I got a bushel full of comments about memory and positive thinking from my article about my brother, Ken. We both want to thank you. I cannot stress enough the power of the mind in the game of golf.
One of the writers told the story about a POW who survived six years in North Viet Nam by playing a game of golf in his mind every day, visualizing each stroke, each hole. In his column on GolfChannel.com, author Rich Lerner, related the story as he had heard it from Olympic Golf Medalist, Lanny Bassham who founded Mental Management Systems.
Lerner wrote the man …
'had been released from a POW camp in Vietnam, shot down and then held in a 4-foot box for months.
The man was dying. He began to talk to God. 'Let me not suffer,' he prayed. Rain then fell. From the leaves of a tree overhead, water funneled into his mouth. Sustained, he resolved to live, and began to think of things he loved, like sports.
The man would tell the struggling Olympian of a fellow prisoner who passed the time in captivity playing golf — in his mind. He hit thousands of drives. He made putt after putt after putt. The man weighed 90 pounds upon release. Returning home to San Diego, he saw a golf course and instructed the driver to pull into the pro shop. He wanted to play, but was told he needed to be a member.
The man shuffled to the grill and a roomful of people. He introduced himself. 'I'm a commander in the U.S. Navy and was shot down in Vietnam,' he began. 'I just want to play golf.'
The people stood, saluted and cried. The man played his round. Miraculously, he shot even par.
'That's impossible,' someone said when he'd finished. 'You haven't played in years.'
'You don't understand,' the man said. 'I haven't missed a shot in six years.'
Bassham founded the company and developed the system to show professionals in sports, business and the military, 'the process of improving the probability of having a consistent mental performance under pressure, on demand,' as he describes on his website.
In 2007, one of Bassham's clients was Fred Funk. In January of that year, Funk won the on the Champions Tour. In February he won on the PGA Tour. In 2009, he's third on the money list on the Champions Tour. He has given credit to Bassham.
Remember what Bobby Jones said: 'Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course…the space between your ears.'
We'll work on that.
The Surge!