We have taken the liberty to add friends with whom we wanted to share our newsletter. As with all transmissions these days, this one doesn't have to be in your inbox. If you prefer not to have it sent every two months, just let us know.

Also, we have elected to provide a URL from which our readers may download the current issue so as to deter anything resembling "spam." Thanks, CGM

One Under Par
Volume 8, number 1.

A Newsletter fromKeyGolf.....February, 2007

A LOOK AT GOLF'S MENTAL GAME - from 1929-1988-2007

As you might imagine, we receive a number of golf newsletters. They range from tip sheets, to sales pitches for books and training aids. We have routinely waited for many years for someone to come forth with a revolutionary idea, principle or strategy for the game that has the glint of “new” on it, but that just seems not to happen.

Here are a couple of excerpts from three different sources:

#1. "In last week's tip, I explained that one reason golf is mentally challenging is because you have so little contact with the ball. Unlike basketball, where you dribble the ball for minutes at a time, in golf you only make contact with the ball for fractions of a second over a 4-5 hour time frame.This lack of contact makes it easier for you to lose your concentration. There is more. Four or five hours is a long time to maintain concentration on anything. Cardiovascular surgeons have the same concentration challenge as golfers....In golf, you too must master the ebb and flow of the game. Having too much focus for too long a time can actually tighten your muscles and hamper your golf swing. So, your job is to learn how to build your concentration before each shot and 'turn it off' between shots.

Mental Toughness Exercise: One technique you can use to sharpen your mental concentration is to visualize your shot before you hit it. I suggest you do this as you're walking up to the ball. Like Tiger, stare at your target and form a visual picture of the shot in your mind. See the ball flying on a specific line towards its final target. If you work at this, soon you will be able to maintain your focus of attention on the hole the way the pros do."

#2 offfers a prescription for the "tough" mental approach to the game: Stop the negative self-talk and doubts that undermine confidence. Understand the causes of fear of failure and how to overcome it. Ignore distractions that cause you to lose focus at the wrong time.Quell anxiety before the fear gains momentum and takes over your mind.Identify and discard expectations that cause you to crumble under pressure.Learn hot to focus on the process of execution so you don't choke in crunch-time. [The last one is especially lovable, since all any of us need to do is just before someone putts, nudge them a little with, "Don't choke now."]

Our question: Is there anything so far that you have not heard before, and is there any hint here of a solution, a process, a procedure, being avaliable for managing such negative, scary golf demons? It is doubtful that anyone will claim that these conditions do not exist, but are they anything more than outcomes - results - things that are present because we did not understand the causes and were not, therefore, able to implement a strategy to deal with the present? All of the above are natural invaders, and without understanding what is going on, plus an active process and tools of management , it will always be, as the saying goes, "For lack of a horse, the kingdom was lost."

“My friend Andy Denniston just boarded his plane at Fort Lauderdale 
Airport heading up north. He visited Florida for a brief vacation but now 
it's over and he's back to prowling used book shops for lost golf gems. 

For one thing, by publishing the Mental Side of Golf, he's [ed., “made a 
lot of pros angry”]. It seems they've heard of this book by Charles Moore 
but never knew where to get it. And they are upset [ed., that] the general 
public can get it now [ed] online from Mr. Denniston.”

[Note: We have no clue in what way copyrights did or did not enter into this 
download presentation.]

The newsletter author also presented a video clip touting the book.

To make a long story short, we watched and listened to his video clip, the jist of which is that, as the author puts it,  the “anger” of the pros came from their wish to conceal
the book’s message from others. Why? According to the author, so Moore's ideas might be plucked, disguised and circulated as their own work.  Again, why? Because,
according to the aforementioned newsletter, the book contained the best that has ever been available on the mental game, and this book was published originally in the 
early 1920’s, this version being printed in 1929. Not being able to find more about the contents, or find a "hard" copy of any version, we purchased the download. We have 
always been willing to take a look at anything that purported originality aimed at helping to expand the world of the mental game for those who want that.

