Posted: 06 Feb 2011 11:43 AM PST

Golf and Lead with the Brain in Mind

Golf's a game about life, spirit and leadership, renowned author Scott Peck illustrated, in Golf and the Spirit. Even for beginners, golf offers metaphors to play and lead with spirited skills in mind. Here are a few brainpowered tools to raise your golf IQ a few notches, while leading innovative game changers in the same swing.

How so?

1.Shoot for a higher target than you typically land. Need a birdie to remain under par? Then shoot for an eagle. Your brain leaps to challenges and can create new synapses that stretch your swings to the next level. From that first shot off the tee, professional golfers capitalize on kinesthetic intelligence and naturalistic intelligence. Team with a close friend and you'll toss in brain chemicals, such as oxytocin with even finer ROI from your game. A growing body of research suggests how the links hold mental benefits for business brains, beyond what most golfers realize. Even more than rich alliances and swing power gained on the course, golf adds mind makeovers that prepare you to lead winning innovative ventures.

2. Laugh lots and make light of lost shots. To top up serotonin that drives the next good whack, laugh your way to a better run on each new round. According to this YouTube video new hazards – in the form of a fox that steals golf balls – is now part of Clark Fork River Lodge's experience. This fifteen pound red fox outwits players at almost every hole, and the little guy's fairways heists keep top golfers in stitches. Lately, the little hoodwink fox became a nuisance to a few poor sports, yet he keeps most golfers laughing at life's lighter side. To lead innovation in a long-faced or back stabbing business settings, is much like landing a good shot – in spite of little foxes that hold you back. What makes you laugh before you swing today?

3. Conquer one hole at a time. Bank extra points before tougher holes broadside any confidence you had. Then, with your early deposits well in place, relax to ward off stress before you swing for those harder holes. Cortisol chemicals surge in a brain under pressure- and will work against your golf skills, by overheating your amygdala. If the front nine's easier, for instance, work harder for fewer strokes while there, and then treat the back nine as a learning curve. Challenges that often don't exist in the first 9 holes tend to pop in the last 9 to give you practice shots from many angles, if you can tame the amygdala before it overheats you start the game. Rather than resent the back 9 – see it as a way to improve your brain for a better game. Now there's a hole-in-one-tip that offers you practice opportunities to grow new leadership skills. Start your game with one original winning plan in mind – keep your eye on the ball, swing through –and brainpowered tools will take the shot!

4. Mimic fellow players and expect sizzling skills – regardless of age. Your brain comes equipped with mirror neurons to help improve your skills by simply watching experts at their game. Optimize your brain's plasticity or ability to change itself – for better swings at any age. Spot what works well for others, and swing the same. It also works in life. In spite of a recent bout with cancer, Marjorie Brewer at 60, still swings her driver like a pro and putts like a metronome. She's out four times a week near the grounds of her law office. People far younger struggle to keep up. Marjorie saw tremendous rejuvenation benefits in her passion for golf and so can you. In similar ways, Murray Jensen at 58, expected golf to offer brainpowered tools to overcome cardiovascular disease, and his doctor expressed surprise by amazing mental progress that boosted Murray's once frail health. What could a golf game do to reboot your brain to risk leading an innovative initiative in spite of setbacks?

5. Spot new possibilities rather than lament past challenges. Focus on new developments for your swing, rather than lament past difficulties that impede your swing. When one play fails, try another shot – with a different club. Invent a new approach, rather than vent on previous problems. Regardless of how many obstacles that impede your swing, plan another brisk round of golf's sheer adventure. See the opportunity in spite of any difficulties and golf's a mental tonic at once. How so? Golf allows you to capitalize on the brain's ability to change itself with each good swing made. In much the same way, each innovative shot creates new neuron pathways to a better brainpowered tools that build improvements forward?

