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Reader Comments
 I cannot express to you how wonderful this book is. I have been golfing since I was a young girl and I am now 41. I have had some success, just on the local level, but I have always ruined it for myself by expecting to much. I do remember a few season's where I was in the flow and played like a champ.
I don't have any desire to play in tournaments or be the club champ but I really want to start playing to my potential and to enjoy the experience. I love the walk and the grass and just the beautiful evenings on the course. With the help of your book I know that I will feel the love for this game again, I am already heading that way.
I also teach a course on the Internet for Barnes and Noble University. "Beginner Golf" It is a great course. I didn't develop it and when I first started I thought it would be impossible to teach the students over the Internet. It is very well done and my job is to just help them through the lessons and answer questions. It actually works and people from all over the world take the course. It averages from 300-500 students per session.
I start up again next week and I will recommend your book first thing to all of the students. They are adult learners and very receptive to any and all information. I know they will enjoy it and appreciate your wonderful insight.
Thank you for somehow understanding everything in my head and helping me to enjoy this game again. Jenny
I can honestly say I just can't put this book down. I got the book just at the end of 2002 and read it first almost in two sessions. Since then I have studied, practiced and applied Dr Parent's teaching to my golf and the result of this was the most sublime mental game of golf I have played yet. Having just got back into golf after an 11 year break I have discovered a way to play golf I never dreamed to be so pleasurable and painless.
Last weekend, with a slow 3 ball in front and an impatient 4 ball behind I succeeded in overcoming my "Nemesis" hole on the new golf course I have chosen to play Braid Hills, Edinburgh. This is a typical tough "links" style Scottish golf course with narrow fairways, lots of gorse bushes and hidden greens. This 17th hole has never yielded anything less than 8-10 and a lost ball, which normally got me nervous and ahead of myself.
On the tee I did an "anyway" 3 wood, coming just short of the right-hand rough on a severe down slope. During the visualisation and entering into the set up of my shot, by listening to my intuition, something didn't feel right. I had recorded and accepted 12 anyways up to now and stepped back from the shot, used visual sense perception and finally centred and committed myself to a sweet 7 iron that placed me right of centre and about 110 yards short of the green. I estimated in the strong westerly wind a good 8 iron would get me close to the flag hidden on the green by a big drop in the fairway. I accepted the 4 ball now bearing down on me could the wait the extra few seconds as I prepared and again oblivious of the hole's history for me and played another beautiful shot into the teeth of the wind and straight to my target (the top of the flag). To my utter delight I was 8 feet from the hole, 2 putted and walked away having put in my first net par.
I doubt I will ever stop reading Zen Golf as it keeps everything in a harmonious state of balance for me... not just on the course! I play off 15 and can see me progressing steadily, but patiently towards the single figure handicap I always dreamed of holding, because I now have the way! G. W., Scotland
I was so impressed with Dr. Parent's book, I called him up and arranged a one-day, 9-hour, private lesson with him at Rancho San Marcos in Santa Barbara on January 13. We talked about my game for an hour and a half, emphasizing the places my mental game was breaking down, then worked on my biggest weakness---chipping and pitching---for two hours before breaking for lunch, then playing the Rancho San Marcos course together (a terrific and lightly-played Robert Trent Jones, Jr. track). Folks, I don't know when I've ever hit the ball better than I hit it that day and his short game advice seems to have solved my chronic problems in that area. I followed this by shooting a 79 last Monday at the Prince Course at Princeville, Kauai, one of the toughest tracks I've ever seen (142 slope rating), which is a great score for me; most importantly, I played this tough course, with danger everywhere, without being burdened by the fear and anxiety about the bad things that can happen when I put a golf club in my hands. I think Dr. Parent's book and personal instruction have taken me to a new plateau, and on that basis recommend him wholeheartedly (while hoping I won't regress to old habits and old fears!). I think you can get 80-90% of what he has to teach from his book, but if you have the opportunity to get personal instruction from him, I recommend it. So, that's my unsolicited advice for the day. Guy S., San Francisco
There’s no other book like this one. If you want to know what has gotten in the way of playing better and what you can do about it, look no further. Mike “Radar” Reid, PGA Tour Winner
Here is a roadmap to inner confidence, self-awareness and the feel of a purely struck golf shot. This approach to learning and life is a wonderful and powerful expression of the future for golf instruction.
