Now, he clearly has the golf game and has built up an enviable team of coaches including, in my opinion, the best and most innovative swing coach in the world today. He also has the benefit of working with one of the worlds best Mental Game coaches in the world: a four time world record holder and Olympic Gold medallist. No, that’s not me!

When we started working together, he listed his primary objectives for the next few months as

1. Deciding on one swing coach and one methodology
2. Improving his putting
3. Learning and implementing a relaxation technique to take to the course
4. Implementing the Swing Changes suggested by his new coach, while
   1. Making these new skills unconscious and automatic
   2. Developing trust in his new skills
   3. Cherishing the time it took to make these changes
5. Developing his Course Management and Mental Game skills
6. Making his routines automatic and conscious – perhaps I added that last one!

Now I know that sounds like a lot, but he’s already well on the way to achieving those objectives. However, we did approach his objectives in a different sequence. Here’s the action plan we developed to help him achieve his objectives.

1. Decide on a methodology

It was important that the choice of coach was his, but, once he decided, it was important for me to back it up. That wasn’t too hard, because I was rather jealous of his opportunity to work with such a good swing coach. So was a good golfing friend of mine who told me to tell him:

“Your new coach and his followers are gonna be huge. They know their stuff and if you were going to have one lesson from anyone in the world, it would be from him. He just fixes stuff with an end-goal in mind and loves to find what works, not what is popular.”

I also passed on some more good advice my friend had given me, for my own golf.

“Forget about every swing tip and idea that you’ve ever been given by another coach or read anywhere. Ignore trying to equate anything your new coach says with anything you know, a true ‘Zen empty bowl” mentality -whatever that means! Just do and think about what your new coach says for at least 2 months, before even considering re-evaluating your game.

I also reminded him to abstain from looking at any golf coaching website, magazine, book or other source of advice. And don’t take any notice of what anyone outside your coaching team says or does.

2. Really Learn Finger Breathing

It’s very important for every golfer to have a really effective relaxation technique they can consciously call on when they’re under pressure on the golf course. I recommend a breathing technique called “Finger Breathing“. With practice, you can shorten it down to just a couple of cyclic breaths, or even a single breath, to recall a relaxed, resourceful and confident state.

It’s something to use reactively and consciously out on the golf course whenever you need a cool head. You can also incorporate it in one or more places in your routines as a trigger or anchor for some part of your process. This is a bit like the “Tiger blink”, Louis Oosthuizen’s red spot on the glove or Dr Karl Morris’s idea pulling on the glove, taking the club out of the bag and then putting it back.

One of my other professional golfer clients has abbreviated “Finger Breathing” down to a sigh. He takes a sharp intake of break combined with an upwards then downwards shrug of the shoulders. He uses the technique after completing his rehearsal swing, immediately before he steps into the ball. That way he gets into a wonderful relaxed and resourceful state for trusting his unconscious skills to actually hit the ball. It really works well for him in pressure situations.

3. Develop and Internalise the Routines

My client was already a long way down the path with the routines he’d developed with his Mental Game coach. So apart from a little fine tuning, the main enhancement I recommended was to use an abbreviated form of “Finger Breathing” as a trigger for one or more of the important phases of his routines.

These triggers help him automatically kick-start the important phases of his routines and get him in the right state of mind, at the same time. This helps him considerably with concentrating only when he needs to, being confident when hitting the shot and being calm, nonchalant and lacking in doubt between shots.

I recommended including three “Finger Breathing” trigger points in his routines. The first when he arrives at the ball, to trigger the start of his conscious pre-shot routine and to change his state from the nonchalance of walking between shots. The second trigger point after he completes his final, satisfactory rehearsal swing, to trigger the start of his unconscious shot routine. Finally, the third at the end of his post shot routine, as he hits his “reset button” and reverts back to nonchalantly waiting to play his next shot.

We also worked on the option of using two distinct rehearsal swings. The first one would allow him to rehearse the shot he’s about to play, while pondering a swing thought. The second one, just focussing on the shot he imagined in the pre-shot routine, to allow him to isolate the conscious aspect of his swing thought from the largely unconscious shot routine.

