Visual Golf

Book excerpt: Just as W. Timothy Gallwey's ground-breaking "The Inner Game of Golf" introduced golfers to the mental game, so too, will Kenneth Van Kampen's "Visual Golf" become the invaluable primer to mental imagery and visualization--both expremely popular sports-training techniques. Virtually all professional athletes use some sort of visualization process to prepare for competition: whether it's to practice a shot, a swing, or a move again and again, or to "see" a successful attempt at a previously daunting feat. Van Kampen now brings these training tools to golfers of all levels. In addition, since you can't visualize a good shot if you don't know what one looks like, Van Kampen offers superb mechanical instruction. With dozens of photos and illustrations created expressly for this book, "Visual Golf" provides instruction on: improving your mind-power for golf in order to hone ball-striking skills, plan better strategies, and perform consistently well under pressure; making a sound, repeating golf swing, from proper address to a high, balanced finish; troubleshooting and special shotmaking skills; playing the shortshots in the "scoring zone"--pitches, the bump and run shot, chips, and greenside sandplay; the putting game--greenreading, the basics of a good stroke, and putting psychology; trouble play--playing from the rough, off uneven lies, through the wind, and even out of water. With an introduction by popular PGA professional Curtis Strange, "Visual Golf" is a valuable asset in every golfer's library.