by: Evvie Meier
As Father’s Day quickly approaches, golf courses are preparing for an influx of groups taking dad out to the greens to celebrate the day. Children looking to pull out all the stops for dad this father’s day, or anyone interesting in planning a golf vacation, should consider the following resorts for the perfect golf weekend. These golf courses are famous, historic, challenging, and beautiful. Best of all, they set a gorgeous backdrop to the perfect golf vacation this summer and fall.
The American Club, Kohler, Wisconsin
This gorgeous resort is home to four separate top notch golf courses, two each at Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits. The American Club is the pride of the Midwest golfing scene, winning numerous awards and attracting golf lovers from across the country. The American Club’s surrounding golf courses offer challenging courses and breathtaking scenery – the perfect setting for a golf vacation.
Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina
The quiet beauty of this Southern resort sets a peaceful tone for some of the most impressive courses in the country. Pinehurst is nationally renowned for hosting many of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments, including multiple U.S. Opens. While Pinehurst is home to 8 courses, the famed number 2 course consistently pulls in the most visitors.
The Boulders, Carefree, Arizona
Built in the desert north of Scottsdale, The Boulders is a uniquely-designed resort that channels the tranquility of the surrounding Sonoran desert. Guests can stay within traditional yet luxurious plaster pueblos. To get the most of a golf vacation at The Boulders, catch a round of golf at sunset to experience the desert hues like you’ve never seen before.
The Cloister, Sea Island, Georgia
Designed for the world’s top leaders of the 2004 G8 Summit, The Cloister at Sea Island is sure to impress any group of travelers during a luxurious golf vacation. Located on an Sea Island off the coast of Georgia, The Cloister provides great golfing, but the clear attraction is the gorgeous, luxury hotel.
About The Author
Evvie Meier is the Marketing Manager at Trax.com, a leading travel meta-search engine. Trax performs comprehensive and unbiased searches of airfare, hotels, and cars, from more than 200 travel company suppliers. Find the cheapest and most extensive travel options available at www.Trax.com.
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.trax.com/
Ideas for Dad: Getaway Golf Vacation
Better Putting in your Golf Mind
by: Andrew Fogg
I hear that Darren Clarke's looking for putting improvement through golf psychology and working again with Bob Rotella. I know that Darren has worked in the past with Golf Psychologist Dr Karl Morris - after all, I've read Golf - The Mind Factor, the book they published together back in 2005. However, for some reason I didn't know that he'd worked with Bob Rotella.
I can't say how delighted I am to see Darren's back competing in the 2009 US Open at Bethpage Black after qualifying as one of the top 15 in the European Money List last year. He's only played in the US Open once, in 2006 at Winged Foot, since he pulled out at Pinehurst in 2005 to be with his wife who was seriously ill.
Moving back to Darren's putting psychology problems, I was interested to hear that he has considered putting to be his Achilles heel for most of his career. I was also interested to read how hard he's been pushing himself over the years to improve his putting. It's interesting to note that Bob Rotella has tried to get him to go much easier on himself. In fact, Darren's been quoted recently as saying "He says just go and play and let the results happen themselves." That sounds like good advice to me!
It's intriguing how similar that is to what Bob's been telling Padraig Harrington about his over practising and excessive focus on his swing changes. As I suggested in my earlier article, entitled Play your Best with Golf Psychology Before Changing your Unconscious Golf Swing, the destructive shots you hit are more likely to come from your conscious thoughts than from your unconscious golf swing.
If I was advising Darren Clarke "blind", so to speak, then apart from helping him to use golf hypnosis of course, I'd encourage him to build on a couple of mental golf approaches from the great Jack Nicklaus. Firstly, I'd suggest that before he strikes a putt he imagines "seeing" the line the ball will run on and "watching" the ball rolling along that imaginary line and dropping in the hole before popping back out and running back along the line back to his putter head.
Secondly, I'd help him find a way to remember every good putt he's ever holed and to develop amnesia for every bad one. There's a story I've heard about Jack Nicklaus that illustrates this perfectly.
Jack was giving a presentation to a group of eager and attentive golfers at his son's university. During the speech, Jack makes the comment that he has never three putted on the back nine of a major championship or missed from inside of six feet on the last hole.
As Jack opens the floor to take questions, a man puts up his hand and says "Jack you say you have never missed from inside of six feet on the last hole in a major, but I was watching you last year in the US Seniors Open and that’s exactly what you did." Jack looked at the man with those piercing blue eyes and repeated what he had said. "But Mr Nicklaus," the man insisted, "I saw it, I have it on film, I can send it to you if you like." "No need", Jack replied, "I have never missed from inside six feet on the last hole of a major. Any more questions?"