6. Risk new moves to gain novel skill with each new game. Try a new approach rather than fall into the brain's penchant to default for mental ruts and repeat the same mistakes on a difficult hole. Think back to your last lesson, or to a golf tip you heard, and deliberately give it a shot. The human brain performs better with novelty and risk. When you consider long term benefits that follow from risk and novelty you'll likely find courage to move a golf skill to the next level. Worth the risk to rev up dopamine that sparks new flames for many more?

7. Pack brain food and walk rather than ride. Improve your stamina with movement and mental nutrition from nuts or berries during your next game. Expect your nourished brain to remain fast, your swings to stay strong and your mind to come alert for new challenges, while you build new neuron pathways to golf skills for lower scores. Did you know the brain demands 21 percent of the entire oxygen to your body? Not surprisingly when you move more through walking, you enrich that supply and add to your brain's working memory potential to gain finer skills for golf and life.

8. Swing as if to win a top tournament yet accept mishaps as if they didn't matter a wit. Why? We know from neuro-anatomy that reboots brainpowered tools how experts improve their lot by shifting beliefs into winning tasks. We also know that self-competition reshapes human brains each time golfers shoot to improve. How so? Swing those extra yards, putt a finer approach, Angle a better loft, or chip into the cup, and you literally reshape your brain chemically and electrically for higher intelligence. Even simple competitive practice, can alter brainwaves up or down for skillful gains.

9. Support peers and practice thankfulness. Encouragement impacts chemical and electrical circuitry for well being to every round of golf – those that go well, and those that don't. How so? Serotonin opens new ideas and possibilities, and plasticity synapses for another good swing just when you need it most. This hormone for well-being and capacity to reboot brainpower is essential to a good game and it's increased on the links when you simply expect it to help you out. Deliberately build more serotonin mental-well-being on the golf course today… by wishing others well as they approach the tee. Imagine greater shots whenever you take another swing, and refuse to focus on draws or fades. Ah – another lesson learned for that upcoming brainpowered tool you'll take to lead innovation where you work.

10. Compete against your game, but ignore the numbers. Focus too much on gaining good scores alone, and regret over failed swings can leave your own next shot short. Not surprisingly, regret prevents skill while doing its opposite adds growth. For instance, rather than fight despair by comparing your own struggles to another person's wins, it's better to mentally spike each new swing in ways that improve your weaker moves. Next time you grab a box of favorite blue golf balls and head out for the links, why not visualize your best shot from the tee. Then simply compete against that shot for golf that follows from a high performance mind. Your best brainpowered tool to build renewal from past regrets is simply to do its opposite, and swing for wins.

Ready for a golf game under par and an innovative initiative with life-changing rewards? Try a swing or two today – armed with brainpowered tools such as plasticity for added innovation. Then watch for wins and enjoy each play. You'll likely hear me cheer you on, because I'll be the one rooting for you loudest, from somewhere behind the bleachers.

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Golf-Balancing family time a thorny issue for Rose

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 04:01 AM PST

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Sacrificing quality time with his young family is one of the toughest demands of being a successful, globe-trotting professional golfer, according to Justin Rose.

The 30-year-old Briton has set his sights on becoming the best player possible over the next decade and he readily accepts that the loneliness of life on the road is a frequent but necessary part of the equation.

"It is tough," Rose, whose son Leo was born in 2009, told Reuters in an interview. "I had two weeks away from my family at the start of the (PGA Tour) season in Hawaii and you certainly miss a lot with a young kid.

"Leo is talking and I couldn't believe the difference in two weeks in his speech and the words he was picking up. It's really tough to miss things like that but it is one of the small sacrifices of a great job."

However, Rose felt that one week away from home was often a bonus for all concerned.

"One week is no problem," said the Florida-based Englishman who plays most of his golf on the U.S. PGA Tour. "You get your head down and you work hard at your game because all of that is time-consuming too.

"When your family is out with you, there's certainly no point dragging them out on the road and then spending no time with them. So occasionally it is very good to get to have a week on your own. But being away for two weeks is tough."

