The mental game is often what separates good players from great ones. If you want to lower your handicap, you have to work on the mental side as much as you work on the physical and technical aspects of your game. 

While it might sound simple enough, it can be quite difficult to perfect the mental game, as many amateurs find out. Staying focused and maintaining a positive mindset is pretty tough when you’re trying to manage pressure, expectations, ego and an excess of emotions. 

But in a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Bill Murray revealed the book that has helped him better manage his mental game and even lower his handicap. 

In the video, Murray says that he’s been reading “Every Shot Must Have a Purpose” by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott, two of GOLF’s Top 100 Lifetime Achievement recipients.

“It’s about quieting your brain when you play,” Murray says, “that [book] made me enjoy golf even more.” 

Nilsson and Marriott are best known for their high-performance training system, Vision54, which has helped the likes of Annika Sorenstam and major champions Ariya Jutanugarn, IK Kim, Suzann Pettersen, Grace Park, Na Yeon Choi, Brittany Lang and Yani Tseng.

“Every Shot Must Have a Purpose,” is a great resource for players looking to integrate the physical, technical, mental, emotional and social parts of the game. 

Of the many practical applications mentioned in the book, there’s one that Murray says helped him most: the think box/play box concept, which has helped Murray learn to be more intentional with his focus on the course. 

“It’s the ability to sort of pull weeds out of your head,” Murray says, “You know, it’s a few hours to play a round of golf, like you say it takes a long time, but the actual playing of the game is only minutes. The actual hitting of the ball is only minutes.”

“You have the freedom in between the shots to move and speak and to tell jokes and smoke cigars and whatever you want to do, but when you want to hit the ball, you have to think and make a little plan,” Murray says, “You take it in and then you separate that and you step up and you hit the thing. And hitting the thing is only hitting the thing. And if you can do that, then you start having real success with the actual hitting.”

If you want to check out Nilsson and Marriott’s book for yourself, you can grab a copy below.

Every Shot Must Have a Purpose: How GOLF54 Can Make You a Better Player

$20.30

As coaches to some of golf’s top players, Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott have designed and refined a revolutionary way of teaching the game, with phenomenal results. They don’t believe in prescribing the same stance, grip, and swing to everyone, followed by hours of purposeless drilling. They don’t even believe in beginning with physical technique. Their success has proven to them that a great game begins with a great vision.

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