Fred Shoemaker, author of Extraordinary Golf
I read it, several pages at a time over the past few weeks. Great book! The best by far on the mental game I have read – and I have read almost all of them in the past year. What I found to be such a revelation was that I had applied many of the principles already as a practicing and teaching physician as well as a sailplane instructor for the past 20 years but did not fully appreciate how the same things applied to my golf game. It ‘clicked” when I realized that we would only let a student solo in a glider when the could do a spot landing 3 times in row without “thinking” but just calmly focusing and “doing”. Many other life analogies then followed. The book was truly a profound experience for me. Having only played golf now for 3 years, now age 47 and with a congenital foot problem that means I must ride a cart I had managed to get down to 14.8 index (low round of 82 – lots of 9 holes rounds sub 40)) with the help of a great instructor/coach, a former provincial champion. He told me that the only thing left was now “above my shoulders” to breaking 80. Having read your book I now KNOW that some practice with the “pebbles” will allow me to shoot par or lower one day soon. Thank you for writing it all down so eloquently.
Richard R., Calgary, Alberta
I just finished reading your book and highlighting many paragraphs and sentences. Being a part-time student of Buddhism and its many forms over many years, I was reminded of and reinforced with the relevance of the teachings for all aspects of life. Your insights and recommendations have enhanced my enjoyment of the game and their application are bearing fruit in my advancement in all phases of the game of golf and life. I shall read and reread your teachings often. They are so meaningful in their clarity and simplicity. Thank you for your contribution to my life and that of friends' life's to whom I have gifted your book. George A.
I am glad to be able to thank you personally for your efforts to delineate and guide me through the inner field of golf. I am not a Buddhist but have meditated an hour daily or more for thirty years now. I also am an avid golfer playing about 5 times weekly. Now my two great loves in life, life itself and playing the game of golf, are united. I have been waiting for years for this instruction but did not consciously realize it. I was the proverbial fertile field and you provided me with the seeds I needed.
The results have been astounding, as well as magical at times, as I let my intuition and kinesthetic intelligence take over and play. Just prior to reading your book I was averaging 77. Two days after reading the first third of Zen Golf I shot 69 with seven birdies in a tournament for the hole in one money at our club. Since this time I have been called a sandbagger and ridiculed in other ways as well. Small mindedness manifesting. My team won the front, back and the 18 that day. I had overcome the fear of success internally that day and now have the challenge of overcoming it socially. What a lovely challenge to have. I'm sure I will succeed in time as your instruction coupled with my faith in the power of life itself will always be a winner.
My average scores since beginning reading your wisdom have been 74. By the way, this is winter golf here in the mountains of North Carolina and the course is not in good shape. In fact, the greens on my first three holes that day were frozen.
I am in awe of the phenomenal ability of our being to play this beautiful game once we let it. Thank you for this opportunity. Ed M.
Zen Golf is a book written for golfers. But Dr. Parent's advice for golfers is just as useful for tennis players when it comes to using the mind. Since reading Zen Golf, I've now made the point to recommend it to tennis players, as well as tennis coaches, knowing full well that they'll benefit from reading it.
Desmond Oon, Ph.D., Master Professional, USPTA
I picked up the book last week. What a difference in my attitude and thinking while on the course. I am only half way through the book. I keep going back to keep ideas fresh in mind. I was able to use this wonderful book this weekend to my surprise. I will keep this at my side and review it every chance it get. I have been telling all of my friends about this book. I want them to be able to my the move as I did. I will leave it up to them. Hope the next book is on the way! Thanks again Dr. Parent, for the help.
Chet G., Stockton, CA
After reading Zen Golf, I tried the excerises for breathing and for slowing down. Well to my total amazement, on my next round I shot an 84!!!(handicap is 19 and a good day is normally 94-95) Since reading your book, in just three weeks, I've dropped my handicap from 19 to 16. And I had a hole-in-one! Thanks. Al M., Newbury Park CA
Thank you for writing Zen Golf. It was great. I found it a very informative book, yet also very entertaining. I liked the many lessons your book had about how to approach life such as the lesson to be "Involved or Commited" Thanks again. Frank A., Seattle WA
I forgot to tell you how I experienced the result from applying your methods. My boss is extremely competitive and hates to lose. My boss was in the group ahead of my foursome at the 17th hole. He waited for our group at the tee of the 18th. He wanted to bet $50.00 for the best score on 18. He teed off first and had a nice long shot. He proceeded to rag on everyone from our team before they teed of, in an attempt to rattle them.
I was last up, and he kept saying watch out for the water on the left and the trees on your right. The first thing that came to mind was the part of your book where you stated the ideal state of mind for action is confident, focused, in the flow, with body and mind synchronized in the present moment. I felt a second of pressure, and then poof, I let everything go, stared at a target from behind the ball, took one practice swing. Got my stance together and all the while I was able to concentrate on preparing for the shot, it was if someone hit the mute button. I swung and hit my straightest and longest shot of the day. Then, click, the volume came back on.
