Pia Nilsson - Every Shot Must Have a Purpose: How Golf54 Can Make You a Better Player

Imagine the Impossible; Then Figure Out How
to Make It Happen
By Ron Sirak

Forget What You Know, Learn What You Know

Change Your Brain to Change Your Game

Think Inside the Box

Think Small, Play Big

The Most Important Shot in Golf Is This One

You Are More Consistent Than You Think

Anger Makes Us Stupid

Dont Play the Blame Game

Let the Target Be Your Guide

Make Practice Real: Practice with a Purpose

Play with a Purpose: Dont Try a Shot You Cant Handle

Send Your Mind on Vacation

See the Putt from Behind The Ball, Then Trust What You See

Golf Is About Getting the Ball in the Hole

HEARTGOLF: It All Adds Up to Better Golf

Make Pressure Your Friend

Its All About the Person First

Have a Swing That Suits You

The 54-Shot Challenge

The 30-Ball Practice Drill

GoodBetterHow?

VISION54: Make It the Way You See the Game

We want to thank the game of golf. Golf has inspired us immeasurably. It has focused our hearts to look deeper and wider and to act with congruency to our purpose. We appreciate the game, in all its dimensions, as it has engaged our courage to make decisions and commit to them and to continue to learn.

Thank you, Annika, for striving for excellence and motivating and testing us to become better coaches.

Thanks to all the players we have had the privilege to coach. They have always been our greatest source of motivation, feedback, and learning.

Thank you to the many teachers and mentors we have been blessed with in our lives. To name a few who have profoundly influenced us: Chuck Hogan, Ken Blanchard, Annette Thompson, Michael Murphy, Manuel de la Torre, Pam Barnett, Kjell Enhager, Jorunn Sjobakken, and Truls Fleiner.

Thank you to our friend Susan Reed for taking us by the hand to find a book agent and always being supportive. Mark Reiter, thank you for finding us a great publisher. Bill Shinker and Erin Moore, the two of you have been fun and easy to work with. We appreciate that you have really cared about our book and its purpose.

Ron, thank you for saying yes to working with us. The three of us have been a true team without any egos involved and a whole lot of heart! Thanks for helping us put our thoughts on paper in a way we never could have imagined. We have met many golf writers who only see the game from a limited perspective; Ron Sirak has a love for the game and enthusiastically embraced the bigger picture. We often say, How did we get so blessed to work with Ron?

Finally, thanks and tack to our parents. They have genuinely supported us in our efforts to find our way and be who we are. With unconditional love they steadfastly encouraged us to find our purpose and to stay on purpose. They allowed us to take both risks and responsibility and to believe that anything is possible.

Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson
Phoenix, Arizona, and Torekov, Sweden
2005

This book, or at least my involvement in this book, would not have happened if Annika Sorenstam had not decided to play in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial. It was through my efforts to understand what motivated Annika to take her game to the mens tour that I came to know Lynn Marriott and PiaNilsson. That first round of competition by Annika at Colonial was the single most exciting day I have spent at a sporting event in more than thirty years as a journalist. I thank Annika for that thrill, and I thank her for creating a situation that exposed me to VISION54 and, ultimately, GOLF54. I thank her also for her generous kindness as a friend and patient understanding as a professional.

I have been fortunate in my career to work with some extremely talented editors, starting with Lamar Hoover at the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Independent Press through Bill Ahern, Brian Friedman, and Rich Herzfelder at The Associated Press. At Golf World, I work with three of the best: Tim Murphy, Bill Fields, and Geoff Russell, an editor-in-chief who has made a great magazine even better. I owe double thanks to Jerry Tarde, the chairman and editorial director of The Golf Digest Companies, first for bringing me on board, and secondly for refusing to let me leave. Thanks also go to Advance Magazines Publishers, Inc., for its tireless commitment to quality journalism.

My agent, Mark Reiter of PFD, believed in this project from the very beginning and was the glue that brought all of us together. The reaction of Bill Shinker of Gotham Books to the first draft of the manuscript was one of the nicest compliments I have received as a journalist. His enthusiasm for golf, and for GOLF54, was a constant source of inspiration. The work of Erin Moore at Gotham Books puts her high on my list of quality editors. I cant thank her enough for shepherding the book through its most difficult phase: actually bringing it into being.

My thanks go to my daughter, Rachel Sirak, for constantly reminding me that I have a cool job. Thanks also to Sarah Goldstein, who has the true soul of an artist, and Hannah Goldstein, who might be the smartest gymnast ever to stick a dismount. I thank Doug Ferguson of the AP for being a sounding board for what is real, and Jim Litke of the AP for being a sounding board for what is surreal. Thanks to Chris Penberthy for making me go to London, a place where I surely lived in another life.