First off, “The Mental Side of Golf” is a pleasant and interesting read, as we would discover, largely for it's historical value. Mr. Moore is a good writer, though we can’t 
connect to the promoter’s high regard for the book, at least in terms of creative originality, though it may have been so in the 1920s. It is not hard, on the other hand, to 
surmise that many a teacher, writer and player may have got some, or all, of their inspiration here, since virtually everything we have seen in today’s golf knowledge reserve 
has the same general themes as we found in Moore’s book. For us, the promise kept us reading, but the content certainly wasn’t up to the hype from the newsletter. Moore 
turns many nicely worded thoughts, and his writing puts things in an earlier, more classic form, which is pleasing to the eye and ear. But it’s only virtue turned out to be the 
perception that it might only be a very early version of concepts that are repeated so often today, and which have now become a maze of reprised cliches. The difference is 
that today, the illustrations are newer and more extensive, and some writers delight in picking on catchy, single issues to create a volume out of a one-liner. So, our sense of 
Moore’s book is that maybe a lot of people copied his format and his main ideas, so that he should be credited with that contribution. Even so, like with all the others that 
we can find, the practical, “how it’s done,” is missing. Like most of the things that are in the popular golf books today that purport to be about the “mental game,” what is 
presented is the kind of mechanical, controlled thinking that is still in command of golfers’ minds today, cast in the most marketable form possible. We admit that the 
newsletter author had us reasonably convinced we were going to see and hear landmark information about the mental side of the game, which is, BTW, the title of the book:

“The Mental Side of the Game,” by Charles W. Moore.

That said, we do applaud Dr. Kilstein and his newsletter for the masterful marketing job. He got us to buy. For our taste and purposes, there is ample historical value in it 
suitable to justify preservation of Moore's book. Unfortunately, we have not been able to gain any insight into who Charles Moore was, or anything he did other than write this 
book, but we do wonder what might have caused Dr. Kilstein to reckon this was a landmark book.  He (Kilstein) was explicit in pointing out that he had no financial interest in 
the book or its circulation. So perhaps his judgment is based on simply not being a very knowledgeable student of the mental game and just wanted to do his friend, Andy 
Denniston, a favor. Our readers may recognize the name “Kilstein” since he offers mental services for golfers through hypnotism. A brief walk through the book is, at worst, 
worth the trip.

The main theme of the book, in our view, centers in a rendition of demeanors Moore considers  “Hazards” of the game, which he say golfers need to overcome. Those he 
lists as the hazard of Haste, the hazard of Inattention, the hazard of Distraction, the hazard of Fear, the hazard of Discouragement, the hazard of Indecision, the hazard 
of Temper, the hazard of Fatigue, and then separately, the hazard of Surprise. 

As we moved through Moore's list, we were able to identify with those hazards. As it happens, he adequately measured exactly those concerns that led us to spend nearly 
five years to investigate, find and refine the automatic process and the the tool we call "clear key." It required research and writing an early book, just to get the question 
right, so we could get to an apprpriate solution. For that reason alone, we found Moore's book fascinating, since it shows something of how long the necessary base line 
information has been out there. So why didn't anyone find a viable, working, mangeable solution before we did? If you know the answer, please pass it on to us. It fails our 
comprehension. We boldly, if not pridefully and with great pleasure, assert that the automatic process as we describe it, and clear keys, used properly, will subsume each 
and all of Moore's hazards, not to mention the popular "mental toughness," theme, which currently is arguably "the hot topic" of the sport psychology industry.

 Moore offers the following for dealing with golf's culprits:

Good advice, of course, so having listened here, take the next step, if you have not already done so, and get yourself a suitable clear key, accompanied by the knowledge 
to implement and use it effectively, and you will have all the hazardous bases covered. As other sports writers have learned to do, he reports what the challenge looks like, 
but not how to implement an active strategy for managing it. We’ve all been there, felt that, and wondered what to do about it.The preceding advice is as close as Moore 
comes to offering a solution. His list of hazards is “on the money,” though by now we are all aware of those pitfalls. What most players want to know is something that gets 
them beyond “don’t go there.”  It is fun and sometimes fascinating to be reminded that we all face “danger” as we go, especially when the reminder is put in eloquent 
language with which we can identify. That part is good, sensible and usually inspiring. It’s nice to find out that “We’re not the only ones experiencing such things.” 