Asked whether he ever adjusted his playing schedule to spend extra time with his family, Rose replied: "Not really. I schedule it where I am going to play best, how I think I can get the most out of a season.

"The family make sacrifices and I make sacrifices. You've got to get the most out of yourself in this game and you never quite know when your career could be up so it's a case of making the most of every single year."

Rose triumphed twice on the 2010 PGA Tour before ending a superb breakthrough season in the United States with earnings of $3,603,331 for a career-high ninth place in the money list.

UNWAVERING SELF-BELIEF

Although delighted to claim his first victory on the U.S. circuit after coming agonisingly close several times during the previous seven years, he said his self-belief in his own abilities had never wavered.

"I've always realised that I have a game that can contend at the highest level," said the tall Englishman, who took the golfing world by storm when tying for fourth as an amateur at the 1998 British Open.

"But those two wins here in the U.S. have taken a little bit of the pressure off. It has certainly got the monkey off my back and it's freed me up a little bit this year.

"You don't have to face those annoying questions every time you are in and around the lead, which you deal with but they're not what you want to face every time you're in contention."

While Rose has repeatedly said he wants to make the very most of his abundant golfing talent before he retires from the game, he has not adjusted his goals for this year because of his 2010 success.

"I'm not very goal-orientated at the moment," the four-times European winner added. "I am very much just trying to stick with the process.

"I want to see my shots clearly and I want to execute them as freely as possible and play without being tight. If I can do that, good golf is going to come and tournaments (wins) are going to get in the way."

Rose, who clinched the European Tour order of merit for the first time in 2007 by winning the season-ending Volvo Masters, has challenged himself to make the most of his golfing potential over the next decade.

"I see the next 10 years as my prime, where I feel I'm going to have the enthusiasm and energy to devote everything I've got to being the best player I can be," he said.

"And then who knows after that? I have a great family life right now and I'm very happy off the golf course. I'm in a good place with everything really."

(Editing by Ian Ransom; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Golf-Westwood keeps top spot as Kaymer's challenge falls away

Posted: 06 Feb 2011 04:02 AM PST

By Bernie McGuire

DOHA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Lee Westwood kept his position as world number one when nearest rival Martin Kaymer finished well off the pace in the Qatar Masters golf on Sunday.

German Kaymer, ranked second in the world, needed to finish first or second in the Qatari capital to unseat Briton Westwood who had missed the halfway cut.

Kaymer walked from the Doha Golf Club course with a final-round 71 for a share of a place in the 20s at two under par as the leaders headed into their closing nine holes.

"I was in a position to finish in the top 10 I thought but the greens are not my friends here in Qatar," Kaymer told Reuters.

"So what can you do because today I played my best golf all week even with a double bogey at the 12th hole?

"The good thing is I was lying 80th after my first round but the next two days I was hanging around the 20s and it looks as though I will finish in the 20s so I am pleased to be able to say that.

"It's just that the putts didn't drop and while it's a disappointing thing on one hand, I am looking forward to going to Dubai and leaving this tournament behind me."

In three previous appearances in Doha, Kaymer had finished no higher than 31st.

"I have just struggled so much on this Doha golf course and it's just so hard to get a feel of the ball on the greens," he said. "I would like to see the greens a lot quicker and just as they were in Abu Dhabi.

"But I hope to come back to this event next year. It's such a challenging golf course and I just want to play well on it."

In Dubai's Desert Classic, which starts on Thursday, Kaymer will join Westwood and former number one Tiger Woods, now ranked third.

It will be the first time since October, when Westwood went to number one, that the top three players in the world have contested the same event.

"I'm not worried about being number one or Tiger going past me and pushing me back to number three as long as I am in the top five on the rankings," Kaymer said. (Editing by Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Golf Zone

Sunday, February 6, 2011

“10 Tips to Golf and Lead with the Brain in Mind” plus 2 more

“10 Tips to Golf and Lead with the Brain in Mind” plus 2 more

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