Review: Zen and Golf--surprisingly relatable!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 12, 2013
Sports psychology is often a ridiculed topic, but Lowell Smith's book proves its importance and effectiveness in redirecting one's life.  Smith uses golf as his personal example for rediscovering the joys of life, but even non-golfers can use the sport as a metaphor and relate it to other areas of life.The book is filled with funny quips and anecdotes that describes one man's nostalgic journey to re-discovering his love of golf.  While not a golfer myself, I still loved this book because it encapsulates many non-golf related topics, such as Focused Listening and learning to establish a balanced lifestyle.  Its main focus highlights the importance a new outlook on the small moments of daily life, and thinking about it from a multi-sensory approach.You can tell that Smith did a lot of research for this book, and the quotes he chooses and scatters throughout the prose are so profound that I wrote many of them down to act as mantras and "words to live by". I am not entirely fascinated by Zen Buddhism, but I appreciate how it guides the reader to evaluate one's life and find new balances.I give it 4 stars because there is a lack of original thought--Smith merely summarizes similar books on this topic.  This is both good and bad, since it makes you want to read those books as well, but leaves the reader wanting to know more about Smith and less about his opinions on other books.It is broken up into small sections and separated by headings, so it is a quick and easy read, one you can keep coming back to as you find time to read it.