I also reminded him that his routines and triggers will also allow him to play each shot in isolation from the ones before and the ones after. Remember a 6-inch putt is the same on the scorecard as a 300 yard drive or a hole in one.

Finally, I asked him to remember that it’s as important to practice his routines as it is to practice his swing. I also reminded him to use his routines and triggers on every shot. That means every shot on the course, in practice, in his imagination and in hypnosis – more of that later. That way, his routines will become routine – sorry about that!

4. Use Hypnosis to Implement Swing Changes

You can use hypnosis to mentally rehearse the drills and swing thoughts you’re working on using my “Better Golf with Less Practice” programme.

He started out using just the second track, “Practice Golf in Your Mind”. Each time, before listening to the track, thinking about the swing thoughts his coach wants him to be working and imagining what it would be like to successfully hit the ball well with these swing thoughts while imagining using his new routines. Then listening to the track and allowing his unconscious mind to play that shot over and over at the appropriate time in the recording.

Then when he’s you’re getting used to using the “Practice Golf in Your Mind” track, he’s ready to start using the third track, “Play Golf in Your Dreams” in parallel with it. He can switch them about as he wished, as long as he kept using them both. I advised him to go through the same preparation as before, so that he’s now practicing perfect shots in your sleep. Again, remembering to use his routines.

The first track in the programme, “Play Golf in Your Mind” was more appropriate to mentally rehearsing playing golf on the course and is become useful now that he’s practicing his course management on the courses he’s playing competitively. I reminded him that he can also combine it with “Play Golf in Your Dreams” track.

5. Learn to Own the Putting Green

My client’s also using the “Own the Putting Green” programme to help him to improve his putting and he’s able to use it in parallel with his Swing Change work using the “Better Golf with Less Practice” tracks. He’s also able to use those tracks to practice his putting in his mind and in his dreams.

He’s also remembering to use his routines and triggers for his putting – on the course, in practice, in his imagination and in hypnosis.

6. Develop Course Management and Mental Game skills

The techniques I’ve proposed for his routines, swing changes and putting will all contribute significantly to his course management and mental game. However, I also advised him that there are three particular tracks I’d like him to incorporate into his work between events and in preparation for competition.

The first of these is the free “Your Own Virtual Caddy” track that’s available free to subscribers to my Golf Hypnotist Ezine. Ideally I’d like him to listen to this once a week. This is the best overall track for bringing everything together for actually playing his best. It’s also a great final preparation for an event and I encouraged him to listen to it the day or night before every important round.

The best players seem to be the ones that score well even when they aren’t feeling or playing their best. Have you noticed how Rory McIlroy seems to be able to win even when he’s not playing his absolute best or not 100% fit? For me it’s all about “Making the Most of Your Game” and that’s the title of a track in my “Winning Golf” programme. That’s worth listening to once in a while, especially if you are not comfortable with your game before an event.

The next track I recommended to him in this section was “Play Golf in Your Mind” from my “Better Golf with Less Practice” programme. As I mentioned in the section on Swing Change, this is very useful for mentally practicing golf in your mind on the course you are about to play competitively. It will also help you to plan your course management. If, for whatever reason, you don’t have the opportunity for a practice round, just get hold of a course planner, read through it and start thinking about your course management strategy then go and play it in your mind. As I mentioned above, you can also combine it with “Play Golf in Your Dreams”.

When he got to this stage, there was one more track that may help. Many golfers can benefit, especially in course management terms, from “walking a mile” in the shoes of their favourite professional golfer. In my client’s case it was Steve Stricker and I recommended he use the “Borrow as Skill from your Golfing Heroes” track from my “Learn Better Golf with Your Golfing Heroes” programme.

7. Everything Else – the Safety Valve!

I’m confident that following steps one to six in this plan are making huge difference to his game and his confidence. However, as Bob Rotella says, “Golf is not a game of perfect”, so there may be other things that we can improve on over time. That’s where some of the other tracks, programmes and personalised sessions can help. That’s the Safety Valve!

