Why do you play golf? Do you find the game as fulfilling as it used to be? Do you remember a time when you felt truly comfortable on the golf course treating it as a playground to explore? Can you imagine what it feels like to create unique golf shots in your mind and then execute these intentions?

The Lost Art of Playing Golf by Gary Nicol and Karl Morris – with a foreword from Rudy Duran, Tiger Woods’ first coach – suggests answers to these profound questions. It will help you to re-connect with the soul of the game.

Learn how to approach the game you love in a profoundly different way – and liberate yourself to derive more pleasure from your precious time playing golf.

The Lost Art of Playing Golf follows on from the Amazon best-seller The Lost Art of Putting.

It is the belief of leading Tour coach Gary Nicol and performance coach Karl Morris, who have 60 years’ combined coaching experience, that despite us having access to more information than ever we are not becoming better or happier golfers. If anything, the opposite is true.

The Lost Art of Playing Golf drills down even deeper into your ability as an individual to discover your way of approaching the game rather than being told how to.

The message they convey is one of golfers reconnecting with their own creativity and the wisdom of their own body.

The ideas and information they share are backed up by the very latest research into how best to utilise the connection between mind and body.

Born in Scotland, Gary Nicol turned professional in 1988. Since then, he has travelled the world coaching golfers of all standards from weekend players to Tour pros including Ryder Cup players, Olympians and winners of major championships. Gary is a certified TrackMan Master and Mind Factor coach and is based at the stunning Archerfield Links on Scotland’s Golf Coast.

Karl Morris has been involved in performance coaching for 30 years. In that time, he has worked with multiple major winners in golf – including Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell – Ashes-winning cricket captains as well as Premier League and international footballers. His passion has always been to make mental game coaching both practical and applicable.


WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO BE GRATEFUL ABOUT TODAY?

How you can fundamentally change your perception of the game of golf forever. Karl Morris explains.

It was a wonderful spring afternoon. The ground was beginning to dry out after a harsh and wet winter and the trees looked like they were ready to start flourishing for another year. It was easy to feel the sense of optimism spring brings with it each year.

As I walked the back nine I noticed a wooden bench next to a tee. There was a brass plaque with an inscription on the bench.

It was a commemorative plaque that said: ‘To The Tuesday Boys’.

Underneath the title were the names of four golfers and their years of birth and death. It seemed each of these four players had all passed away within a relatively close period of time. It was poignant to think of these four former golfers, no longer with us.

They had clearly played for many years together on a Tuesday – The Tuesday Boys.

I began to think of how many times they would have set out on a round of golf. How many times it would have been just another Tuesday. This ritual obviously went on week after week, year after year.

They would probably have got together on the 1st tee and said something about the state of their game, how they had been struggling with their tee shots, the week they had just had from the previous Tuesday and their hopes for the round ahead.

They must have gone through this routine time and time again. Played golf together on a Tuesday. They would have shared the highs and lows of the game. The emotions, both good and bad. The opportunity to sit in the clubhouse afterwards reflecting on the round and sharing in great conversation and friendship.

Then suddenly they had run out of Tuesdays. One by one, the Tuesday Boys must have got smaller in numbers as a group until they didn’t have any Tuesdays left. The last putt had been holed and the opportunity to enjoy another round had gone forever.

This experience really reinforced to me the utter preciousness of each and every chance we have to play this wonderful game. The incredible way we all take for granted the fact that for us all there are unfortunately only a certain number of Tuesdays left.

None of us know how many Tuesdays it will be but don’t we all labour under a certain illusion these opportunities will go on and on? There will always be another game to play. Another chance. Another Tuesday.

Well, at some point there won’t be another opportunity. Every single one of us will at some point play our final round. We will sink a putt on the 18th green and it will be the last putt we ever hit.

Without being alarmist or a doom merchant, it is so important to embrace a vital key in the quest to unlock and reshape your golfing story and get the most out of this human experience. That is the skill of gratitude.

There is strong evidence to suggest that in the quest to feel good about ourselves and release our true capabilities the skill of gratitude is a huge asset.

Be grateful for this opportunity to play. The opportunity to walk around a golf course, in nature with the company of others. The opportunity to move your body, to test yourself and see what you can achieve.

The outcome will be what it will be but you are providing the conditions to allow a good performance to emerge.

Taken from The Lost Art of Playing Golf, by Gary Nicol and Karl Morris, which is available now at thelostartofgolf.com in hardback and Kindle formats.