking yourself, what does this have to do MIND UNDER PAR?

Well, back when I first started working with David, the first thing he did was give me a draft of the book to read. We’ve been working together for quite some time now, and I still use an updated draft as references to keep me on track. It’s not just a book of interesting content. It’s a book you can use as a how to reference for years to come.

Most game improvement books seem to cover the same tire material over and over MIND UNDER PAR is different. The book instructs the golf around how to go about getting his or her mind working for instead of against him or her more importantly, David explains why your thinking takes the path it does and how you can redirect your thoughts down the correct channel.

As I already noted, when I met David, I was completely stressed out and lost both on and off the golf course. I was ready to quit, had no confidence and had an anxiety level high enough to make me sick. A very large portion of the time I had with David in the early part of our relationship was spent on dealing with these issues.

Once again, what does this have to do with MIND UNDER PAR? I believe that the most important thing I’ve learned during these years with David is that in order to change your mental approach to the game of golf, you’re going to have to make changes in your mental approach to each day of life. MIND UNDER PAR addresses these issues. And not only explains why you may need to work on these changes, but how to set out making these changes. MIND UNDER PAR provides the reader with a very effective and believe me tested complete mental approach to life, both on and off the golf course.

David unique golf clinical teaching and competitive athletics background is the backbone to this book. I know of no one in the sports/golf psychology field with this complete and qualified background,

The heart of the book, however, is David’s genuine care for his students. I’ve never worked with or seen a teacher who so thoroughly enjoys a student success is anyone who has had the pleasure of working personally with David has probably gotten an update on one or more of his pupils. This is not coming up because he he’s taking responsibility for any successes (that he probably was responsible), but because he is truly excited for them,

I honestly feel that this is what makes David a great teacher (and writer) any success I’ve had or will have in the future is due largely to the help I’ve received from him. Over the years, he has helped me become a much improved golfer, but more importantly has helped me become a much better person. I cannot begin to tell you how much he has helped me, but I can tell you how proud I am to have him for a friend.

If you read and practice the teachings in MIND UNDER PAR, utils assume be reaching your full potential on and off the golf course.

• The next introduction is by Dennis Paulson, a PGA and Nike to our player.