Golf Journey shares new scientific evidence that we've already swung the golf club 6 seconds before we take our shot!

"What sports psychologists and pioneering quantum science is telling us is that visualisation and thoughts are a major percentage of all sports, and some say it is 100% of the golf game. Well this science proves this to be true... What this is tells us is that we should walk on to the tee prepared for a brilliant swing, being focused and in our mind swinging free and easy; your best swing! Positivity here is key to the shot your conscience won’t play for another 6 seconds. When you stand over the ball it's too late, your swing choice has already been made; amazing!"

Labels: Articles, Body Mind Mastery, Golf Blogs

Golf like a Child - Bill Bales at The Next 500 Years decides to play golf like a child. He shares, "Picasso said he spent his whole life learning to paint like a child. I theorize that only kids truly "get" life. The closer you are to your kids, the more this rubs off. That's why we don't want our kids to grow up. Making changes to my grip and swing, back to the way I naturally wanted to do it as a kid, made me FEEL like a kid. I went from a 92 that should have been a 100 the day before to an 80 that should have been a 74. Golf went from being hard work to joyful fun."

p.s. We're now on Twitter! twitter.com/artfulgolfer

Labels: Golf Blogs, Twitter

Grip it and Rip it by jimbeauphoto

Changing Your Grip - One particular day, Marci Diehl's youngest son found her in tears. After learning what was the matter, he told her "You need to change your grip." This inspired Marci, a writer and former PGA Tour wife, to not only make some changes in herself, but to explore other golf experiences, tidbits, analogies, slang, axioms and terms actually apply to life lessons for the rest of us. You'll find from Marci's blog that she learned a lot from life on the PGA Tour, except perhaps how to play.

Labels: Golf Blogs, Marci Diehl

Gain 30 Yards Distance In One Golf Swing! - Nick Bayley at Consistent Golf shares a video of Padraig Harrington gaining 30 yards off the tee using the "Happy Gilmore" drive. I pull out this swing once every few rounds to gain a little distance. It really makes you focus on the ball!



Padraig explains, "The best player in the world always tends to be the longest hitter or close to it - he always has a length advantage. Because I plant a little bit like a javelin thrower in my Happy Gilmore, I get a much better stretch and then my left hip stops much quicker so I get that acceleration."

Labels: Golf Blogs, Happy Gilmore

Golf Lesson in Kabul by after alex

The Perfect Swing - Dave Korba from the Shivas Irons Society believes "self-awareness is essential in maximizing performance in golf and in living life. All good golfers are not necessarily self-aware, nor are all self-aware individuals necessarily good golfers... yet. Shivas Irons talks about True Gravity. Bagger Vance encourages us to seek our authentic swing. Both are attempts to have us find our True Selves in and through our golf games."

When Dave gives a golf lesson, he gives the same instructions he offers for enjoying life:

1. Have an intended result in mind.
2. Give up the need to control the result.
3. Execute.
4. Observe the result while staying unattached.
5. Learn.
6. Stay true to your inner self.
7. Have fun.
8. Repeat the process.

Labels: Awareness, Golf Blogs, Golf Lessons

Yoga Poses by Ian Judiet at flickr

Yoga for Golfers - Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola at Yoga Journal encourage us to throw our goals off the fairway and practice being present in the process, to free yourself of stress, and ironically, play a better golf game. This clash between subconscious and conscious mind presents an opportunity for the awakened athlete to override the mental strife created by the overanalyzing conscious mind and reach toward the wakeful, clear mind state accessible through the intuitive subconscious.

Labels: Goals, Golf Blogs, Yoga

Photo by coclel at flickr.com

Putting Game Consistency And Success - Nick Bayley at Consistent Golf tells us, "The very first thing you must do to become a great putter is you MUST learn to love and enjoy putting. If you don't find out how to love and enjoy putting then you'll never become a great putter."

Labels: Golf Blogs, Putting

Wallpaper by spartan372 at flickr.com

Rhythm - Peter Nomm shares in his latest post at Great Golf that good rhythm does not automatically mean swinging slowly. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. Good rhythm, like so much in golf, is unique to the individual. Very often your proper swinging rhythm mirrors your characteristics, such as the way you walk or the way you do other things.

Labels: Golf Blogs, Rhythm

How I Learned To Play Like Tiger - Cameron Strachan suggests we take some time to work on a weakness. It's not easy and feels uncomfortable, but if you can get some good advice and be prepared for the long haul you'll see some significant improvement. Turns out Cameron's weakness is the same as mine, so I'm paying attention.

Labels: Golf Blogs, Practice, Weakness

Tiger Woods, by James Poole at flickr

What's in Tiger's bag... the "other BAG!" - Following Tiger's unlikely win this weekend, Randy Friedman at Your Inner Swing introduces three undeniable truths about Tiger: He thinks he can win!; He knows you think he can win!; and He loves to win! As simple as those three truths about Tiger are, that is the truth and Randy explains why it works and how you can use what he knows!

Labels: Golf Blogs, Tiger Woods, Your Inner Swing

Crane Creek Manager's golf swing by spunkinator

Mine And One More - Terry Koehler, The Wedge Guy at oobgolf, asks all of us to join his "Mine and One More Movement" and change the world, one divot and ball mark at a time.

The World's Tiniest Violin - Kenny at Foozled Golfer looks to pro golfers to play for the love of the game during this economic downturn.

Labels: Golf Blogs

The new Shivas Irons Society website is quickly becoming the online hub for Golf Literature, much like Golf Club Atlas is the online hub for Golf Architecture. In addition to publishing The Journal -- a unique, collector-quality publication intended as a vehicle for all of the creative arts inspired by the game of golf -- the society now hosts a variety of ongoing articles and blogs written by several of its members. Their community forums are just getting started and looking for eager participants.