What makes the difference is that those consistently successful players combine those skills and knowledge with a controlled and measured level of concentration; while sticking to their routines.

What do I mean by Concentration?

Although a high level of concentration seems to be key to consistent success at the highest levels, there’s more than one way to concentrate. Some players, like Nick Faldo, felt the need to hold their concentration for complete rounds or even tournaments. That’s very hard on the nerves and probably one of the reasons that Nick now prefers to commentate rather than play top-level golf.

By way of contrast, Luke Donald is just as focussed when he’s planning and executing his shots, but between shots he looks much more relaxed and nonchalant between shots. Maybe that’s why he had the capacity to head the money lists on the PGA and European Tours in 2011.

Then there’s the story of European Tour player Phil Archer I wrote about in my book, The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf. Phil had a reputation for winning the pro-am events on the Wednesdays before the main tournaments and then missing the cut on the Fridays. In the tournament he tried to concentrate like a Nick Faldo, while in the pro-am he’d focus, between concentrating briefly on his own shots, on helping his amateur partners enjoy their day. I bet they thought he was acting cool when they were playing with him! When he started to be nonchalant between shots in the main tournament, he started to win.

How do I become Nonchalant?

The best advice is to focus most of your efforts on consistently following your routines and only really concentrate on the shot in hand. Between shots, you can enjoy yourself and be as nonchalant as you possibly can. There’s really nothing you can do constructively between shots, other than simply relax and enjoy the experience. You can use the “Concentration on the Zone” and “The Playing Zone” hypnosis sessions from my Golf in the Playing Zone programme to help with that.

You can also use “Finger Breathing” to help you relax between shots. You can read about the technique and download a recording of it at http://ezine.golf-hypnotist.com/finger-breathing/.

Remember to keep an eye out for nonchalance on the golf course, especially from the top players. If you were watching Robert Rock winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Robert may have been nervous, but he still looked nonchalant as he enjoyed the experience of playing in the final group on Sunday with Tiger Woods.

Now, my major concern about swing thoughts and keys is not so much about their content, but rather about when you think of them. Some would argue that there’s no place for them at all during a round of golf and they should be confined to the practice ground. While I broadly agree with this, I feel it’s more important to eliminate conscious thoughts about the swing once you step in to address the ball.

There are parts of a golfer’s routine that require conscious though and there are parts where it’s better to trust your unconscious learned skills to actually hit the ball. When you first learned to drive a car, you had to think about everything you had to do. As a result, you were overwhelmed, perhaps over self-aware, and it was difficult to drive smoothly. Now you know how to drive, you only consciously need to think about things like where you want to go, when you have to get there and have you got enough fuel – your pre-driving routine. The actual driving is performed as naturally and unconsciously as breathing or signing your name. Try copying your signature and you’ll understand how much self-awareness gets in the way.

Although I generally don’t’ interfere with the intricate details of an individual client’s routines, I do encourage them to split their routine into four parts:

• Pre-Shot Routine – where you consciously concentrate on preparing, planning and imagining the shot you want to play
• Rehearsal swing – where you internalise the feel of the shot you imagine
• Shot Routine – where you unconsciously take your stance, have one final look at the hole and hit the ball instinctively
• Post-Shot Routine – where you consciously learn from the shot and either celebrate it or release it to the past where it can’t hurt you.

The only place for swing keys is in the first and possibly second parts, where the physical “feeling” you’re working on can easily be incorporated into the way you plan to play the shot. Once you’ve internalised that feeling in the rehearsal swing, then you can simply step in to the shot and trust your unconscious to deliver that feeling.

Are Golfing Objectives the same as Swing Keys?

Golfers often talk about their objectives for a round and their swing thoughts and keys. For me, these are different. Your objective is generally about “what” you want to achieve and a swing key is more related to “how” you’re going to make it happen. Using the analogy of driving a car, the “what” is the conscious choice of where you want to go, when you want to get there and perhaps the route you plan to take. The “how” is largely dictated by your unconscious learned ability to drive a car.

