Golf Sense: Practical Tips On How To Play Golf In The Zone

Golf Sense: Practical Tips On How To Play Golf In The Zone by Roy Palmer published by Forerunner Publications.

Top golfer, Ian Poulter, expressed the frustration many golfers experience when he said “I feel like taking my putter into the car park and giving it a right good thrashing”.

Golfers of all abilities complain about the erratic nature of their game and yet often struggle to find the cause. They play two great shots to get onto the green and then fluff the easiest of putts. Surprisingly, the reason has little to do with skill and everything to do with something few golfers consider… habit.

In this book, Roy Palmer explains how habits make golfers unknowingly do things they really don’t want to do.

For example, Palmer suggests golfers should check whether they lift their shoulders before playing a shot. It’s a common habit for many golfers, yet completely unnecessary and can affect the outcome of the shot. If players are unaware of these habitual actions, they can’t control them.

In his introduction Roy Palmer confesses that he doesn’t play golf.  This left doubt in my mind as to what authority the author had to write this book.  I have read other books by sports psychologists and fitness instructors but all of them enjoy playing the game.  But as I read on I was interested in what I read because it was different to other books of a similar nature.  Palmer’s book is all about a mental state of mind, getting “in the zone” and staying there to allow you to play your own style of golf, and in the process become a more consistent player.  The exercises he uses to explain how this can be achieved are again interesting and as far as my limited reading around this subject goes, simple and original.

Golf Sense: Practical Tips On How To Play Golf In The Zone offers practical tips and techniques for golfers of all abilities, to recognise and correct bad habits. His book also reveals:

• Common errors players don’t realise they’re doing and how to stop them
• How to achieve the ideal state of mind for playing the best golf
• The single, most effective lesson that transforms any golfer’s game

Roy Palmer is a teacher of The Alexander Technique, the world-renowned movement re-education
system and expert on the sporting phenomenon known as The Zone – the sublime state where a peak performance actually feels easy. Palmer believes a consistent golfer is a successful golfer.

The book is a good read.  Now I need to put the good advice into practise and see if it helps my golf.

Golf Sense: Practical Tips On How To Play Golf In The Zone is available worldwide from online bookstores and the author’s website www.play-better-golf.com.

When To Regrip Your Ball Retriever by Bobby Rusher

Bobby Rusher dedicates the second in a series of golf books to any golfers that have yet to grasp or accept that golf is a game where the ball goes where you hit it!

When To Regrip Your Ball Retriever by Bobby Rusher is a collection of amusing answers to embarrassing situations you may find yourself in, on the golf course.  The book comes not with a spine but a ring binder much like a calendar. Flipping each page reveals a heading followed by a short story, recommendation, explanation or a list of bullet points.

For example, ‘How to Behave When You Lie Two on the Ladies’ Tee’

• Ask your partner if he can suggest a way for you to avoid the water on your next shot
• Fall to the ground and begin to cry
• Ask what par is for the hole
• Ask your partner ‘how many yards it is from here?’

When To Regrip Your Ball Retriever will bring a smile to the face of any golfer and would make a great Christmas stocking-filler present, especially for those amateur golfers who don’t take their golf too seriously or have found themselves in similar embarrassing positions on the golf course.

It is different to other golf books I have seen or read and written in a style more akin to a blog post that would make a good companion to any golfer stuck indoors over the festive period while there is snow on the ground outside and wishing to escape the extended family inside!

Former President of the United States, George W. Bush and Donald Trump are among those who have been quoted as enjoying Bobby Rusher’s first book in the series, How to Line up Your Fourth Putt.

“I’ve enjoyed many chuckles from this publication, and it’s in my golf bag, ready to go on the next outing.  Who knows, maybe it will help to divert the competition.” – George W. Bush

“It does put the game in perspective for all us hackers, and I enjoyed it immensely.” – Donald Trump

When To Regrip Your Ball Retriever by Bobby Rusher price $17.95 and is available from www.4putt.com.

Silent Mind Golf - How to Empty Your Mind and Play Golf Instinctively

I have played many sports in my time and by far the hardest game to play is golf. That in itself makes it the most beautiful and enjoyable of games.

Nothing feels quite like having a really good round where shot after shot went according to plan, and you walk off the 18th green hardly able to contain your smug smile and warm glow of satisfaction and achievement.

