Random House, 1981. Hardcover. Very good hardcover in a price clipped dust jacket. Dust jacket has toning to the inside along edges. Clean text free of marks or underlining. 207 pp.

Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. Very Good / Very Good. Item #202311
ISBN: 9780394505343

Hundreds of thousands of readers are familiar with Tim Gallwey's name; his three previous books on tennis and skiing have sold over half a million copies in hardcover alone, and his Inner Game concepts have been accepted not only in many sports but in other areas of life as well. Now, in answer to repeated requests, he applies Inner Game theory to golf, perhaps the most demanding of all sports.

For years the author played once or twice a year with his father, averaging a score of 95 or more. By using Inner Game precepts, without taking a single lesson, and, like most weekend golfers, playing only once a week (though with occasional forays to the driving range and putting green), in little over a year he knocked 15 strokes off his game and now breaks 80— proof that the Inner Game really works for golf.

People would generally agree that one's mind, emotions and confidence play a much larger role in golf than in almost any other sport. For example, in tennis the player is hitting a moving ball over and over again on the run, and in skiing the skier is hurtling down a mountain, so their reactions are much more instinctual than intellectual. But in eighteen holes of golf, the player actually hits the ball for no more than three or four minutes during a four-hour round, and it is the time between shots that is the bane of the average player. Whether he is brooding over having flubbed his last drive, dreading his next shot from a sand trap, or trying to line up a tricky downhill six-foot putt, he is constantly grappling with self-doubt, anxiety, fear of failure and tension.


Clearly, few of us are capable of whacking a 275-yard drive straight down the middle of the fairway the way the pros on the PGA tour do consistently, but there is no reason why we can't hit an accurate drive for 150 yards. Moreover, virtually half of a golf score consists of chipping and putting, and even an eighty-year-old player has the physical capacity to sink a 20-foot putt. It is in these areas that the Inner Game approach can make an enormous difference.

When Mr. Gallwey is giving an Inner Game lesson, his approach has seemingly wrought miracles within the space of a few minutes. But there are no miracles; his method is simply to help players to observe what is (for example, a persistent hook), to quiet the mind, to control anxiety and to think positively. Readers of this book who take the author's precepts seriously and practice them with an open mind will discover that they can lower their handicaps substantially.

There are no gimmicks, no "tips" here; it is simply a matter of trusting your body, of practice, and of relaxed concentration.

Price: $18.95