Dr Bob's mind games find a ready following

A Slice of Golfing Literature Part two: Gary Moran on one of the most popular books dealing with the 'inner game'

At a pre-season clinic a couple of years ago, Padraig Harrington was asked for the customary few tips to help the handicap golfer. "Well, first of all, if you're not reading Bob Rotella, you're not taking the game of golf seriously," was his firm and immediate response.

So what is so good about Rotella's instruction? Is it his theories on the wide take-away, the late release or the balanced follow-through? Does he focus on physical preparation, practice drills or faults and fixes? What has he done to have the likes of Davis Love, Nick Price, Darren Clarke and David Duval as clients and why have sales of his book Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect reached 500,000 copies?

Well, he writes almost nothing about swing technique and there is not a single diagram in the book. In 1995, Dr Bob Rotella was the director of sports psychology at the University of Virginia and had a sideline working with leading golfers. Known on Tour simply as "Doc", he had written academic books about his theories of performance, but wanted to produce something of more general appeal.

The result was a collaboration with novelist and journalist Bob Cullen and a true gem of a book. Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect is a compelling mixture of common sense, psychology studies and anecdotes drawn from Rotella's work in sport.

Sprinkled throughout the text are "Rotella's Rules". They are easy to understand, but in case there's any doubt they are usually backed up by true stories.

For example, take the rule "A golfer cannot let the first few holes, shots or putts determine his thinking for the rest of the round." When Nick Price first went to see Rotella he hadn't won a tournament for six years, never mind a major. Price hated to hit his approach close on the first hole and miss the putt because that would affect his attitude to putting for the rest of the day. The solution was to develop a consistent pre-shot mental routine as well as a pre-shot physical routine. As Price learned, you have to think like a champion if you want to play like a champion.

Mark Twain deemed the inability to forget infinitely more devastating than the inability to remember, and Rotella sees that as a golfing truism. Most players have a vast store of memories which affect the way they perform. The straight drives and the snap hooks, the clutch putts holed and the nervy misses.

He knows that what's in your mind influences the physical execution of your shots, and in an entertaining style he outlines straightforward ways to make sure that what's in your mind is positive.

The closest Rotella comes to "regular" instruction is his emphasis on pre-shot routine ("the rod and staff of the golfer under pressure, a comfort in times of affliction and challenge") and the stress he puts on the importance of the short game ("golfing potential depends primarily on attitude, how well a golfer thinks and skill with the wedges and putter").

He met Davis Love, one of his longest-standing clients, just before the recent Players' Championship, and Love's comments after closing out the tournament with a brilliant 64 wouldn't have been out of place in this book: "The more dedicated I can be to playing one shot at a time, one target at a time, the better I'm going to play, and I honestly feel that today was the best job I've ever done in that direction."

Co-author Cullen lost eight shots off his handicap while working on the book, and the pair went on to write Golf Is A Game Of Confidence, The Golf Of Your Dreams and Putting Out Of Your Mind. All are good, but the original remains the best.