When I came up on my ball, I was fifty feet ahead of my boss. I said "lookie here, this must be me". His second shot was shanked short and right of the green. I know I shouldn't of, but I said "should I hit the pin, or put it two feet from the hole?" I was about 115 yards from the green. He yelled "what club do you have?" I told him I had my trusty Ping wedge. He didn't think I could get there. This time my confidence took over, and I put it seven feet from the cup. My birdie putt is really where I had to remove all doubt and I visualized the speed of the putt dying down at the end to curve right and fall into the cup. Low and behold, that's exactly what happened. Out of the eight of us, I birdied, there was one par, and the rest boggied the hole.
I can't wait for your second book. When is it coming out? You are the master. You may call me grasshopper. Jeff, West Bloomfield, MI USA
As an avid, yet struggling golfer I was ready for just about anything that could improve my game, including a lobotomy. Zen Golf was not only straight forward, but incredibly useful. Shortly after reading the book, I went out and "trusting" my swing not only hit a lot of great shots, but actually began having fun again. I enjoyed myself so much that I scheduled a full day lesson with Dr. Parent. Talk about a book brought to life. He was wonderful. Not only was he full of insight and stress relieving approaches, but he was really fun to play with. In the last year or so, I have been shooting a lot of 80's and even some 90's. Employing Dr. Parent's concepts I shot 77 AND had a fun time. I don't dread golf anymore. I highly recommend the book to every golfer looking to play to their full potential and take the hernia out of the game. For those luckier still, I recommend a lesson with Dr. Parent. If you are struggling with your game, either take up tennis or get this book. Ross Bagdasarian, Montecito, CA USA
Zen Golf is a really great book. The stories and images make the points easy to remember and call up when you need them. Easy to read, simple and clear lessons that can be applied to your game right away. Started reading it just before the US Open and used it in the tournament to help me clear away unwanted thoughts, applying what you taught in the chapter "Can You Put a Cat in a Box?" Zen Golf gives you a new and better approach to working with thoughts than traditional sports psychology.
Charles Howell III, PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, 2001
Zen Golf really hit home for me. I read it on the plane and put it to use in the tournament when I arrived. Reading it fires me up and makes me want to go out and play great golf! J.J. Henry, PGA Tour
Read the book and have never felt better about my game. I am an 18 handicapper (90 is a good score for me) and the 4th round after reading the book and applying the "breathing" into my pre-shot routine I shot an 80!!! In my rounds I have enjoyed every hole and really have not lost my temper since using your skills in ZEN GOLF-- still love it!!! Mike D.
I am a scratch golfer who could not break through with a big amateur win. I bought the book about a week before our Men's city championship and ended up winning the event for the first time ever. It is a 64 player match play event that is touted as the best amateur event in the city. Thanks for the book and the excellent preparation techniques found within. Newly crowned city champion, Dustin Z., Peoria, IL
This past weekend I was playing bogey golf until I took a 10 on the sixth hole. on the sixth hole I took a 10. Normally, I would have said "that's it - I'm not going to have a good round now" and would have given up on the day. After reading your book I let the past be the past and finished birdie, par, par for the nine. I ended up shooting an 88 - 10 strokes less than usual. And with a 10 on a par 4 hole! Bob M.
So much of Zen Golf spoke to me that I called Dr. Parent to help me get more out of the talent I have. Soon after I shot 63 in the first round and played my best tournament of the year.
Tommy Armour III, PGA Tour
Enjoyed reading Zen Golf a lot. It contains some great stuff and I hope to work with Dr. Parent to go into some of the topics in more depth. Robin Freeman
Just used the magic of "Zen Golf" to bounce back from some poor scores - I wrote down thoughts -"nothing extra, nothing special" and carried them with me as a reminder. Today, my partner and I won the opportunity to represent my club in the NCGA club event in August. I played my best front nine at my club ever! Peter T., San Francisco
I just finished your book. Then I played a round and for the first time I did not get frustrated. I truly enjoyed the game more than ever before. I still need to practice many things, but I thank you for writing the book.
Mark C.
I just wanted you to know how thoroughly I enjoyed your Zen Golf clinic. It was everything I had hoped for and even more. I want to consciously incorporate your teachings/wisdom in every aspect of my daily life. It was both a great honor and distinct pleasure to have had the opportunity to spend the time with you and for that I am very grateful. John P.
I wanted to drop you a note to tell you what a treat it was to get to play with you and be a beneficiary of your teaching, both in person and through your wonderful book. That was one of the most enjoyable golf experiences in which I have had the good fortune to participate, and I thank you for your large part in it. I hope your book and you are doing splendidly, and that we get to tee it again sometime. Bruce Y.