Now, has Jack ever missed from inside of six feet on the last hole of a major? Of course he has! Does he remember it? Not a chance. And do you think he cares that he can't remember? Some people would probably say that Jack is deluded in his thinking, that it is not based on reality. Well, we all create our own realities and Jack's seem pretty good to me!
About The Author
Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf" and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.
Visit his website www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.`
Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.golf-hypnotist.com
Letting Go of Fear in Golf
by: Roseanna Leaton
Some of us usual habit of us is to fear of something, fear about failure, and others. Napoleon Hill says that we cannot fear of failure, and so we can success imeediately.
Golfers experience fear in many different situations, be it when you are standing on the first tee, or holing out on the eighteenth green, or when you are thinking about driving the golf ball inside a line of trees or pitching a ball over water. The golfer's fears can relate to what other people think, or a lack of belief in your own golfing ability. Some of us find that the putter or the wedge takes on the feel of a snake or an octopus in our hands. Some of us freeze; some sweat and some move more quickly...Some stop playing golf.
Golfing fears range from global to specific. You play golf, or any sport, from the platform of you the person. You play your golf within the constraints of your physical body, your mind and your emotions. Mind works on body and body works on mind. How many times have you thought, or said out loud, "I have a mental block with..."? A negative thought creates a blockage in your physiology - this is FACT. Every thought you have has energy, and the neurotransmitters in your brain take the thought information to every cell in your body.
Believe that we can do it!
It has been shown that to repress anger for twenty minutes will suppress your immune system for up to eight hours. EIGHT HOURS. So when you are standing over the golf ball, it is worth remembering that just thinking "I'm going to duff this one" actually has the power to trigger off a PHYSIOLOGICAL response, whereby the neurotransmitters in your brain transport that information to your cells...and you know the outcome. It is inevitable - you have programmed your body to duff that shot. And saying "don't" doesn't work either. By this I mean "Don't duff this one" or "don't go in the bunker". In such a case the words are saying "don't go there" but the emotional energy is going DIRECTLY there.
Where there is a conflict between your will power and your imagination your imagination wins. Your mind is exquisitely talented. You can be standing on the tee with four hundred yards of fairway stretching in front of you, with a bunker that's just two by two, and actually manage to get the ball into that bunker just by THINKING "don't go there". Every thought has energy. The level of energy depends on the emotional value attached to the thought. The more intensely you experience the emotion, the more pronounced the result. Your thoughts create your emotions and direct your actions.
Everything starts with a thought. And you can choose your thoughts, although you may not have realized this. It always amazes me how many people acknowledge that they have a MENTAL block with putting, or chipping or their driver, and yet proceed to tackle the problem from a physical perspective - either buying a new club, consulting a different coach, or just standing hitting ball after ball on the practice range - rather than asking themselves how they could change their thinking. And as Einstein pointed out, if you keep on doing the same things over and over again, you can hardly expect the results to change. The fact is, if you have a mental block all you have to do is to explore your thoughts and choose to change them.
What I suggest to successful golfers, and what works for them, is to develop as many mental skills as you have shots. In your mind now, count the number of clubs in your golf bag and the different types of shot you can hit with each one...just make a quick calculation and you will realize how many mental skills in golf there are that you can choose to learn. As you practice your mental golf skills you get better at them.
If you are building strength in the gym, the number of repetitions and the weights you use will determine the result. If you are learning a new shot in golf the number of times you practice it will determine its effectiveness and consistency. The same applies with the acquisition of mental skills for golf. To go to a hypnotherapist or golf psychologist and then not practice the skills decided upon is like having your golf lesson and never practicing. And I'm sure you have met as many people as me who say "that didn't work", when the reality is they didn't give it a chance to work. The teacher can only ever be as good as the student. The teacher can only guide, the student learns.
So many people simply say "but I can't do it", or some equivalent negative. And if you think you can't, you can't. You don't even get past go. But if you are willing to approach the situation from a different perspective...a whole new golf game can emerge for you.
It is well known that children "have minds like sponges", that they find it easier to learn and that it gets increasingly more difficult to learn as you get older. This is because up until the age of 7, during the imprinting period of development, the subconscious mind is completely open to suggestion. And from then to the age of 12, the modeling period, the conscious mind is forming, and after that the conscious mind filters everything before it is assimilated into the subconscious.
Whatever beliefs you have, they are just beliefs, nothing more. There is no need to be held back by limiting beliefs. You can choose to change beliefs no matter how deep rooted they are. Just as you go for a mechanical lesson from your golf professional, you may need a little help or direction from a golf psychologist, but all beliefs can be changed.