Streamers by Richard Lees, Shivas Irons Society

The most recent publication available on their website is Streamers - a blog authored by board member, Richard Lees. In his initial post, Richard shares his experiences at Pasatiempo as well as his introduction to Fred Shoemaker and the Shivas Irons Society. I learned from Richard's blog that he's not only an artful golfer, but quite an artful writer!

Below, I've included Richard's interpretation of Fred's words on "The Mystery of Golf Revealed." This mystery reveals that our golf swing connects us to an inner dialog, or voice. Richard shares...

"This voice" is the voice of our swing. And all we need do is listen to it.

Not dissect it. Not analyze it. Not deconstruct it. But listen to it. Be aware of it. And practice that awareness rather than struggle with the physics of all that goes into its sound.

The implications of this simple statement -- like most simple statements that seem to capture a firefly's light in a bottle -- are enormous. And endless for golfers -- just as a game which is known as "a round" is, by definition, endless.

To tap into what we already know, as opposed to insisting that "knowledge" must be imposed upon us by the world outside.

And without doing anything more than find a way to swing a club in "a plane" that already exists around us.

To be able to duplicate that sound -- of connecting to that plane -- with our own voice, produced not by understanding with the mind all the physics of air being forced across our vocal chords and shaped into groupings of words that we mutually agree to call a "language" -- but rather, by listening to the sound itself, feeling where it comes from inside us, and shaping that sound as we shape notes in air with the musical instrument that is our natural voice.

Our golf clubs striking different notes, like hammers striking different strings inside a piano.

And then to practice our awareness of striking those notes so that we can "hear" or "see" when we're "on" or "off."

Sure, it can help to look at a video of a golf swing. But the swing ultimately isn't in the video. It's in us. Better to be able to produce it from within than without.

More...

Labels: Golf Blogs, Shivas Irons Society

Over the past year or so, I've collected what I think is the largest golf blogroll on the internet. Although I've only posted a handful of my favorites in my "Artful Blogs" list in the right column of this page, my complete list of golf blogs is rapidly approaching 300! And this list only includes the blogs and news sites that publish an RSS feed.


Chambers Bay Golf Course by mistymisschristie at flickr

I've found blogs that offer information about golf courses, golf destinations, golf instruction, golf equipment, golf rules, golf books, golf tips, golf news, golf photos, golf videos, golf fitness, and personal experiences playing golf. Some bloggers share their quests to play professionally, some to reach scratch, some to simply learn the game or to play their best. These blogs include experts from club making to shot making to course design and photo taking. Most simply share news from the world of professional golf, but many provide insightful course reviews, travel recommendations, and plenty of advice.

Make sure to browse this growing list of golf blogs, including my new favorite by Cameron Strachan from down under. Cameron provides great instruction using a mixture of science and natural learning principles to help you play a better golf game. Then there's the Wedge Guy who not only shares everything you wanted to know about wedges, but some great advice on the short game too. And for some excellent video instruction, visit Shawn Clement Golf.

You can get great reviews of golf resorts and vacation packages at Golf Vacation Insider. If you're brushing up on the rules of golf, make sure to visit Free Drop by rules expert John Vander Borght. Mike Pedersen can help if you're finally ready to get fit, providing great advice on strength training, stretching, nutrition, and exercise. Or perhaps you'd like to follow a golfer's pursuit of golf's holy grail, playing the Top 100 Golf Courses in the world. For everything you wanted to know about golf architecture, head over to Ian Andrew's Caddy Shack. A favorite for equipment reviews and golf news is The Sand Trap and if you want opinions on everything golf, don't miss Geoff Shackelford.


Mørk Golf Club in Norway by SvendO at flickr

Although I don't consider myself much of a photographer, one of my favorite websites is flickr.com. Flickr is a thriving online community for photographers of all types and abilities, including plenty of golf enthusists. Each member gets their own "photo blog" where they can post photos and other members provide critique. You can check out the most recent golf photos posted by these members here.

You can find photos taken of golf courses in Michigan, the California Central Coast, Ireland, Bandon, Washington, Chambers Bay, California Bay Area, and lots more.

Flickr also provides groups where members can post their photos for a particular interest or category. There's a Golf Course Photography group, Golf group, another Golf group, Blog du Golf group, and of course, a Golf Babes group.


Old Tom Morris by Chris Gallow at flickr

A final place to spend some time to get some advice for your game, your next vacation, or your next club purchase are golf discussion forums. Some favorites include Golf Club Atlas to discuss the world's finest golf courses, GolfWrx and The Sand Trap to discuss the latest in golf equipment and tour news, and Shivas Irons Society to discuss golf literature and art (this forum is new and needs a jump start - don't hestitate to share your opinions). Another popular forum is hosted by Golf Digest.

Hopefully you're spending more time outdoors on the links instead of inside surfing these links, but if the weather's really bad, you can at least play these Mini Putt Games or this impressive new World Golf Tour. World Golf Tour is made entirely with Flash using real golf courses. The first course that they have is Bali Hai Golf Club in Las Vegas, but they're working on digitizing the Kiawah Ocean course and Pinehurst #2 and #8. According to an article in Fortune, it currently takes about a dozen people and six months of work to digitize a course, a process that costs the company $200K. If this takes off, new courses may pay that fee to get in the game and promote themselves! The game right now is limited to a closest to the pin contest, but eventually they'll have full online tournaments, complete with prizes, and you'll be able to play online with your friends in a virtual foursome.

Please don't hesitate to add a comment and share links to some of your favorite and most artful golf websites!

Labels: Golf Blogs, Golf Forums, Golf Games, Golf Photos, Links