Read Online Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game by Dr. Gio Valiante - Free Book Online
Authors: Dr. Gio Valiante
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the thing that I love to do. I don’t like the glamour. I just like the game.
—B EN H OGAN
People who have a mastery orientation toward an activity engage in that activity because they want to continually learn, refine, and master it regardless of their level of expertise. Guided by the constant striving to improve their skills and do things better each time, mastery-oriented people are driven to elevate their abilities to new levels. In the world of golf, this means that golfers approach the game as a challenge that allows for the sustained refinement of skills.
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words of a champion: tiger woods,
2000 u.s. open
Tiger Woods’s career of incredible accomplishments may be forever unmatched by his 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Woods finished at an unheard of score of 12 under par at a championship where a score of even par is usually the goal of the championship committee. Woods began the final day with the trophy well in hand, leading by ten shots. He could have played the final round with a lack of focus or intensity, but that is not how Tiger Woods plays the game. He played the final round without making a bogey, including a gritty fifteen-footer for par at the sixteenth hole that on the surface was relatively meaningless. But that’s the focus of a man playing fearless golf. His comments to the media reveal the focus of a champion:
I told Stevie [Williams, Tiger’s caddie] walking up 18, there comes a point in time when you feel tranquil, when you feel calm. You feel at ease with yourself. For some reason, things just flowed. And no matter what you do, good or bad, it really doesn’t get to you. Even the days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, for some reason, it doesn’t feel too bad; it’s just all right.
That feeling comes with confidence, of course, a true sense of self-efficacy that is unwavering and consistent, whether you’re on the practice range or eighteenth tee.
“I’ve always had a tremendous belief in my abilities,” Woods said at Pebble Beach. “I’ve proven it in tournaments, but more so, I’ve proven it in practice sessions when no one’s been around. As a kid pretending to play against some of the best players, trying to imitate their golf swings. And those are the times that you’ve proved to yourself you can do it. Then you go ahead and do it in competition, and then it feeds from there.”
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For example, hall-of-famer Nick Price has won forty tournaments in his career on five continents, he has won three major titles and been ranked number one in the world. Now, in his late forties, he still is striving to make his golf swing better.
Part of the reason I have been able to compete for so long is because every year I have refined my golf swing. I have all the same moves I had when I was 19 years old but every year I have just refined it. I have worked diligently to improve my swing that little fraction more because the fact is, it is imperfectible. To me the swing is like a square block of wood, and your goal is to shape that block into the most perfect circle you can. You can get it to a circle pretty quickly, but after you get the general shape right, you then have to refine constantly and perpetually, and go from a hammer and a chisel, to 50 grit sandpaper, to 100 grit sandpaper, to 1000 grit sandpaper, to steel wool, to polish. And every year you refine, regardless of how good your previous year was, you try to get better. And that is what I have tried to do. Better and better every year regardless of where I am. Excellence, it’s like a process, you know? No matter where you are, you just keep trying to refine.
Mastery golfers who demonstrate
kaizen
get lost in the details, puzzles, and mysteries of the game, and they see their task as mastering those details and understanding the game’s mysteries. Because they view mastering golf as a constant challenge, they find it easy to become fully involved in what they are
—B EN H OGAN
People who have a mastery orientation toward an activity engage in that activity because they want to continually learn, refine, and master it regardless of their level of expertise. Guided by the constant striving to improve their skills and do things better each time, mastery-oriented people are driven to elevate their abilities to new levels. In the world of golf, this means that golfers approach the game as a challenge that allows for the sustained refinement of skills.
----
words of a champion: tiger woods,
2000 u.s. open
Tiger Woods’s career of incredible accomplishments may be forever unmatched by his 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Woods finished at an unheard of score of 12 under par at a championship where a score of even par is usually the goal of the championship committee. Woods began the final day with the trophy well in hand, leading by ten shots. He could have played the final round with a lack of focus or intensity, but that is not how Tiger Woods plays the game. He played the final round without making a bogey, including a gritty fifteen-footer for par at the sixteenth hole that on the surface was relatively meaningless. But that’s the focus of a man playing fearless golf. His comments to the media reveal the focus of a champion:
I told Stevie [Williams, Tiger’s caddie] walking up 18, there comes a point in time when you feel tranquil, when you feel calm. You feel at ease with yourself. For some reason, things just flowed. And no matter what you do, good or bad, it really doesn’t get to you. Even the days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, for some reason, it doesn’t feel too bad; it’s just all right.
That feeling comes with confidence, of course, a true sense of self-efficacy that is unwavering and consistent, whether you’re on the practice range or eighteenth tee.
“I’ve always had a tremendous belief in my abilities,” Woods said at Pebble Beach. “I’ve proven it in tournaments, but more so, I’ve proven it in practice sessions when no one’s been around. As a kid pretending to play against some of the best players, trying to imitate their golf swings. And those are the times that you’ve proved to yourself you can do it. Then you go ahead and do it in competition, and then it feeds from there.”
----
For example, hall-of-famer Nick Price has won forty tournaments in his career on five continents, he has won three major titles and been ranked number one in the world. Now, in his late forties, he still is striving to make his golf swing better.
Part of the reason I have been able to compete for so long is because every year I have refined my golf swing. I have all the same moves I had when I was 19 years old but every year I have just refined it. I have worked diligently to improve my swing that little fraction more because the fact is, it is imperfectible. To me the swing is like a square block of wood, and your goal is to shape that block into the most perfect circle you can. You can get it to a circle pretty quickly, but after you get the general shape right, you then have to refine constantly and perpetually, and go from a hammer and a chisel, to 50 grit sandpaper, to 100 grit sandpaper, to 1000 grit sandpaper, to steel wool, to polish. And every year you refine, regardless of how good your previous year was, you try to get better. And that is what I have tried to do. Better and better every year regardless of where I am. Excellence, it’s like a process, you know? No matter where you are, you just keep trying to refine.
Mastery golfers who demonstrate
kaizen
get lost in the details, puzzles, and mysteries of the game, and they see their task as mastering those details and understanding the game’s mysteries. Because they view mastering golf as a constant challenge, they find it easy to become fully involved in what they are
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