The reason for all the above is that unlike football, golf doesn’t allow you to be a hero by simply making a deft pass or two, save a penalty or score a winning goal. With golf you can play a few great shots, birdie a few holes and feel on top of the world, only to sink to your knees with a wayward shot or scuffing the ball 6ft forward instead of dropping it six inches from the cup (if it happens to Tiger Woods in the Ryder Cup, it can happen to you!) and the last three-and-a-half hours have been a complete waste of time.

This happens to everyone who plays golf. Unfortunately, for the amateur golfer it happens more often than not. The better the golfer, the more consistent the play. I recently watched some great golf shots on the EuroPro Tour from some fine golfers. The difference between those pro golfers and Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter is consistency; and over the years golfers of all levels have read books and studied ways to improve their level of concentration and focus in an attempt to improve their game.

Silent Mind Golf by lifelong golfer and motivational speaker Robin Sieger, subtitled ‘How to Empty Your Mind and Play Golf Instinctively’ offers a simple approach to training a golfer’s mind to concentrate and focus on playing your best golf shot, every time you stand over the ball.

Robin Sieger explains how most golfers and coaches alike concentrate efforts on technical ability, the swing, grip, the stance, and ignore the importance of mental state and psychology of the individual. Getting ‘into the zone’ isn’t about making the perfect swing. It is being in a place where you can control your mental strength and focus on nothing else but an inner calm and total self belief.

With exercises and examples taken from the lives of some of the greatest golfers, Silent Mind Golf is a well written and easy -to-follow book that explains how you can learn to play better golf by concentrating your mind and mental strength.

Robin Sieger is best known as a motivational speaker and a success strategist to companies like Microsoft and Coca-Cola. But most impressively, he holds the world record for the coldest round of golf ever played – 18 holes at -26°C in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Silent Mind Golf – How to Empty Your Mind and Play Golf Instinctively by Robin Sieger is published by Aurum Press in hardback priced £12.99.

The Open Championship 2010 Official DVD

The Open Championship is always a much anticipated event in the golfing calendar and 2010 marked the 150th Anniversary of this landmark competition.  Now fans can relive the unforgettable moments of this year’s tournament through The Open Championship 2010 Official Film was released by Good Guys Media on 27th September.

Played on the legendary Old Course at St Andrew’s, The Open Championship 2010 gave golf fans plenty of reasons to celebrate, not least the crowning of a new champion in Louis Oosthuizen.  The South African’s definitive victory with a margin of seven shots left spectators in no doubt that he had the game and the temperament to cope with the pressure of leading a Major Championship, despite the spirited challenge of Englishman Paul Casey over the weekend.

In the battle for second place Lee Westwood edged a trio of European players including Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson and Rory McIlroy, who set an Open record with a breathtaking nine-under-par, first round of 63.

Further excitement came in the form of Jeong Jin, the remarkable young Korean who scored a record breaking first round, winning the Silver Medal with an incredible eagle putt at the 72nd hole, just weeks after becoming the first Asian to win the Amateur Championship.

The 2010 Official Film also documents the farewell to one of golf’s true legends, five-time Open Champion Tom Watson.

As well as showcasing all the highlights of this year’s tournaments, the Official Film features 18 hole fly-overs.

Free Competition

Enter our Free Competition to be one of five lucky winners who will each receive The Open Championship 2010 Official Film DVD

PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED

To enter the competition all you need to do is correctly answer the following question:

Who set an Open record with a nine-under-par, first round of 63 at this year’s championship?

Send your entries to comps@buzzinmedia.co.uk with The Open DVD in the subject line with your answer and your full address and contact telephone number.

This Buzzin Golf Free Competition ends on 31st October, 2010. The editor will randomly choose 5 winners.

The editor’s choice is final.

Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing

Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing to give it its full title is a very amusing book by  journalist and keen amateur golfer Josh Karp. The book is an account of Josh Karp’s quest to achieve inner peace to improve his golf, all through the art of Zen Buddhism.

Assisted by a quirky roster of excellent practitioners of esoteric, Eastern-fueled, non-traditional golf instruction that include Feldenkrais, The Emotional Freedom Technique, Aikido, meditation, Buddhism and other practices. Karp embarks on a unique journey that takes him across United States  and Scotland fairways that’s as funny as it is illuminating.

