The best golf course "manager" will win the 2012 US Open

The more difficult the golf course, the greater need for rigorous and conservative shot planning.......better known as "good golf course management". And this includes good planning on the greens.

To me it´s no surprise that after 36 holes, seven of the top ten leaders of the PGA Tour´s year to date, "greens in regulation" statistic (Westwood, Rose, Senden, Mahan, Dufner, Woods y Kuchar), are realistic candidates to win the coveted title at Olympic Country Club, come Sunday evening.

But, they are not the only "greens in regulation" leaders that can win.

Others, such as Furyk (N° 25) and Toms (N° 31), both currently tied for the lead with Tiger, McDowall (N° 23), Whatney (N° 26), Els (N° 27) and García (N° 41) are also in a great position to raise the trophy on Sunday. 
But, why is the greens in regulation statistic so relevant ?

It´s simple.

Greens in regulation measures the percentage of times a golfer is on a green, in regulation shots or less.

Now, in my opinion, to be a consistent leader in this category the player must necessarily be an excellent "golf course manager" or, as I prefer to call it, a rigorous and conservative planner of golf shots.

And rigorous and conservative shot planning is the key attribute necessary to conquer the Open course at Olympic, with it´s narrow, fast and undulating fairways, infernal roughs and small and hard greens.

And we have mentioned many times, he who does a better job at shot planning will make fewer mistakes, and, for this reason, will have the best chance of maintaining a proper body/mind synchronization, the key to "staying" more in the "automatic" or "unconscious" mode, that allows for great shot making.


This is the reason why Tiger has talked so much this week about executing his "game plan", and explains why Rory McIlroy went to such lengths to explain his inability to "put the ball in the right position" after his first round yesterday.

My betting would be that the winner of this 2012 US Open will be one of the players I listed above, and that have demonstrated all year long that they are the best "course managers", or as I prefer to say, the best at rigorous and conservative golf shot planning, one of the key elements of modern Mental Golf.
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