Valiante´s Fearless Golf. A great book about Mental Golf

I´ve just finished reading Fearless Golf by Gio Valiante, the renown Mental Golf Coach (Matt Kuchar, Justin Leonard, Davis Love, Justin Rose, and many others), from Florida.

Dr Valiante wrote the book in 2005, and though some of the players who were in their prime, then.......mainly Tiger Woods.....are struggling now, I still think his principles, concepts and examples, are absolutely valid for those of us who are keen on Mental Golf.

I would like to comment on three aspects of the book:

The first, according to Valiante, is that there are two types of golfers: Ego Golfers, and Mastery golfers.

An ego golfer is more concerned with his oponents, with what he has to do to beat them, or what he has to do to shoot a certain score. He is more worried about the outcome of shots and what the rest of the world is going to think about him, if he wins or fails.

On the other hand the Mastery golfer (the type of golfer that Dr. Valiante subscribes to) understands that the real challenge is between him and the golf course, and that the key to great golf is to "let your mind get lost in the task of executing shots to the best of your knowledge and ability".

The Mastery golfer is interested in learning, improving and exelling, and not overly concerned about rankings, what the press or anybody else is saying about them, or about how much money they are making.

I liked Valiante´s description because, to me, it´s obvious that it´s easier for the Mastery golfer to play with his powerfull unconscious mind, than the Ego golfer, who, because of his tendency to be a calculator, to be very self conscious, and concerned with the outcomes, tends to play his golf with his inefficient conscious mind.

The second aspect I liked very much is the concept of self efficacy.

Self efficacy is the key to great golf: it is the doorway to confidence. Self efficacy is conformed by the beliefs that people hold about their own capacity to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage specific situations.

Simply put, for golf: "Self efficacy is belief in our ability to succeed. And that is the very essence of confidence", says Valiante.

It´s not self esteem........that is what we thing about ourselves. Rather, self efficacy is what we believe we can really perform like, on a golf course. And, if we have strong self efficacy as a golfer, in all probability, under pressure, we will have the necessary confidence to play well.


Gio Valiante and Matt Kuchar

Finally, I liked what Valiante calls golf´s three guiding questions in order to play Mastery golf.

1. Before a round:  What are my obstacles / what is my strategy today ?

2. On the tee box: What is the best strategy for this hole ?

3. At address: What is my target ?

In my opinion, in order to play great golf, it´s absolutely key to be in the "present moment". This allows us to be "switched over" to the unconscious mind by the time we need to hit the golf ball.

And by concentrating on the strategy for the day, the strategy for the hole and the actual target, we are able to access the "present moment", and in all probability we will be totally synchronized in body and mind, and for sure our golf game will tend to be "mastery".