On Christmas Day of 1980, when I was ten years old, I was walking past a room with a TV playing and happened on a scene from the James Bond movie Goldfinger. In it, Bond was driving a 1964 silver Aston Martin and an Asian assailant was holding a gun on him. I stopped to see how Bond would deal with this deadly threat. The camera panned swiftly back and forth between Bond's face and his hand on the gearshift, then froze on his hand. Using his thumb, he flicked the end of the handle upward, revealing a bright red button, which he pressed. This opened a section of the roof and vertically ejected the killer.
This scene gave me a love of dramatic and dynamic images that became an important part of my life and eventually manifested itself in my golf instruction. Why, I reasoned, couldn't golf instruction be as visually stimulating as that famous scene in Goldfinger? Why couldn't it actually stimulate and inspire golfers to "live up to" an image they had seen? How many men in their thirties and forties have walked around hotels and airports imagining that they were the great James Bond on a secret mission? The answer, of course, is millions. A powerful and indelible icon encourages people to emulate its example.
Golf instruction should be the same. It should encourage you to fit into an image and try to sense that "feel" for yourself. Truly inspired learning—the wish to develop and grow—is most effectively generated by a source that operates at a higher than ordinary level. At its best, education is inseparable from entertainment—they are one.
In Kinetic Golf, you will see images that I have successfully used with top players during major championships. "The Ball Has Gone with the Wind," for example, shows an image of me exhaling and literally blowing the ball powerfully down the fairway. The idea for it came from the 2007 Masters Tournament, in which I had Justin Rose inhale (generating a beta wave in the brain) and then exhale in the pattern he wanted the ball flight to follow. It was a pretty successful process, leading to a fifth-place finish for him that year. You will also see an image from the swing bible I created for him, which led to his record-breaking year winning the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit in just twelve counting events. From 2009 to 2011, I consulted for Kevin Chappell, taking him from zero status as a professional to winning on the Nationwide Tour and breaking two Tour records. He went on to finish third in the U.S. Open that year. The "Firing the Right Knee" image was a critical tool for Kevin during this period, since he showed a lot of potential if he could only develop better dynamic balance during his swing.
Kinetic Golf is a valuable tool for any golfer wanting to get to the essence of what playing golf is all about. In my previous book, The 7 Laws of the Golf Swing, I taught you how to build the Ferrari. In this book I teach you how to drive it. No question, mechanics have to be in place, and that, dear reader, happens in the pit lane (practice ground). This book is about driving your car on the track, letting go, and allowing your brain to swim in pictures and feelings.
I'd like to give special thanks to good friend and artist Lee John Rouse. Without Lee and our unique working relationship, this project would not have been the success it is. Lee, thank you so much. Thanks also to Laura Macfadyen and Marco D'Uva and the team at Paperhat FTP. Much credit goes to photographer Keith Jacobs, whose patience during the various shoots (and with me) was legendary. Thank you, Keith. I'd like to thank James Ridyard and Justin Padgen for their input with the ball flight data involved—these guys are the best in their field. I'd also like to thank the staff at the Tobacco Road Golf Club in North Carolina. This stunning piece of course architecture by the sorely missed Mike Strantz provided the backdrop for many of the shots.
My wish is for this book to help you play your best golf through the tools with which the greatest golf has always been played. These tools are the visual and the feeling. To have a golfing inventory of shot-feel possibilities that you can call upon is an accomplishment Tour professionals around the world have mastered. This book encourages you to move away from the narrow internal focus that makes lifeless statues of weekend golfers and tournament professionals alike and into a focus that is more out there, more external.
This book doesn't have all the answers, but it does give you all the clues you need to play the game extremely well.
Enjoy your golf—enjoy your life!
Sunset Beach, North Carolina, 2013
