THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 19, 1994 TAG: 9407190437
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Somebody just might be talked into winning the Eastern Amateur tonight.
Oh, the 38th annual Eastern doesn't start at Elizabeth Manor until Thursday. But all interested participants in the four-day tournament are invited to sit in on a 25-minute session with Jim Heidel tonight at the clubhouse.
Heidel, a plus-one handicapper, is among the title hopefuls himself. Until a practice round Monday, he had never played the Elizabeth Manor course. So there will be no inside tips, no secrets as to how to play the dogleg left at No. 8 or a slight fade off the tee at No. 17.
Heidel doesn't even offer suggestions on getting more yardage off the tee or a change in putting style.
But if someone has the talent to stick with the front-runners through 72 holes, Heidel believes he can offer advice that might produce a victory.
Heidel's business is golf. He runs a new company called Develop Mental Golf.
Not Developmental Golf. Develop Mental Golf.
Eastern Amateur chairman Dave Whitener has invited Heidel to discuss some of his thoughts in a gathering of interested players around 8 tonight.
Heidel tinkers with your brain instead of your swing or your clubs.
``If there was a putter that actually helped you putt better, every single playing professional on this planet would be playing with it,'' Heidel says. ``The premise of all our work is that the desired level of performance already exists in your nervous system.''
According to Heidel, it works.
``Since August 1993, I have worked with players who have won six professional tournaments,'' he says. Without their permission, he declines to name them.
``But I had a winner in the Hurricane Tour, one in the Gold Coast Tour, one in the Senior PGA Tour and three other mini-tours,'' he says.
Pupils the past year include two of the final 64 of the U.S. Amateur, he says.
``Since I was just a youngster I have been a golf teacher,'' the 34-year-old Heidel says. ``I was teaching out in California. In an effort to distinguish myself from the hundreds of other golf instructors, I began studying the brain and nervous system. Now I motivate golfers instead. And it works.''
Heidel says he doesn't touch a player's swing: ``The golf swing is insignificant. Actually, I identify with what a player does internally.''
His training program starts with a complimentary session, ``simply to expose people to our fundamentals.''
Another session studies a player's tendencies under pressure.
The sole purpose of each session ``is to lower your golf score,'' he says.
Heidel is a licensed hypnotist. Hypnosis is one of the sessions offered.
Heidel holds seminars for golf schools - a 12-hour day session is his most popular - and works primarily with players on the mini-tours and college players.
A former professional player who has always preferred teaching, Heidel regained his amateur status in April last year.
``I sat out about two years and I'm just getting back as a player myself,'' he says. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
``The premise of all our work is that the desired level of
performance already exists in your nervous system,'' says Jim
Heidel, left, with student Steve Parrish.
by CNB