Through both this book and personal work with Dr. Parent the variation in my 18 hole scores has dropped significantly. By applying the PAR approach described in the book, I find that I make many fewer 'very interesting' shots and many more 'yes! that's me' shots. These two ways of first distancing oneself from undesirable shots and connecting oneself with desirable shots are examples of the unique approach taught by Dr. Parent. The book is equally accessible as working with him in person. I expect that I will reread this book many times in the years to come. Phillip Davidson, Crozier, VA
Finally, after reading hundreds of books and attending numerous golf schools, I have found instruction on how to manage my golf game and play with the game I have. Dr. Parents "Zen Golf" is a guide to the meditative aspects of golf, in fact he offers step by step instuction to begin meditation and work it into your golf game. Anyone who has ever meditated and played golf sees golf as "meditation in action": What's Tiger Woods advantage over the field of PGA golfers? Mind control he has gained trough years of meditation practice guided by his mother (from Thailand). Dr. Parents shows us how to "be" on the golf course to increase enjoyment and lower scores, but more importantly to play with honor and dignity regardless of the outcome that day. Eric Holsapple, Loveland, CO
More than anything else, Zen Golf, showed me how to enjoy the game. My expectations of great outcomes got in my way. Now, by focusing on the process instead of the results and by using the techniques outlined in Dr. Parent's book, its more fun. And, surprise! The results are more pleasing. The best golfers in the world are employing golf psychologists. Zen Golf is a great way to learn what the pros are learning. David Yossem, Santa Barbara, CA
The one time I had a perfect (for me) round of golf I noticed that the game seemed extremely simple. The rest of the time, I wonder how it can be so complicated to try and reproduce that simplicity. Zen golf gets to the root of this and offers a path there, and the opportunity to have that round at any time.
Joseph Parent's advice applies to all levels of golfers and is a guide to consistent and reproducible results. It is one of those rare books on golf that doesn't fill your head with things to consider while you play, it does the opposite by showing you how to clear your head and in doing so clear away the obstacles that prevent us and our bodies from naturally performing the way we are capable of. I expect that the short time it took me to read this book will have a long-lasting effect on the way I will play golf from now on, and I am in the process of reading it for a second time. dmm108, Jamestown, RI
I bought this book because it had a quote from V J Singh on the cover. Singh endorses this book. Singh has been concentrating on the mental side of the golf game. For the amateur golfer, the first thing to do is groove a swing, and develop short-game skills. After that, there are dozens of sports psychology books waiting for you. I have read about 10 of them, and most of them gave me the same feeling, as if I was reading the same thing over and over. This book was a bit different. I felt that the tips were very basic, but a couple of them have really helped me on the course. They have probably helped me more than anything else that I have read. I would say that there were about 6 very good tips/thoughts in this book. And probably 2 of them will stay with me for the rest of my life. One lesson helps you for when you hit a bad shot. Usually, I would get upset, and my mood probably wouldn't get better until the next time I hit a really nice shot. This book teaches you a very simple method which has helped me to not get upset on the course. One note: to be honest, I don't think that the book has directly helped me hit the ball closer to the pin, or to play smarter. However, it has helped me enjoy each shot more, and I definitely do not get upset on the course, anymore. Todd Miller, New York
I thought I would send a brief note letting you know the results of Zen Golf. I completed reading your book 2 weeks ago, I am a “rookie” with Zen Golf (and golf itself, playing for 3 years). After putting a few practices to use, I shot my best round yesterday, 71 (1 under), beating my previous best by 4 strokes. Late in the round there were those “negative” thoughts, I did not give them power, just let them pass by. Needless to say, I will be reading Zen Golf a second time to further my understanding. Mike P.
What a great sports and life book!!!! I had to slow myself down in reading it, to let the many lessons take some root in my brain. I am typing you from my home in Calgary, Alberta. I do some causal sports writing in Canada, mostly in the sport of curling. I read golf books to improve my curling game (still semi-competitive) and to challenge my sports writing. I read and study a lot of sports psychology books from many different sports, and yours has definitely entered my personal Top 10 list for sports. All this to say how much I enjoyed your masterpiece. Thanks again for taking the time to write, "Zen Golf", and congratulations. Guy S.
Your book was amazing. Not only for golf but life. Stephen, Dallas
I recently ran across your book, and bought it. I was a few days later when I finally had time in my life to start reading it. I am still in the early stages of the book, but I have to say, "This is one of the best books I've ever read. It is hard to put it down." A few years back I went through a "Lifetime Significant Emotional Event" and it has changed me into what you have described as the "forth coffee cup". I have only been playing golf for 17 years and I think this book will be the BEST game improvement aid I've run across. GREAT JOB! Bob, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
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