In golf terms the objective should be decided in the Pre-Shot Routine. It’s what you see the pros discussing with their caddies. One they’ve agreed on the nature of the shot, the caddy steps back and the pro takes a rehearsal swing or two, to get the feel of the shot, and then hits it. For top golfers like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, it only takes 11 seconds to hit the ball from the moment the caddy steps back. That doesn’t leave much time for conscious thought about swing keys, or anything else for that matter. Everything in the Shot Routine is pretty much automatic, including any forward press. That’s just part of the feel of the shot.

So why are some keys more appealing to certain golfers?

This was something that used to catch me out when I first started doing golf psychology, especially using NLP. Almost every NLP technique I was originally taught was based around getting people to visualise – to see pictures in their mind’s eye. The problem was that many of my clients couldn’t consciously “see” those pictures that clearly and neither could I see mine.

What I eventually learned was that we all experience the world through our five senses of sight, sound, feeling, taste and smell. We also code our memories using those five senses. That’s why we can hear a tune or smell a particular aroma and be transported back to some significant past event and experience all the feelings we had at the time. How many couples have “our song”?

More importantly, I also learned that people have their own personal unconscious preferences for the sense they use the most. If you listen to a number of people describing the same event, some will describe mainly in terms of what they saw, some in terms of the sounds or words and others in terms of feelings. How many times have you heard someone saying things like, “I see what you are saying” or “that picture makes me feel bad”? Personally, I tend to use feeling words, perhaps that’s not surprising for a therapist and it’s consistent with the fact that I “can’t” consciously see pictures in my mind. I must see them unconsciously, or I wouldn’t recognise people, places and things.

When working with a client, I now do my best to pay attention to the sensory words that people use in conversation and phrase my own words and techniques to match theirs. If I’m talking to a group of people, it’s more difficult. That’s when I “try” to use seeing, hearing and feeling expressions. If I’m presenting, I make sure my slides include pictures as well as words and I try to use my body to convey feelings.

Even with their well polished mechanics and a good understanding of ball flight physics, the top players still hit a less than perfect shot every now and then. Even if they don’t actually hit a bad shot, the course and conditions and outside agencies can turn a good shot into a bad one. We even have a term for that in golf – “Rub of the Green”.

So what else do the top players do when they experience one or more bad or unlucky shots? Well, I was listening to Rory McIlroy giving a clinic to a large group of young players at the Grand Final of the Faldo Series. Someone asked, to a ripple of laughter, “If you can’t stop making bogeys, how do you bounce back on the next hole?”

The gist of Rory’s reply was, “If you’ve just made a bogey on the 5^th green, you can’t walk on to the 6^th tee going ‘I have to make a birdie because I bogeyed the last’, you have to stick to the process”. He went on to say, “You’re not thinking about bogeys or birdies, all you’re thinking about is the shot at hand and just going through your processes, if you do all these things right, your score at the end of it will take care of itself”.

Focus on the shot in hand

So, in striving for perfection, you need to focus on the shot in hand, and make use of your routines or processes, especially your post shot routine, regardless of what went before. Remember that each shot you play just counts for one shot on the scorecard. And it’s equally important, regardless of whether it’s for a birdie or a bogey. That’s the secret of Winning Golf.

One of the best exponents of this approach is Luke Donald. Yes, I know I’m biased, because he’s a member of my club and I can remember giving him shots in matchplay!

Well what better way to finish my last blog of 2011 than with a reference to Luke Donald. His approach to perfect golf has driven him to be number one in the world and to top the money lists on the European and PGA Tours. What more can I say?

Well, I always seemed to putt better when I had a playing partner, so I’ll set aside 2-ball match play and stroke play for the moment. Now that I come to think about it, I generally seemed to putt better when I had a partner than when I was just playing for myself.