The book is written in a very inviting unstuffy way that had me wanting to keep reading on, every time I had to put it down.   Along the path Karp meets with various golf masters offering alternative practices and methods to conventional golf pro teachers tapping into the links between golf and spirituality.

The book is very enjoyable and had me laughing out loud as well as practising the theories and not undertaking any further golf lessons to correct my own swing from ‘conventional’ PGA pros at my local golf clubs.

Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing is both funny and enlightening, and well worth reading for any amateur golfer who like me is frustrated by a game that he plays for relaxtion.

For more information on the autor visit www.joshkarpbooks.com.

Title: Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing
Author: Josh Karp
ISBN: 978-0-8118-6539-9
Price: $23.95
Publisher: Chronicle Books

The Golf Book

Chicken Soup for the Soul has teamed up with Golf Digest magazine to present The Golf Book – a collection of 101 real life, inspirational stories written by US PGA tour pros, US celebrities, sports writers and amateurs.

They share everything from the moment they fell in love with the game, tales of adventure playing golf all over the world and even some very touching moments about pure friendship.

Trust instinct to the end even though it render no reason, my father used to say. I’ve heeded this advice my entire life, not only to know which kind of shot to hit in a golf tournament, but also when to walk away from certain people in business, writes PGA champion Gary Player in his story, Trusting Instincts.

The book’s editor, Max Adler of Golf Digest magazine, recounts his experience caddying at the Old Course at St Andrews while studying abroad in Scotland, and the reverence he felt for the course.

“In two years living in St Andrews, I estimate I went around the Old Course about 120 times, equal parts playing and caddying,” writes Adler.  “And every single time I got to the 16th tee, without fail, the mood of the round changed. The 16th tee is the point where the quality and history of each shot left to be played is overwhelming. If your heart doesn’t skip as you walk over the legend-worn stones of the ancient Swilcan Bridge, you’re not a golfer, perhaps not even human.”

In Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Golf Book, you’ll also read about:

• How New York Times sports columnist Dave Anderson realized being a spectator at a pro golf tournament was better than any other sports event

• How SportCenter’s John Buccigross played a round of golf with one of his sports heroes, Hockey Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque

• How Kenny G learned never to give up during a game of golf because anything can happen

• How popular singer-songwriter Josh Kelley’s love of golf helped to cultivate his music career

The Golf Book is an amusing, light-hearted read.  Perfect for a relaxing day at the beach, dreaming of a day at the golf course.

Free Competition

Please Note: This competition is now closed

Enter our Free Competition to be one of 5 lucky winners who will each receive a copy of The Golf Book

To enter the competition all you need to do is correctly answer the following question:

Which young Irish golfer came fourth in the recent US PGA Championship?

Send your entries to freecompetition@buzzinmedia.co.uk with The Golf Book Comp in the subject line with your answer and your full address and contact telephone number.

This Buzzin Golf Free Competition ends on 21st September, 2009. The editor will randomly choose 5 winners.

The editor’s choice is final.

The New Rules of Golf Instruction

Charlie King, is a GOLF Magazine Top 100 instructor who runs a golf academy in Georgia, United States.

He recently released a free e-book called The New Rules of Golf Instruction which discusses how traditional golf instruction has failed, and is something of a call to action for golfers everywhere to get golf instructors to use a modern set of ideas and standards.

You can also contact Charlie King by email.

The Art Of Golf

The Art Of Golf – Golf’s original instruction manual has been re-published after more than a century.

The Art Of Golf is golf’s original instruction manual.  But hitherto this book was out of print in the UK since the late nineteenth century.

Cambridge publisher The Oleander Press has published the classic guide to after more than a century.

The Art of Golf is a rare and classic treasure of sporting literature and a must for every golfer’s bookshelf.

The Art of Golf is one diehard links-addict’s attempt to accumulate all man’s golfing knowledge to that point; to bring  mindset and method together in one volume and after 121 years lost in the rough, this edition finds the green once more.

More often defining the flights of fancy of the player himself rather than those of his ball, it nevertheless frequently offers pithy, erudite advice along with tips, tricks and tactics, delivered with a dry, sardonic  humour to golfers ancient and modern, young and old, on how to improve their game.