You have a body and a mind that has a similar physiology and neurology as the best golfers in the world. Athletic literature is full of examples of athletes who have excelled because of their internal desire, rather than the physical attributes such as size, strength, power or speed. There are tall golfers and short golfers, male and female golfers, young and old golfers. It is not age or body shape that prescribes ability. It is your MIND that makes the difference. What the mind can perceive, the mind can believe and the mind can achieve.
You have the ability to play golf well. How good you get will depend on what you want to get out of the game. It is your choice - you can be as good as you want to be. The most important thing is to set your own goals, and enjoy your golf - it's a game and should be fun. Unfortunately many people overlook this fact, and allow worries and fears to get in their way. Fear is something that we learn through experience. Fear of embarrassment and fear of failure result in many adults not even attempting to learn a new task. Returning to the subject of children, we are not born with fear. Think about when a baby learns to walk. How many times does that baby teeter along and then fall, and then try again, and fall over again and try again, until eventually they can walk? If that child was worried about embarrassing him or herself, would they have learnt to walk? A baby will persevere time and time again, and has absolute trust that they will be able to learn that skill - otherwise they would not learn that skill.
The most important factor to grasp here is that what other people think doesn't matter...but what you think does. What the mind can perceive, the mind can believe and the mind can achieve.
Roseanna Leaton, specialist in golf hypnosis cds and hypnosis mp3 downloads.
http://www.GolferWithin.com
http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com
About The Author
With a degree in psychology and qualifications in hypnotherapy, NLP and sports psychology, and a great passion for golf, Roseanna Leaton is one of the leading golf psychologists. You can get a free hypnosis download from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and view the GolferWithin golf hypnosis cds and hypnosis downloads.
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.roseannaleaton.com
Utilise the Fear in your Golf Mind to Hit More Greens and Fairways
by: Andrew Fogg
How can golf psychology help you in overcoming the fear you have about hitting a bad shot on the golf course? Many people interpret this as classic fear of someone suffering from the putting yips who's about to putt or the person suffering form the shanks and about to hit a short iron. But you can get the same type of fear when faced with a shot that you "always" hit badly or a hole that you always play badly. Perhaps your ball seems inexorably drawn to those trees on the right or that bunker on the left. Maybe it's a water hazard that you just "never" seem to be able to carry.
Now one of the first things I learned in golf psychology was that "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves" to quote Robert Anton Wilson in his famous book about how the mind works, Prometheus Rising. In hypnosis terms this means that whatever we consciously think about we unconsciously make happen. In simple terms, if we consciously think about an ice-cream we unconsciously decide we want one and instinctively begin to taste one. If you're driving on a motorway and someone draws your conscious attention to something way off to the right, you may suddenly notice yourself unconsciously steering in that direction.
Have you ever noticed how if you tell someone to not do something accidentally, that they automatically seem to do it anyway? This is especially true with children, so if you say to a child, "don't spill your milk", then don't be surprised if they to do just that. Contrary to what some believe, children don't do this out of spite, it's just what you made them consciously think about.
So what's all this got to do with the fear of hitting a bad shot then Andrew? Well, you have to consciously think the bunker you don't want to go in to fear going in it. The same goes for your fear of hitting a shank or yipping a putt. But, I hear you say, I make a point of thinking to myself "don't hit it in the bunker" rather than just thinking about the bunker. Well, it makes no difference to the outcome, because you have to think of a thing in order to not do it. If I say don't think of a blue elephant, you have to imagine a blue elephant to know what I'm talking about. The same goes for thinking of not hitting the ball into the bunker. If that's in your head when you hit the ball, then you'll unconsciously do your best to it there.
I've hear Paul McKenna tell a good story about this. He had a top golfer, one who'd already won major championships, come to him for help. The golfer explained that he was consistently hitting shots into bunkers and not just any bunkers. These were the bunkers he specifically wanted to avoid and he wasn't just rolling into them, his ball was landing right in the middle of them. Paul watched him play a few holes then gave him a simple verbal instruction to follow for the next few holes. Amazingly, the champion golfer started hitting almost every shot just where he wanted to. So what did Paul say to him? He told him to decide on where he wanted to land the ball on each shot and then focus on not hitting the ball there. He was now consciously thinking about his target, not the bunkers.
So next time you're out playing golf and you start saying to yourself "don't go in that bunker", "don't shank this shot" or something similar. Then compensate for your fear by stopping and rethinking your target taking into account whatever you'd like to avoid. Now focus your conscious mind on that new target before handing over control to your unconscious golf mind to hit the shot. For a more positive slant on all this, have a look at my other article entitled Focus your Golf Mind on your Target Not The Hazard for Better Golf Scores.
About The Author
Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf" and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.
Visit his website http://www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.`
Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at http://www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme
The author invites you to visit:
http://www.golf-hypnotist.com