So why did I putt better with certain partners than I did with others? Well I fairly certain that I putted better when I played with a confident partner who I trusted to read my putts for me. The odd thing is that the partner I remember putting best with was not in my league in terms of handicap. He just seemed to read greens instinctively and he was certainly a good putter. He knew my putting style and trusted my judgement of distance, so he simply told me where to aim and I holed the putts – far more than my fair share.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone like that caddying for you now, I hear you say? Well, you already do, if you are prepared to trust the unconscious green reading instincts you already have. The good news is that I’ve addressed the unconscious aspects of green reading in the final golf hypnosis session in my “Own the Putting Green” programme.

Is that all we can do for putting? What about the power of the conscious mind? If I’m playing a full shot, I have lots conscious tools to help me. I can use yardage charts, GPS systems, laser rangefinders and even the 150 yard posts to help me judge distance. I can even calibrate my hitting distances with each club using devices like Trackman. In addition, there’s often contour information for the greens on the course planner to help me plan where best to land my approach shots.

All of those things, combined with the information we pick up through our senses and experience, help us to plan our full shots consciously in our pre-shot routines. The problem is that we are largely left alone with senses and judgement when it comes to putting. The only alternative to trusting your instinctive green reading skills seems to employ the services of a really good caddy or play with a partner you can trust!

Well that’s what I thought up until I went on an AimPoint green reading clinic recently!

The AimPoint Green Reading Clinic

The clinic was organised by my old friend and putting coach, Jason Gilroy of Gilroy’s Golf, and run by Europe’s senior AimPoint instructor, Jamie Donaldson. I’ll leave it to them to tell you all about AimPoint, other than to say that I started out very sceptical and came away as a convert.

What surprised me about the course was that it was much more intuitive and a lot simpler than I expected. What delighted me was that I learned something very important about my own field.

I talk a lot in my work about the importance of using and extending all of our sensory inputs – sight, hearing, feelings, smells and tastes. When I talk about visualisation, I really mean imagination and we can imagine more than just pictures. In fact many of us are more comfortable recalling and imagining internal and external feelings and sounds than pictures.

As a golfer, I was used to thinking about the feeling of every part of the body in my swing – apart from my feet. That all changed when Jamie started talking about walking around the green and sensing changes in slope with my feet. He was getting us to “look” for inflection points so we could detect break directions. You’ll have to go on the AimPoint Fundamentals clinic to understand the relevance of that information and a lot more besides.

All I know is that it reminded me of all the valuable input we have from all our senses and how we can easily “read” the subtlest change of slope on a green just by walking around on it.

The older they get, the more golfers tend to forget how easy putting really is. They also forget how good they used to putt when they were younger and more carefree. You often hear the golf pundits on television talking about how some or other up and coming young professional hasn’t yet learned how difficult putting really is. They sometimes go on to talk about how the accumulation of years of missed putts slowly frazzles the nerves and undermines the confidence of the older and more experienced golfers. Maybe that’s how they justify their own inability to maintain their competitiveness on the tour. It’s small wonder that they’re now commentating rather than playing.

I work regularly with an American Senior Professional Golfer and the first time we met was in a practice round for the British Senior Open Championship. He explained that he couldn’t read greens very well. It was a major problem for him and put unnecessary added pressure on the rest of his game.

After walking a few holes with him in his final practice round, I noticed that there was a little white cross painted on each of the greens. I guessed that these were to show the greens staff where to cut the holes on the first round of the tournament, the next day. So I suggested to my client that it would be worth rolling a few balls to these marks to get the feel of these pin positions. As he’d been practicing with several balls and to save time, I suggested that he walked in a 20 foot circle around these “holes” and rolled a few balls by hand to them. It was a lot quicker than putting them, as he didn’t bother to line them up.

I kept quiet for the first few greens where he tried this and just let him do this without much conscious thought. Then I pointed out to him that around 40 percent of the balls he’d rolled this way would have gone in the hole and the rest had finished within 12 inches of the white mark. He burst out laughing when I asked him if he was still sure that he couldn’t read greens. He could when he didn’t try too hard consciously!

