BOOKMARK: Golfing with Your Eyes Closed

When it comes to the average recreational golfer looking to improve his game, hope springs eternal. If only I could get rid of that slice on my drive. If only I could improve my putting. If only I could avoid the water.

 

Golfers are an easy touch when it comes to books or videos promising to improve their games; the advice offered usually falls into two categories—the physical and the mental. Golfing with Your Eyes Closed by Erin Macy and Tiffany Wilding-White (a native of Lenox, Massachusetts, who now lives next to the Greenock Golf Course in neighboring Lee) falls into the latter.

 

Although the cover shows a blindfolded golfer about to strike a ball, the title (and technique) is a metaphor: visualize what you want to happen on the golf course, rather than what you fear will happen. A combination how-to guide and workbook, with worksheets galore that separate it from the merely theoretical, the book, organized into nine “holes” instead of chapters, is also full of helpful suggestions from past and present professional golfers.

In their introduction, the authors write: “Visualization has numerous applications: it can be used to prevent errors, correct mistakes, enhance consistency, strengthen muscle memory, assess and perfect your swing’s appearance and feeling, calm and energize, encourage healing, and promote success.” Easy peasy, as Sarah Silverman would say: if, of course, you methodically follow the advice in this book up and down the course. (JUNE 2009)

 

THE GOODS

Golfing With Your Eyes Closed: Mastering Visualization Techniques for Exceptional Golf
By Erin Macy and Tiffany Wilding-White McGraw Hill
www.golfingwithyoureyesclosed.com
www.mindovermotion.com