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Mastering Golf's Mental Game
Mastering Golf's Mental Game
GOLF’S
Mental Game
Dr. Michael T. Lardon
with Matthew Rudy
N EW YOR K
ISBN 978-0-553-41791-3
eBook ISBN 978-0-553-41792-0
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First Edition
who played five years on the PGA Tour. I’ve seen plenty
of expert shot-making and thousands of great shots.
But watching Phil was to see a true virtuoso—like a
Mozart in the world of golf.
When he finished, Phil told me that he really
liked—in his words—the “mental scorecard” part of
the system, and he was going to try it out under tour-
nament conditions. Coincidence or not, the next week
he went out and won the Shell Houston Open. A name
for my system was born, and it was the start of a terrific
relationship with Phil.
In Mastering Golf’s Mental Game, I’m going to show
you the same process. In section one, we’ll talk about
the six basic building blocks of the Pre-Shot P yramid—
attitude, motivation, control, optimization, concentra-
tion, and planning—and how they piece together. I
call these the Six Components of Mental Excellence,
and they’ve been developed over decades of study, lab
research, and fieldwork. Each chapter is filled with a
variety of simple, fun exercises that will help you be-
come a better player immediately, from the comfort
of your living room. They’re the actual exercises I use
with my professional clients every day.
In the second section, we’ll move on to the Men-
tal Scorecard, where the theoretical components turn
into real-world skills usable on the golf course. You’ll
learn how the Pre-Shot Pyramid comes together, how
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akin to
learning how to drive a car, and the first
pieces of advice you get as a beginner are to keep
up with traffic and avoid crashing. Accurate but not
useful.
You need a system to effectively integrate the new
information.
It all starts with the Pre-Shot Pyramid—and the
Six Components of Mental Excellence, which make up
the blocks of the Pyramid.
1. Attitude
2. Motivation
3. Control
4. Optimization
5. Concentration
6. Planning
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PL ANNING
5
C O N C E N T R AT IO N
4 3
O P T I M I Z AT IO N CONTROL
2 1
M O T I VAT IO N AT T I T U D E
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