Why don’t you try it out for yourself? It’ll confirm how good you really are at reading greens unconsciously and instinctively. All you have to do is to roll a few balls on a few greens. It’s a great way to reinforce the “Reading your Putts Instinctively” golf hypnosis track in my Own the Putting Green” programme.

Own the Putting Green

Own the Putting Green” is one of my most popular programmes and is used by many of my professional clients to very good effect. The programme addresses putting confidence and belief in your putting, as well as learning `to trust your instinctive green reading abilities.

The programme won’t teach you how to putt or how to read greens. What it will do is help you to make the most of the unconscious, instinctive putting abilities you already have.

Unusually for me, there are no instructions here about using any formal self hypnosis technique before following these six steps. You’ll usually be using this technique as you transition from the conscious process of planning your putt in your pre-shot routine to the, hopefully, unconscious process of stroking the putt in your shot routine. Having said that, if you’re an experienced user of the “Finger Breathing technique, you’ll only need a couple of deep breaths at this point to get into just the right state.

Step 1: When you approach a putt, start following your normal pre-shot routine and doing whatever you would normally do to read and visualise the putt.

Step 2: If you haven’t already marked the ball, then mark it now, clean it and replace it ready to putt. I suggest that you avoid making any particular conscious effort to line up the markings on the ball with the target. If you normally draw a sighting line on your ball, either ignore it or don’t do it for now.

Step 3: Now stand 2-4 yards behind the ball on the line to your target. Face straight at the target, so that both your eyes are seeing the ball and the hole using your binocular vision.

Step 4: Recall your visualisation of the putt and do your best to imagine the feeling and/or picture of the ball rolling along your expected line before hearing it fall in the hole.

Step 5: Now, keeping that feeling and/or picture in your mind and, while maintaining your gaze at the ball and the hole, take your stance for a practice swing. Take a couple of practice swings while still looking simultaneously at the ball and hole.

Step 6: As soon as you feel the practice swing is a good rehearsal for the putt you want to play, move as quickly and smoothly as you can and take up your stance to the ball. Only roughly align yourself to the hole – your unconscious will automatically allow for any misalignment. Then take one slow look at the hole and as soon as your eyes return to the ball, notice how you automatically and unconsciously start your putter stroke and then stroke the putt. It really is that easy!

So why does this work? Well, the object is to get all the conscious thought and analysis out of the way before handing over to your unconscious mind to finally assess the shot and hit the putt. Looking at the hole with both eyes while you get the feel of the putter stroke allows your unconscious mind to take in all the information it needs to deliver the putt that you saw and/or felt in step 1. Finally, the faster you can smoothly take your stance, look at the hole and start your swing, the more of that unconscious information you’ll retain and the less time there is for the conscious mind to step in and start analysing things again – and potentially sowing the seeds of doubt.

Remember that you can use a similar technique for chips and, with practice, for longer shots as well. It’s also a good technique for helping overcome the Yips for both putting and chipping.

I remember avoiding the suggestion, at the time, that Darren started doing that after he or one of his support team read about it in my ezine. However, it was obviously helping him in overcoming some of the “demons” that seemed to be afflicting his putting confidence back then. The six steps and his action back then of gripping left hand low and then re-gripping right hand low were clearly keeping his conscious mind occupied while just trusting his unconscious mind to hit the putts.

The technique was so effective I included it, along with three golf hypnosis sessions, in my “Own the Putting Green” golf hypnosis programme.

Imagine my delight a year later when he was still using those six steps in his magnificent win in the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St Georges.

Remember you are a great putter

I first used the Six Steps to better Putting in Your Unconscious Mind technique when I was working with a young tournament professional having serious problems with his putting. He’d been struggling to put a good score together despite often hitting 15 greens in regulation in a round. It wasn’t his putting stroke, because he’s already spent a lot of time working with his coach on his putting and everything was looking good there. The problem was that he seemed to have forgotten that he was a good putter. And that was putting more and more psychological pressure on his game.

