Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted.” The suggestions offered above emanate from research findings in which question marks have been hung on critical psychological assumptions long taken for granted. The suggestions I offer represent the strongest answers that psychologists have been able to obtain when these assumptions have been subjected to scholarly scrutiny. As such, they merit consideration.
    But let me close with a word about the danger of “formalizing” generalizations. Famed Stanford psychologist Lee Cronbach cautioned that “when we give proper weight to local conditions, any generalization is a working hypothesis, not a conclusion.” By local conditions, Cronbach meant the individual and specific features of a person or situation. The suggestions I have offered, as well as those offered by any book about improving your golf game, should be taken in that light. They should not be taken as formal principles that become rules to be followed regardless of the specific situation or of your own unique personality and playing style. The pages of this book do not constitute so much a workbook as they do a written conversation. In short, there is a danger if you think of the principles of this book as a collection of one-size-fits-all recipes for successful golf. There is no formula for individual greatness. The research in motivation and self-belief that lies at the foundation of this book is offered simply as a starting point. From here, I hope a golfer can begin to seek (with some degree of confidence) the solutions to the challenges faced each day, on each golf course, with each shot.

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Most quotations, except where cited, emerged as part of a five-year study conducted by Dr. Valiante which was funded in part through a Rollins College Research Grant.

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