Adam Scott: Open collapse is the result of a weak (or non existant) Mental Method

How can it be possible that a great golfer like Adam Scott, who was playing superbly at the British Open, bogeys the last four holes and gives away the Championship by one ??????

But, is it really such a surprise ?.

Not really, we have seen it happen dozens of times at the top level in world golf.

Van de Velde at the Open in 1999, Norman at the 1996 Masters, Dustin Johnson at Pebble Beach at the 2010 US Open, Kyle Stanley earlier this year, and so many others.

Let me try and go through Scott´s collapse from the mental angle. What occurred on those last four holes was a mind/ body desinchronization that is quite easily explained from the psychological point of view.

Until well into the second nine nobody made a run at Scott, and he continued  his great play. He was relaxed, under control and hitting great irons and woods. He was playing in "automatic mode" like he had done all week. He wasn´t holing much, but was rolling his long putts very well.

But on the 15´th tee he realized that Ernie Els was making a run at him. And instead of just playing the golf course, he started playing to beat Ernie Els.

In order to do this, Scott, for the first time in the week, pulled out his mental calculator. He might of even told Steve Williams: "with two bogeys we cant lose".

Fatal mistake for the following reasons:

1. The only way we can speculate about the result, or an outcome, in golf is by using the conscious mind.

And as a result, in this tremendously high pressure situation, Scott immediately lost his mind/body synchronization.

Let´s not forget that excellent, fluid, and great golf shots that happen in the "automatic" mode are always a result of the body (our swing) being perfectly synchronized with the unconscious mind.

But Adam Scott went conscious in trying to calculate what he had to do to keep in front of Els, and started to hit bad golf shots and bad putts.

2. The second effect is due to the fatal message: "with two bogeys we cant lose".

When this conscious message reaches the unconscious mind it is interpreted in a very different way to the one intended by Scott.

The unconscious mind does not posses the critical ability of our conscious mind to interpret what we really mean to say, and most likely it understood that Scott wanted to shoot bogeys. Period.

It sounds a bit crazy, but in all probability that´s exactly what happened. His powerful unconscious mind, that controls his depth perception, target awareness and his body movement (the golf swing), potentially, now, with even more intensity considering the emotion of the moment, just did it´s utmost to shoot bogeys.

3. Last but not least, Scott´s shot planning on the last four holes was pretty lousy. But, in my view, what killed him was his bogey on the 16´th.

He was in the middle of the fairway and only 100 yards away from the pin. He hit his wedge shot past the hole, and three putted like a beginner.

He needed to be supremely conservative with his approach and careful with his first putt.

In my view, if he had parred or birdied the hole it was over and it was his Championship. He would have regained his confidence and composure, resynchronized and remained at 9 under par, three away from Els at the time, and most probably would have parred both final holes to win by two.

I´m not exactly sure if Adam Scott is into Mental Golf or not. But my bet would be that he´s not, because it´s clear to me that he lacked an effective Mental Method when Els started closing in, and the big time pressure hit.

A solid Mental Method includes some very effective and proven techniques and behaviors that help the golfer face these types of pressure packed situations. There are pupils of good mental coaches that make a point of not looking at leader boards on the course, precisely to avoid thinking about the outcome. Bill Haas won the playoff at the 2010 Tour Championship without knowing that he had the U$ 10 million Fedex Cup bonus on the line. He didn´t want to know.

Pía Nilsson y Lynn Marriott (Vision 54) taught Yani Tseng, who became N° 1 in the world, to sing favorite songs (silently) in order not to think too much and avoid getting ahead of herself.

At any rate, there are many techniques and behaviors that help a golfer under pressure avoid going into the future. Judging by the result it seems that Adam Scott didn´t use any of them when he got "hit" by Ernie Els´ pressure.

Something else about the value of rigorous and conservative shot planning. Especially when we are under big pressure. Even if we are not synchronized as we should be, good planning can help us avoid bogeys and help us regain confidence and body/mind synchronization.

On the other hand, if we plan badly, like Adam Scott did in his last four holes, we tend to become frustrated and angry, and we get "stuck" in the past (conscious mind) and we continue incapable of synchronizing.

I´m sorry for Adam Scott. A great golfer who played superbly for 68 holes.

Unfortunately the lack of a solid Mental Method, or the sound application of one, prevented Adam Scott from winning the most important championship of his career.