We spent some time on a very undulating putting green and experimented with various techniques until we came up with the Six Steps to Unconscious Putting that I’ll post tomorrow. My client was uncomfortable at first, but after about 45 minutes, I suddenly noticed him relax and smile as he said something quietly to himself. I’m not sure what the exact words were, but it was the cheeky nickname he’d been given by his friends at college when he kept holing putts as they played for candy bars and sodas.

He remembered how good a putter he was and the following week, he went out and won his first pay cheque as a professional. He putted rather well that day!

Tomorrow, I’ll take you through those Six Steps to Unconscious Putting, a key part of the pre-shot routine that Darren Clarke used so effectively at Royal St Georges in wining the Open Championship

Here’s what GOLFMagic had to say in the Instruction Articles section of their website under a dramatic headline and a rather worrying sub-heading! There’s a similar article on the Golfshake.com website.

Hypnotist offers solution to dreaded yips
Go “under the knife” to solve your wedge game

It goes by many names, although the most literal term itself sends shivers down our spines.

Twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks are enough to make the palms sweaty, but the one that gives us sleepless nights is the yips.

How often does it happen? One week you’ll be pulling off shots like that Tom Watson effort at the 1982 US Open, the next you’re using your wedge as a gardening tool. And that is generally the form that sticks. Suddenly you’ve forgotten what it’s like to hit the dancefloor and the 56 stays in the bag gathering rust.

So why not try something a bit different? Andrew Fogg (pictured below) is the UK’s leading golf hypnosis expert, and is offering golfers a real, permanent solution to this dreaded golfing conundrum.

Every year, thousands of golfers sift through hordes of instruction articles searching, praying and pleading for a cure. Inevitably, the problem persists as no amount of tuition; comfort of grip or shaft length can ever heal the mental scarring caused by the yips.

Instead, there’s a real solution that a growing number of golfers in the UK can vouch for. And that’s a visit to The Golf Hypnotist, who has worked with everyone from high-handicap amateurs to Tour professionals.

Several individuals within the industry have visited Mr Fogg, usually following a torrid few months with the chipping yips, and since their session have confirmed their short game has improved no end.

“I honestly can’t believe how much my short game has improved in such a short period of time,” admitted one golf industry figure and student of Mr Fogg. “Like most people, I guess I was a little sceptical at first but I’d recommend it to absolutely anyone now.”

An hour-and-a-half long session with Mr Fogg costs £100, including a follow-up. For more information, visit www.golf-hypnotist.com.

You can find out about all my Golf Hypnosis Programmes, including “Overcome the Yips“, for putting, chipping and wedge play, at the Golf Hypnotist Store.

The problem I’ve found back then was that, however well conceived and constructed these training aids are, I only used most of them a couple of times before they start gathering dust!

If you still want to use golf training aids, then here’s a way to use Golf Hypnosis to get the most out of them.

Most of these devices are designed to help you to physically repeat some part of the golf swing the way the designer feels you should. The good news is that they help you to make flawless repetitions of that swing element. The problem is that I get bored or want to get out on the course, long before I complete the thousands of repetitions needed to ingrain the new action.

So how can golf hypnosis help? Well, one way is to use self hypnosis to take you into a receptive hypnotic state and then use the training aid while remaining in an eyes-open trance. I used that technique with a hoop style swing trainer I had some years ago called an Explanar – www.explanar.com. It’s a very effective training aid invented by Luther Blacklock, a top UK teaching professional and head pro at Woburn Golf and Country Club.

Another way golf hypnosis can help is in speeding up the learning process using a concept called “Hypnotic Time”. It is not uncommon for people to fall asleep for a few minutes and wake up from a dream that they seemed to “live” for hours or even days. In a similar way, people in hypnotic trance can often experience time distortion allowing them to speed up their unconscious experience.

All you need to do is to practice a drill for a short while using the training device of your choice, then use hypnosis to rehearse the drill over and over in Hypnotic Time. You can achieve this either using self-hypnosis or by listening to the hypnosis tracks in my “Better Golf with Less Practice” hypnosis audio programme. That way, you can to unconsciously complete hours of practice or rehearse rounds of golf in just a few minutes.