TLAOP – One year on
A little over a year ago, we launched The Lost Art Of Putting at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at Gullane.
At the time, we had no idea what kind of response the book would receive, what kind of impact it might have or if we would actually sell any copies! In fact, we joked at the time that if nothing else happened, we could use the books as very nice business cards. It was very much a journey into the unknown but what a journey it has turned out to be.
Thankfully The Lost Art Of Putting has been extremely well received. Sales have exceeded our expectations, it has been serialised in magazines and online platforms in the UK, USA, Germany and Australia. Thanks to Today’s Golfer, The Morning Read, Golf Journal and Golf Australia, we have been able to reach a global audience. We even did our first ever webinar to 144 PGA Professionals in Australia which was a different but very enjoyable experience.
The book has been the number 1 best selling golf book on Amazon on numerous occasions where the 5 star reviews keep coming in. All of which is extremely rewarding and gratifying. It certainly makes us feel that all the hard work and long hours have been worth the effort.
Karl and I have been invited to talk about the book on numerous podcasts which are always good fun. If you had asked me what a podcast was 18 months ago, you would have been met with a bit of a blank expression. I really didn’t know much about them but now that I have been a guest on a few, including Karl’s Brain Booster which is an absolute must, I’m a big fan of the concept. Webinars and podcasts, not something I thought I would ever be writing about if the truth be told.
Thanks to the help we have received to spread the word, on an almost daily basis, we receive notes and emails from golfers all around the world to thank us for writing ‘the little black putting book’. Tour Pros and amateur golfers alike, have given us tremendous feedback about how it has allowed them to look at their putting through a different lens.
The word we hear more than any when our students and readers contact us to tell us how the book has changed their putting is ‘liberating’. It has freed up so many players minds and bodies from the shackles of ‘searching for perfection’ with their putting strokes.
By encouraging golfers to go through a mental de-cluttering process and focus on creating putts rather than perfecting their techniques, our readers and students are now holing more putts than ever before and perhaps more importantly, they are having fun on the golf course again.
We have had golfers from all over the UK, Europe, The Middle East and the USA visit us at the Archerfield Performance Centre to learn more about the Putting Performance Principles we talk about in the book.
The process of writing the book was something Karl and I had a lot of fun with. Initially, we wanted to put our collective thoughts from over 60 years combined coaching experience down on paper (or laptop) and before knew it, we had written a book. One year on and these thoughts have turned into a best seller. We honestly did not see that coming.
So what next? Well we haven’t exactly been idle since the book went on sale in July 2018. In addition to our day to day coaching, and everything else we do on a daily and weekly basis, Karl and I have been busy with a couple of new and exciting projects.
While The Lost Art Of Putting has been and we hope will continue to be a great success, we understand that in today’s world, people look to other platforms for information. Yes you can download the book onto your laptop, tablet or smartphone thanks to Kindle but with the likes of YouTube etc… there is a whole world out there who consume information visually.
As a result, we spent a few days at Archerfield Links a couple of months ago filming a video version of The Lost Art Of Putting which will be available as a digital download in a few weeks time. The videography team at Sports Publications are working their magic on the footage we shot as we speak and we believe this video will be the perfect companion to the book.
In the digital download which will be available from The Lost Art of Golf – we show you how to practically apply the principles and training exercises outlined in the book and demonstrate how to put hem all together. Exciting times!
Over and above that, Karl and I have been working hard on our next book – The Lost Art Of Playing Golf. The print and Kindle versions are with our editor Dan Murphy, who is meticulously correcting all our typos and generally structuring our musings into what we believe will be both an educational and entertaining read. We have planned release date of September 23rd and we will keep you up to date with progress on that.
As with the putting book, there will be a digital video download to follow up and compliment The Lost Art Of Playing Golf which we will be shooting at Archerfield next week. Lots going on at Lost Art HQ.
Until you can get your hands on a copy of The Lost Art Of Playing Golf, we’ll leave you with something to consider. Does the swing create the shot or does the shot create the swing?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Gary Nicol.
