García v/s McIlroy. A lesson in Mental Golf

On Saturday afternoon of the US Open at Olimpic, on the 18 th hole, Sergio García faced an extremely difficult chip from the greenside rough. He hit a fantastic shot and holed it. The croud applauded and cheered, but Sergio´s reaction was no surprise to me.........he reacted with anger, with bitterness, it was as if Sergio was saying under his breath: "now you give me one, you son of a b.... ".

He didn´t acknowledge the crowd.......a young angry, bitter golfer.

It´s obvious Sergio knows absolutely nothing about Mental Golf.

Exactly a year ago I wrote an article in my spanish language Blog called, McIlroy v/s García: Actitud positiva para superar los desastres.

In this article I go back to how García handled his loss of the 2007 British Open to Padraig Harrington, and the consecuences it has had on his attitude and golf game.

On that ocasion a bitter and angry young man complained about his bad luck in his post round press conference. Not a pretty sight to see. But that was not all. He went home to Spain and for the next couple of weeks moped about his bad luck and kept reliving the three or four putts that liped out that final round, in Carnoustie.

In my opinion, the worst possible reaction  for this brilliant golfer.

In good Mental Golf, one forgets ones losses and bad shots immediately. There is a key reason for this. The unconscious mind is a supremely powerful processor that is not able to distinguish reality from imagination, good from bad, or positive from negative. It works like that old fashioned tape recorder that just stays with the most recent recording about a subject and erases the old one.

Sergio´s bitter and negative reaction to what happened in Carnoustie, and then continuing to mope and relive his mistakes only served to record the negative in his unconscious mind. And still worse, he did it with a huge amount of negative emotion, that guarantees that the "recording" will "stick" even longer.

Sergio´s negativaty just sends a bad message to his unconcious mind. "I´m a bad golfer under pressure. I´m a loser". And the next time, the powefull unconscious mind will do everything possible to fullfill this self image.

Rory McIlroy has showed us a completely different attitude.

Rory lost the Masters after "choking" on the second nine.

But he forgot about it in half an hour. His post round press conference was positive.He said he played great golf for most of the tournament. He said he would learn from the experience and hopefully have many more oportunities in the future. That evening he twitted a photograph with himself and Charl Schwartzel, the winner, wearing his green jacket.

And Rory came back two months later to sweep the 2011 US Open in great style. He has continued to win and is currently number 2 in the world.

Five years have gone by since the British Open at Carnoustie and, it seems, Sergio hasn´t learned a thing.

At the Masters he declared he thinks he just doesn´t have the game to win a Major. At the US Open he kicks microphones and get´s mad when he hits a great shot.

Nonsense !!!!!! Sergio is a great talent, he won the Players (sometimes called the 5 th Mayor) in 2008, has continued to win golf tournaments and is currently 22 in the world rankings.

My conclusion: Sergio García could still win five Majors if he changes his attitude.

My advice to him: Get a Mental Coach and get positive fast.