But that still leaves the part about how we can actually deal with the hazards, having noticed them. That was in our mind when the clear key concept and the automatic 
principle entered upon it. Could that be because we "waited for the rest of our brain to arrive?"

If you are a past reader of this newsletter, you know about clear keys. If you know how to use them and do so consistently, you will notice that the hazards as listed by Mr. 
Moore, disappear. The sand bunkers and water will still be there but the mental hazards dissipate. If you use clear keys, you do not have to wait for the rest of your brain 
to catch up. It had arrived as soon as you turned your focus of attention on the key and held it there until your shot was well on its way.

We now not only have relevant “advice,” but a map on the table and a vehicle to traverse the route. But that still leaves unfinished business, since it requires each player’s 
commitment, determination and a sense of the effective implementation of the process, with fully dedicated follow-through. And that is the part no one can give to anyone 
else. At that point it is each one for him/herself. 

Charles Moore began his book with a comment about golf and psychology. We left this for last, since it closes well, but also since it shows that Moore had insight, perhaps 
without realizing it, into the behavior styles which we value highly for their part in learning, practicing and playing the game, by providing a map or a blueprint to keep players 
within themselves in a way that is not just a piece of rhetoric. It has teeth in it. The excerpt from Moore's book:

A recent email we received from a player reminded us that it is important for all to regularly review and refresh their understanding of the benefits of using the automatic principle for learning, practicing and playing. He asked in his email why he could not just wait and use the key once when he was over the ball, as opposed to saying it three times, beginning at the end of pre-shot and continued while walking up and setting the club.

The simple answer is that one could do it that way. But in so doing, it would not be possible to make the transition between manual and automatic, since at least 5 to 6 seconds are required for our non-discriminatory systems to make a successful shift from manual to automatic. Also lost would be the matter of blocking the inevitable anxiety and accompanying tension, thus leaving the player with a variety of physiological negatives to challenge the upcoming shot. So in effect, waiting till one is over the ball, essentially forfeits all the value available though using a clear key.

We frequently remind ourselves that we should not care if other mental game coaches, instructors, consultants, psychologists and wnnabe's keep running an unfinished race. We certainly don't find any who are submitting bad ideas. They just wind up making only the first half of the trip, while the race is still on. What they are good at is marketing. In 1988, we wrote in the first edition of The Double Connexion:

In 2007, it still looks all too familiar and is still as true as it was in '88.

The truth is, we do care. What we will not do is pretend that it does not matter. So we will occasionally make sounds that you have heard before, just to make sure the food is still warm when you sit down at the table. The season is about to open for those of you in the cooler seasonal climates. It's in full swing is some other parts of the world and headed toward "off time." Makes no difference where you are, you can build your knowledge base and get in your practice with the mental game at any time you choose. The more you rehearse in your head, the better prepared you will be on the first tee, when it's time to play.

The game is on!

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Postscript: Just this week, we discovered, quite by accident, since we do not visit our own website through Google (we know how to get there so "googling" isn't required for that trip), that Google had seen fit to put up a "warning" associated with our site. After searching and using every availble piece of anti-malware software to search out and destroy whatever was causing the problem Google said they "had identified," we finally found a sneaky intruder on one of our pages that was causing the problem. (It turned out not to be "dangerous" as Google had labeled it, but rather just an annoying redirection hijacker). But Google didn't bother to notify us, (we are members with an account). They just threw up a red flag, and in the process, earned our disdain. We suppose that, as with all overgrown compaines, Google has simply gone the arrogant route, in the name of service.

So much for them. We leave this notice so our readers will know it is safe to visit our home page, even though Google, at our request, has still not removed the "warning.". And all this time, we thought the dark ages were gone.

Cheers: Spring is on the way in Tennessee.

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