The other day I was listening to a golf show and Richard Zokol was talking about a book he has written: Zokology: Change Your Perspective Not Your Swing, How I Competed and Won on the PGA Tour by Changing the Way I Thought.

For those of you who don’t recall Zokol, he played off and on in the PGA Tour from 1982 through to 2003. He won only once on the PGA event—though some players can’t even say that—the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1992.

He also won once on the Korn Ferry Tour and three other pro tournaments.

His best finish in a major was a T14 in the 1993 PGA Championship.

But Zokol did something in his career that made him famous. In the first round of the 1982 Greater Milwaukee Open, he took out a pair of headphones and listened to music on his Walkman between shots to help him relax.

His playing partner Larry Rinkler dubbed him Disco Dick. PGA officials had never seen anything like this before and immediately contacted the USGA, concerned Zokol may have broken some rule. He didn’t because he was only listening in between shots. He was tied for the lead heading into the final round when he really felt the pressure and finished tied for fifth.

He continued to wear the headphones for some time afterward. In 1992, he won the Greater Milwaukee Open.

Zokol was way ahead of his time. Many pro players in team sports listen to music on more modern devices, to relax in the locker room.

While I haven’t read Zokol’s book, he talked in the interview of the mental side of the game, specifically staying in the moment while golfing and not getting ahead of yourself. He talked of how some players leading in a PGA event start to lose their focus because their minds drift toward winning and they come undone mentally. He knows all about that.

Zokol says the only way to avoid that—and this could apply to pro or recreational golfers—is to only think about your next shot and not obsess about the one before or after. Essentially, it’s about staying in the moment. And think about it. How often when you are playing do you get sidetracked by your last shot, whether it was good or bad, instead of flushing it away? All you should be doing is thinking about the shot at hand.

There are so many golf books written from the perspective of the swing, but Zokol’s book is unique in that the premise is not about physical mechanics and more about mental preparation.

I haven’t read Zokol’s book, but I’ll definitely get a copy. Just from the radio interview I heard, Zokol was talking like a Zen master, so it should be good reading. The best players in any pro sport know how to do things physically and mentally, but it’s usually the ones who were grinding it out know all about mental preparation. So many catchers in baseball and goalies in hockey have become radio analysts because they saw the game unfold in front of them—essentially, they were thinkers. Golf is different because it’s not a team sport—notwithstanding the caddie, who can be extremely important in the relationship with the player they are working with. Think Ted Scott and Scottie Scheffler (Titleist Pro V1). Scott helped turn around Scheffler from a hotheaded, struggling PGA player into the best of the world by helping him to relax and focus on each shot. Yes, Scheffler does have an outburst now and then, but for the most part he plays within himself from one shot to the next.

LIV AND LET DIE: How much more are we going to hear about the future of LIV Golf? When the bankrollers of the tour were purloining PGA Tour players with tens of millions of dollars—and in some cases hundreds of millions—it made financial sense for some to grab the money.

Now years later, a new group of investors are trying to resurrect LIV, which declared bankruptcy this year. The previous investors from Saudi Arabia lost billions of dollars and some of the top players are now unsecured creditors. Why would any of the top players want to stick with LIV when they will be playing for a fraction of the old purses? Jon Rahm (Callaway Chrome Tour) is an unsecured investor and through his lawyer has said he doesn’t want to return to LIV because of the plans of the new investors going forward. Bryson DeChambeau (Titleist Pro V1) has not indicated whether he will return. He is also an unsecured creditor.

So who knows what becomes of LIV. Hopefully, it doesn’t come back and we don’t have to concern ourselves any more with it.

Then again, current LIV players might not be allowed to play on the DP World Tour. This could get really ugly.