As a decent athlete with poor results who evolved into a greater than average well-rounded thrower with flashes of brilliance, I realized the value of the 'mental game' early on - it's the entire purpose of the 'game'. It's how weak athletes, especially in a game like golf can win and consistently so.
It's a truism that children are introduced to sports to help them build 'the intangibles'. In other words, the explicit game is completely illusory, a distraction. The implicit game is where true value is discovered, as the 'real' target is you. Paradoxical that golf is the game that reveals character, not builds it...
Putting is the key to scoring. Putting's about completion, following through, commitment, and like the nature vs. nurture arguments, putting cannot ever be completely teased from the entire fabric of the game, which would be like playing spades and agreeing that no one ever takes any tricks. Putting ends a cyclical process.
It's funny to me, how the 'thoughts on the mental game' thread quickly devolves into technical tricks, techniques and the like. Our intrepid rationality cons us into believing that the world, our game and a myriad of other things in life are some math equation we solve to gain a desired result...it simply doesn't work like that...
