Dr. Gio Valiante: Why Golfers Don’t Play to Their Potential

Author of the book: Fearless Golf, Dr. Gio Valiante is described by Davis Love III as: “The next superstar in sports psychology.”

Dr. Gio made some very interesting and important comments on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive, when asked why he thought Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the PGA Championship and simply has not been playing up to his potential. (this isn’t about Rory, its about You)

Listen to Dr. Gio as he explains why most golfers do not play up to their potential.

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At Pro Putt Systems we are in love with the process of practicing putting. We started this company because we love putting and we are focused on making you a better player. There is simply no better way to shave strokes off your score, regardless of overall ability, than by hitting more putts.

How many golfers, particularly young players (sadly), have you seen who can pound the driver, they hit long high iron shots and once around the green, they turn into a 15 handicap?

Dr. Valiante explained this phenomenon perfectly during that segment. These players simply do not respect putting as an integral part of the game, they haven’t learned to love the process of putting practice.

Don’t fall into the trap, you can be a better putter. We’re here to help.

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Here’s the text of the interview:

“Go back to Chambers Bay, Rory was sort of complaining about his putting and complaining about the greens and just sort of being a little pouty. But what he said this week really concerned me.

He (Rory) said, if you had given any one else in the field my tee shots this week, they would be up near the top of the leader board.

What’s happening, not just with Rory but what’s happening with a lot of players is when they think of golf, they don’t respect putting.

They think golf is about driving and hitting accurate irons and they putt because they have to. There’s a whole contingency of golfers who really think that’s what golf is about. It seams that Rory continually goes back to how he’s hitting the ball. You look what he posts on social media, it’s never his putting stroke it’s always long drives and him working out.

He just doesn’t seam to be looking at the totality of golf the right way and making the right sense of things. And it’s concerning.

Even Phil Mickelson observed; Rory has a mental block to putting.

Rory is acknowledging it’s a mental thing and when you combine, what he’s saying about the mental block he has at the Masters and the mental block in putting….huh…I mean what’s left?“

The Golf Channel’s Damon Hack asked: “Its interesting, if the best players in the world can have a mental block, what about the folks at home who are trying to break 90, or 100 or 80 whatever, how do you get out of a mental block, how do they get past that mental block?

Dr. Valiante:

You know, Bob Rotella one of the great sports psychologists, wrote a wonderful book called Putting Out of Your Mind and it really begins with Loving Putting and respecting the fact that it is  an integral part of the game.

I’ve seen golfers, hundreds of golfers who hit the ball tee to green well enough to be on the PGA Tour but never break out of the mini-tour level because they don’t love putting. They think its a part of the game that they just have to do.

So it begins with respecting putting as an integral part of the game and loving it. Falling in love with the process of practicing putting.

I recommend that everyone pick up that book by Bob Rotella, and then from there, do what John Cook was talking about this morning, you visualize, right, you see the ball going in the hole.

That’s what Jimmy Walker talked about in his interview yesterday. He said you have to tell yourself you’re good enough. There’s a lot of things that go into being a great putter.

The thing about putting is, it is the most mental part of the game,no question about it. The full swing is partially psychology but mostly technical. Putting is 80% or 90% mental. I’ve seen great putters  on Tour with bad putting strokes for 20 years. So you don’t have to have a technically perfect putting stroke, but you do have to have great psychology.”