Without it, you might as well stay on the practice range, because your real game is hitting balls. It isn't playing golf. Golf is a game of scoring. If you want to score, you must putt. If you want to score well, you must putt well. It's as simple as that.

Much like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and Golf Is a Game of Confidence, Putting out of Your Mind is a resonant and informative guide to achieving a better golf game. While most golfers spend their time trying to perfect their swing so they can hit the ball further, Rotella encourages them to concentrate on their putting, the most crucial yet overlooked aspect of the game. Great players are not only aware of the importance of putting, they go out of their way to master it. And of course mastery begins with an understanding of the attitude needed to be a better putter. Rotella's mental rules, which have helped some of the greatest golfers in the world to become champion putters can now work for golfers everywhere. If you wonder whether this describes you, let me ask a clarifying question. How often do you look at a couple of three-foot putts and find yourself saying to your opponent, "Good-good?" I see this syndrome threatening many of the successful professionals I work with. Typically, they made it to the PGA or LPGA Tour by first learning how to get the ball in the hole. Many of them, like Billy Mayfair, spent much of their childhood hanging around a putting green. Dottie Pepper tells me that when she was a girl, she'd get on her bike on summer mornings just after dawn. She'd go to a golf course near her home called McGregor Links and go out to the 16th green. She knew that the first players wouldn't tee off till the sun had been up for an hour or so. They wouldn't reach the 16th for several hours after that. That gave her lots of time, and she used it to chip, putt, play sand shots, and putt some more. When the first golfers reached the 16th tee, she raked the traps and took off, only to return hours later for more putting in the twilight.All I really thought about," he told me later, "was making sure that I did my routine and saw my target well. I let the putt go." When Billy got out on the Tour in 1989, he did quite well. He made enough money to keep his playing card in 1989 and moved up to twelfth on the money list in 1990. But then he started to slip. He developed problems with his short game, especially his putting. When I started studying golfers, it became immediately apparent to me that good putting was the functional equivalent of good defense, good rebounding, and good shooting from the foul line. I noticed that even the great players didn't bring their best swings to the course more than half the time. But the great ones almost always found ways to turn in a low score anyway. They did it with their short game and their putting. When I started working with golfers, I insisted that they spend a lot of time developing imagination and touch with their scoring clubs, their wedges and putters. At the time, this was not a fashionable view among golf instructors. Most instructors had spent their lives trying to figure out the full swing. They were in love with the mechanics of the driver and the seven-iron. That's what they wanted to teach, and that's what they encouraged their pupils to practice. Much like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and Golf Is a Game of Confidence, Putting Out of Your Mind is an informative and valuable guide to achieving a better golf game. While most golfers spend their time trying to perfect their swing so they can drive the ball farther, Rotella encourages them to concentrate on their putting—the most crucial yet often overlooked aspect of the game. Great players are not only aware of the importance of putting, they go out of their way to master it, and mastery can only begin with the understanding of the attitude needed to be a better putter. Rotella's mental rules have helped some of the greatest golfers in the world become champion putters and, for the first time, are now available to golfers everywhere.

One reason, Billy now thinks, is the way Tour courses are equipped. Every one of them has a big practice range with grass tees. On every practice range there is an unlimited supply of fresh golf balls -- real ones, not range balls. For a kid from Papago Park who could never afford to hit all the balls he wanted, this was all but irresistible. Billy started to spend more of his practice time working on his full swing. Much like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and Golf Is a Game of Confidence, Putting out of Your Mind is a resonant and informative guide to achieving a better golf game. While most golfers spend their time trying to perfect their swing so they can hit the ball further, Rotella encourages them to concentrate on their putting, the most crucial yet overlooked aspect of the game. Great players are not only aware of the importance of putting, they go out of their way to master it. And of course mastery begins with an understanding of the attitude needed to be a better putter. Rotellas mental rules, which have helped some of the greatest golfers in the world to become champion putters can now work for golfers everywhere. I never thought about golf that way, in part because I came to golf after years spent in other sports. As a kid and a college student, I played basketball and lacrosse. As the director of sports psychology at the University of Virginia, I coached athletes in the gamut of intercollegiate sports. Twenty years ago, when golfers started coming to me and asking for help with their game, I was able to look at golf with relatively fresh eyes. This old adage is especially resonant with Dr. Bob Rotella, the best-selling author of Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, and one of the foremost golf authorities today. In Putting Out of Your Mind, Rotella offers entertaining putting. He reveals the unique mental approach that great putting requires and helps golfers of all levels master this essential skill. I love the way Billy handled the situation. He wanted to beat Tiger Woods. But he was able to discipline his thinking enough to shove that thought out of his field of focus, along with all other distracting ideas. He thought only of seeing the target he wanted and letting the putt roll. That was why he made the putt.

put out of one's mind

Billy, of course, didn't grow up knowing many purists at Papago Park. All he knew was that he had a putting stroke that got the ball in the hole. He assumed it was a stroke that went straight up and down the line of the putt. Why wouldn't he? You drive for show, you putt for dough'. This old saying is familiar to all golfers and Bob Rotella, one of the foremost authorities on golf today, is a firm believer in its truth. In Putting out of Your Mind, he reveals the unique mental approach that great putting requires and helps golfers of all levels master this essential skill. All too many players feel a sense of dread as they walk toward a green, much as they might if they were walking into a dentist's office. They think that nothing good can happen to them there. If they've reached the green in regulation figures, they worry about three-putting and wasting the good shots that got them there. If they have a good birdie chance, they worry about blowing it. If they've struggled just to reach the green, big numbers float through their brains. As you would expect this book is all about putting - what to do and what not to do mentally. In a nutshell the key points are; trust yourself, go with your first instinct, that generally poor putting is not a result of a poor stroke, and you will improve as a putter if you commit to improving. Billy drove into the fairway and hit his second shot about eighty-five yards from the green. Tiger couldn't reach the green from the rough. He left his second thirty yards away.