  A new approach to gauge fixed Yang-Mills theory is derived using the
Polyakov-Susskind projection techniques to build gauge invariant states. In our
approach, in contrast to the Faddeev-Popov method, the Gribov problem does not
prevent the gauge group from being factored out of the partition function.
Lattice gauge theory is used to illustrate the method via a calculation of the
static quark-antiquark potential generated by the gauge fields in the
fundamental modular region of Coulomb gauge.