The book is a fascinating exploration and homage to this enthralling and most frustrating of human pursuits; The Art of Golf provides an enlightening glimpse into the game of golf’s past.

The author, Sir Walter Grindlay Simpson (1843 – 1898), was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. A good friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, their canoeing trip through Belgium and France is recounted in Stevenson’s first published book An Inland Voyage.

Simpson, Captain of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in 1886 and 1887, wrote frequently on his passion for magazines and periodicals but his two main published works are collected here – The Art of Golf and the essay “Out of Form” written for the Badminton Library’s Golf (1890).

This new edition of The Art of Golf celebrates the 121st anniversary of the original edition and features the complete texts and all the original images, photographs and drawings, digitally enhanced where possible.

Oleander Press’ Jon Gifford said: ‘Re-publishing The Art of Golf has been a fascinating experience and one that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve known of the book for years but didn’t realise just how much players today could learn from the writings of a devotee over 100 years ago.’

The Art of Golf is published by The Oleander Press, priced £14.95 and would make a perfect Christmas gift for any golfer.  As a Buzzin Golf reader you can claim a discount when buying direct from the publishers website – www.OleanderPress.com.  The discount code is Golf08.

FREE COMPETITION

Win a copy of The Art Of Golf by simply entering our Free competition.

Please Note: This competition has now closed

To enter the competition all you need to do is correctly answer the following question:

Who wrote The Art Of Golf?

Send your entries to freecompetition@buzzinmedia.co.uk with Buzzin Art Of Golf Competition in the subject line with your answer and your full address and contact telephone number.

The Buzzin Golf Free Competition ends on 31 December, 2008. The editor will randomly choose 5 winners. Each will receive a copy of The Art Of Golf.

The editor’s choice is final.

The Right Sticks by Tom Wishon is a great read

With only a few weeks until Christmas, every keen golfer will be anticipating the odd stocking-filler come Christmas Day morning.

Unfortunately some golf presents will be worthless – I’ve never received a novelty Callaway or Titleist ball or a pair of shocking pink Stromberg trousers.  But I find suggesting a few golf books means the thought, as well as the gift itself, counts.

The Right Sticks by Tom Wishon is a great read.

The full title of the book gives you more of an idea what this book is about: The Right Sticks – Equipment Myths That Could Wreck Your Golf Game.

Wishon seeks to dispel many of the myths that surround today’s golf clubs and how they impact on your game of golf.

The book isn’t aimed at any one in particular, but Wishon’s candid analysis will allow the reader to make an informative choice by seeing through much of the hype.

Amateur golfers are told so called “facts” about golf equipment and Wishon discusses some of the most common ones, including:

The bigger the clubhead, the better

The longer the length of the club, the further you can hit the ball

Women’s clubs are designed for women

Golf clubs sold to amateurs are exactly the same as those sold to professional golfers

Custom-fitted golf clubs are only for really good golfers

All the above, according to Tom Wishon, are myths not facts, and in The Right Sticks he offers good reason for you to believe him.

The Right Sticks is Tom Wishon’s eighth book and follows recent titles: The Search For The Perfect Golf Club (2006) and The Search For The Perfect Driver (2007).

Tom Wishon has every reason to write this book as he has been a leading golf club designer for the past 33 years and has over 50 different design “firsts” to his name.

In April 2007 Golf Digest Tom Wishon was referred to as “an innovator – one of three on the edge of golf technology.”

Dom Joly Golf DVD - Dom Joly

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTERED THIS COMPETITION.

WE WILL CONTACT THE WINNERS SHORTLY.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Unfortunately we have had to temporarily suspend this competition due to the DVD release date change which has caused the PR company to withdraw the offer of sending 10 copies of the DVD for competition winners.

We are currently negotiating an alternative prize.

All those that have already entered the competition, please accept our deepest apologies.  Your name will go forward and 10 competition winners will be chosen on 30 November, as before.

Each competition winner will now receive two from the following DVD titles: Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights Complete Series One, Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights Complete SeriesTwo, Spitting Image Complete 2nd Series, Meet The Spartans, 8 Out Of 10 Cats – Claws Out.

DVD’s will be sent without any preferred choices.

Once again, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused you.