Great athletes have an inner source of strength, a deep reservoir of emotional control and self belief that mere mortals cannot seem to find. It is a rarer-than-rare quality that very few ever know, but beautiful to watch when you see it in action.
I remember Larry Bird when he coached the Pacers saying,
“I try to teach these guys confidence, but they don’t seem to get it.”
We get glimpses of it in athletes every so often. Certainly Bird had it, as did Jordan, Ali, Gretzky and a few others. But in the game of golf, no one has it more than Tiger Woods. And what happened to Woods at the Players Championship should be a lesson for all of us on how to play well in the heat of battle.
On No. 14 of the Players, Woods hit an ugly “quacker” — a quick hook that dove head first into the pond left of the fairway. Those who have played TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course know that the only place that you can’t hit it on No. 14 is there!
Woods then hit an incredible recovery shot, but flubbed a fairly simple up and down for a double-bogey six. On No. 15, after hitting the fairway, he dumped a short iron into the left greenside grass bunker — one of the few times he had short-sided himself all week.
Situations like the one Tiger put himself in on No. 15 is where mere mortals collapse, lose control and start worrying about blowing the tournament. But we’re not talking about a mere mortal here, we’re talking about Tiger Woods. He made an all-world up and down to save a great par, and went on to play the remaining three holes in 1-under and win the tournament. So what’s the point?
The lesson we should learn here is this: After No. 14, Tiger was not thinking,
“Oh no, I’m blowing it, what do I do now?”
Here’s how Tiger described his thought process:
“Look I’m tied for the lead with four holes to play; it’s not like I blew the tournament. If I can play under par from here in, I get into a playoff at worst.”
Think about that. Here he goes into that wellspring of calm, clear thinking and self belief that I described above. When most golfers would start looking ”out there” (their swing, chipping motion, putting stoke), Tiger went INSIDE to find a way, any way, to right the ship.
“Blowing it” is just not part of a great player’s mental construct. “Losing it” is simply not an option for these people. There were two lessons to be learned at The Players: Get inside Sergio’s mind to learn what NOT to do, and get inside Tiger’s mind to learn what to do!
What is the source of this innate gift? There are better minds than mine that could answer this, and I’m sure there are volumes written on it. But in the end, the quality may be so ineffibale and complex that I’m not sure any one can actually define it. But we know it we we see it.
The lesson for all future tournament players is this: So much as one ounce of doubt in yourself is too much. And one iota of worry about the outcome is too much; much too much. The outcome may not always be favorable, but the champion refuses to beat him or herself. There is no other way for the great ones.
Bobby Jones suffered many years from syringomyelia, a degenerative, ultimately fatal disease of the spine and neuromuscular system. He lived several years past when he should have, and when he was finally when he called to his tee time in the sky, the great golf writer Herb Wind said:
“Now we know his secret; it was the strength of his mind.”