Jimmy Roberts teaches golfers lessons in his book Breaking the Slump

Golf is a game of extreme highs and lows.

Even a hacker like me experiences this emotional rollercoaster. I cannot image what it is like for people who are playing for millions of dollars.

In the past three years, I can remember at least two dark periods where I told myself that yes, for sure, this WAS the time I was quitting the game. Obviously, that did not happen. I am still toiling away in bogeyville.

Now I do not beat myself up for a bad round anymore, at least not like I used to. The book Breaking the Slump: How Great Players Survived Their Darkest Moments in Golf gives great perspective on the matter.

NBC golf broadcaster Jimmy Roberts transferred the negative energy of his latest slump to seek council from golf expert and legends, giving him the basis for the book. “If there’s one thing I learned in this journey,” he says, “it is that slumps come and go.”

Some of his subjects were obvious. He talked with Greg Norman, who suffered some of golf’s most public collapses at majors, and David Duvall, who suffered arguably the hardest fall, from golf’s No. 1 world ranking after his 2001 British Open win to barely hanging on to his card. But his stories of Paul Azinger’s triumphant return from cancer and Jack Nicklaus’ resurgence in 1979 are lesser-known tales that will resonate with readers.

The book, published by Harper Collins, is on sale for $24.99.