Never Give Up Until You Are In The Clubhouse
Well, Tiger's back with mixed results so far
Well, Tiger's back with mixed results so far. A lot is spoken about the man and as he is the best in the World, it is understandable.
The problem with that is that there is always an air of expectation. Look at all the great sportsmen throughout the years and you will see that unless their careers were cut short for one reason or another, they all lost at some point, yet we still expect them to succeed every time. But if they did, wouldn't sport be predictable and boring? The flip side of being the best is playing the best. Who, reading this, would not like the chance to play against Tiger Woods? Or play tennis against Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal? It would be the chance of a lifetime.
If you are lucky enough to be in that position, mind games will come into play in a number of ways and how you handle them will affect the outcome of the game, so let's have a look at what can happen when you play one of the PGA players. Thought one - he's better than me and I'm going to lose. The pro - I'm a pro and the better player so I will win. Thought two - he's better than me, but I've got nothing to lose. The pro - I am better than him, so I can't afford to lose to him. Which state of mind is most likely to produce the upset? Yep, number two. I have said before the mental game is such a big part of the game of golf (and sport in general) that it is worth reiterating. At the end of the game, you have to look to yourself and be able to come away from the course and be able to say to yourself that you gave it your best shot. Who can account for a mis-hit shot on a par three than ends up in the hole, by fluke? But if you come away pleased with your performance you are the winner, no matter what the score says.
So why the tile "never give up"? I refer back to where I started; talking about Tiger Woods. At the time of writing the US Masters has just finished and Tiger ended up joint sixth. There was much anticipation and he was the favourite to win, despite returning from surgery relatively recently. Did this pressure get to him? Who knows? But it is the Arnold Palmer Invitation a couple of weeks before that fascinated me more, particularly as I watched the start of the last round and listened to the commentary.
Going into the last round, Tiger was 5 shots behind Sean O'Hair and the commentators had not exactly written off Tiger, but he had to claw back five shots just to match Sean. And if you didn't know, Tiger did just that and birdied the last hole to win by one stroke. I do not think we will ever know what went through the players' minds, but I can't help but wonder - did metal attitudes have something to do with the result? I would not put any player down, but did Sean O'Hair perhaps think "Oh no, I'm up against Tiger"? Did Tiger just not give up until he had won the last hole? I would suspect that Tiger's attitude was just to play out of his skin and go for it. He could almost say to himself that he had nothing to lose being 5 shots down and coming back from injury. If you look at the scorecards, you will see that Tiger's last round was his best and it was Sean's worst round of the tournament.
I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, the pressure got too much for Mr O'Hair and Tiger's "never give up" attitude had a bearing on the final result. If it did, it goes to show how much your state of mind can affect the outcome. Again, we will never know, but what would have happened if Mr Woods had gone into the last round with the attitude of "I won't make up five shots"? Makes you think, doesn't it?
Another bit of archive footage I saw from a couple of years ago was of Ernie Els. He had landed in the very long rough just past the green. He chopped down on the ball to get it out and it scooted across the green into straight into the bunker opposite. I did not see the outcome of the bunker shot, but if that can happen to a Pro, it can happen to your opponent.
All in all, I think this is a lesson to us all, never to give up until you are in the clubhouse.
Remember Have Fun, Play Golf.
by: Paul Stafford
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