The Unstoppable Golfer: Trusting Your Mind & Your Short Game to Achieve Greatness [Hardcover]

Dr. Bob Rotella (Author), Bob Cullen (Contributor)

Book Description

Release date: April 3, 2012

Dr. Bob Rotella is the preeminent golf psychologist to the game’s top players—he has coached stars like Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, and Darren Clarke—and he has offered his advice to golfers of all skill levels in his bestselling books, including Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and Golf Is a Game of Confidence. Now, he tackles the mind’s role in the most difficult aspect of golfing—the short game. It’s no secret that more than two-thirds of the shots a golfer makes are short ones: putts, chips, and pitches. Long drives may garner applause, but whether a golfer wants to win the Masters or just five bucks from a friend on Saturday morning, it’s the little shots that make the difference. Yet many players either fail to recognize or choose to ignore the importance of the short game. In The Unstoppable Golfer, Dr. Rotella applies the same wisdom and experience that have worked for clients like Davis Love III and Graeme McDowell to help every golfer master this special art of short shots and take all the frustration out of this increasingly challenging element of the game.

Requiring extraordinary levels of concentration, the short game is typically a source of fear for amateurs and pros alike. In this book, Dr. Rotella teaches readers how to overcome that fear by using their minds to achieve a state of calm in which the focus is on one thing alone: the hole. Rotella shares stories about professionals with whom he has worked who have mastered the psychological aspect of successful putting by adhering to simple—but hard-to-follow—rules and practices that will improve any golfer’s game: stay focused on your targets, visualize your shots, commit to your routine, and accept completely whatever happened to the golf ball.

On top of citing his experiences with golfers, Dr. Rotella also probes the science of memory and how knowledge of the brain’s workings—especially those areas that deal with physical tasks—can markedly improve a golf game, particularly when it comes to getting out of a bunker or taking the measure of a long putt. For casual and dedicated golfers alike, a better short game provides one of the ultimate pleasures of golf—a pleasure they will come to know by training their minds to allow them to become unstoppable golfers.

SINCE 1984, GOLFERS COACHED BY DR. BOB ROTELLA HAVE WON A TOTAL OF:

74 major professional titles 2 Masters tournaments

12 U.S. Opens

12 British Opens

11 PGA Championships

4 U.S. Women’s Opens

6 LPGA Championships

5 Kraft-Nabisco Championships

5 Tradition Championships

7 Women’s British Opens

2 Senior PGA Championships

5 U.S. Senior Opens

3 Senior Players Championships

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I just won the tournament that is the biggest and the best in the world and I couldn't have done it without the help of Dr. Bob Rotella."

--Darren Clarke, The 2011 Open Champion

"When I made a triple bogey on the 15th hole in the final round of the 2011 PGA Championship, I felt that I could almost hear Dr. Bob talking to me, telling me to stay patient, to go through my process. I kept my composure, made a few birdies, and won the tournament. When I started working with Dr. Bob in 2010, I was struggling on the Nationwide Tour. With his help, I am now a multiple winner on the PGA Tour. It’s cool and fun to have Dr. Bob on my team. He has helped me in so many ways--not only to play better golf, but to enjoy the game.”

--Keegan Bradley

About the Author

Bob Rotella was the Director of Sports Psychology for twenty years at the University of Virginia, where his reputation grew as the person champions talked to about the mental aspects of their game. His client list includes Hall of Fame golfers like Pat Bradley, Tom Kite, and Nick Price as well as stars of the present, such as Darren Clarke, Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Mark Wilson, and Rory Mcllroy. A writer for and consultant to Golf Digest, he lives in Virginia with his wife, Darlene.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (April 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451650167
• ISBN-13: 978-1451650167
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Sports Psychology

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Bob Conquers The Mental Short Game May 30, 2012

By David Donelson

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love the short game in golf. There's no question that striking a full shot is satisfying and momentarily rewarding, but quite frankly there's a certain sameness to it that fails to hold interest very long. The short game, though, is predicated on variety. Chips, pitches, bunker blasts, bump-and-runs, digging a ball out of the collar of rough a dozen feet from the pin--every shot is different, every shot makes you think, and every shot really, really counts. And then there is putting, which is the most nerve-wracking of all.

In The Unstoppable Golfer, Dr. Bob Rotella, golf psychologist to stars like Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, and Darren Clarke, says, "...nearly all golfers have the physical ability required to pitch the ball, to chip it, to putt it. If we're not doing those things, It's because we're somehow stopping ourselves." In other words, we get in our own way.

Rotella says it's often fear that crowds our minds, pushing and shoving its way and calling out for negative images, contradictory swing thoughts, and herky-jerky responses. The solution? To achieve a state of calm by focusing on one thing: the hole.

He couldn't be more right, of course. If you focus on your target, visualize the ball getting there, and commit to a play based on belief in its success, you're more than half-way to a great short game. Rotella fills the book with stories of his students (patients?) who learned to quiet their minds and let their instincts lead them to better golf. He covers no swing mechanics, but does break down how your mind should work when faced with typical short game situations like pitch shots over hazards, getting up and down from a bunker, and lining up long putts to go in rather than just lag close. He has a special section on the "yips" in which he discounts the theory that there's some physical cause behind them but offers instead a solid, results-proven method to mentally overcome them.

The short game is the scoring game, according to nearly every golf guru I've ever talked to. You can drive the ball 340 yards, but if you can't get it in the hole, you can't put birdies and pars on your scorecard. Dr. Bob's book will help.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It's all about the short game April 24, 2012

By UNLV Golf

Format:Kindle Edition

Simple straight forward Rotella, visualize the good shot and keep burning it to memory. Determine your Mindset, be realistic in assessing your Skill level, and commit to an Attitude overhaul. Take the 80/20 rule to the course and realize that if you play every shot as stroke play and not match play you will "stay in the moment and acheive greatness." Have a game plan for every competitive round you play and learn to underreact. A quick read and very valuable as a re energizer for when you need to get your head on track, you know those 6 six inches between the ears. You can't make up for the missed 3 footer, so commit to work hard and practice your short game - putting is the ultimate equalizer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Who couldn't profit from a better short game? January 4, 2013

By Arthur Lebowitz

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you have followed golf in the United States at all, the name, Bob Rotella, should be familiar. He has helped many golfers with the mental approach to this most humbling game. I am a life long golfer, still questing a better game, and, like many, continue taking lessons that focus on the full swing. Dr. Rotella's thesis, changing one's priority to the short game, is a refreshing change.
He makes the case, with ample examples from his stable of both well known golfers and hackers, that a better short game leads to better scores. Now that may seem obvious, but his twist is that KNOWING you have a reliable short game frees you from the self imposed pressure and anxiety to execute 'perfect' full shots. Since the best professionals do not hit more than 13 of 18 greens, and still break par, it follows that their short game is the foundation for lower scores. He illustrates his point with clear examples of before and after performances when golfers increased their confidence and proficiency in the short game.
I know which area of practice I will now focus more on. Thanks, Bob