McIlroy wins the PGA Championship with a little help from Dave Stockton

What a great performance by Rory McIlroy to win the 2012 PGA Championship, at the difficult Kiawah Island links golf course in South Carolina.

And the highlight of McIlroy´s game was an absolutely superb putter, all week long. In the end he was no match for the world´s best golfers and won by an amazing eight strokes.

For me, a big believer in Mental Golf, and the importance of  controlling the mind in competitive situations, I was fascinated by Rory McIlroy´s post round press conference last Thursday.

One of the journalists present asked Rory the following question:

Q.  Talking to Dave Stockton the other day, he reckoned you're the oldest 23 year old he's ever known; the sparkle you've got in your game since seeing Dave last week and this week, how beneficial has he been?

RORY McILROY:  It's been great.  I worked with Dave a little bit in Akron last week.  I know we made a slight adjustment to my routine and my stroke, and it made a huge difference last week.  I felt so much better on the greens than I did at The Open.

He sort of just said to me, "You know, just go out there and have fun and enjoy it and smile."  That's something that I've really tried to do the last two weeks, and it's definitely helped.

This last bit of advice from Dave Stockton is pretty common coming from golf Mental Coaches.

The objective is to get the slightly frustrated golfer, who is having a bit of trouble getting to the top of his game, to relax and become a little more positive, to be able to play  more with his unconscious mind, the mind that has the power to help us hit great golf shots.

Dave Stockton is, today, the number one teacher of the putter and the short game in the world. His recent book (published last September) is called Unconscious Putting, is excellent,  and is a must read for any golfer in search of improving his game on the green.

I read this great book last January and  since then I have personally applied some of Stockton´s techniques with a great deal of success. In fact my handicap index is at an all time low right now, +0.6, and my putting has been key in acheiving it. 

Stockton suggests we putt with the unconscious mind, using the visualization technique to "see" the line of the ball rolling to the hole and dropping in.

With this superb win, Rory McIlroy moves back to number one in the world confirming, in my opinion, a spanish language article I wrote last June, after his US Open win : "El Porqué Rory es el próximo Tiger" ("Why Rory is the next Tiger").

It´s just that if we consider that Rory McIlroy has a near perfect golf swing, that he possesses an incredibly strong  mind for a 23 year old, and that when he faced a problem in his putting stroke, he did not hesitate to seek help from the best (Dave Stockton), there is no question in my mind that he is a golfer that can make a run at Jack Nicklaus´ 18 Major titles.