How Brandt Snedeker won U$ 11.5 million

There is no question about it. Brandt Snedeker, at 31, is a great golfer with a fantastic putting stroke.

There is nobody better than Snedeker, on the PGA Tour, when he gets on the green, in regulation numbers.

But, as Justin Rose, second to Brandt yesterday in the closing Tour Championship,  put it : " He's mentally tough, Brandt".

And that is the truth, plain and unvarnished. His mental toughness, his short game and his putter, made him the brilliant winner of this weekend´s  Tour Championship, reserved for the year´s best 30 golfers, and the winner of the FEDEX Series U$ 10 million bonus award.

And in his triumphant press conference he told the world how he did it:

He spoke about what he, and his team, did, when they met after his disastrous play, at the PGA Champinship, in mid August.

And here comes the surprising part, that reflects on Brandt Snedeker´s great maturity and mental fortitude:

He realized that no changes were needed. Only a great deal of patience and an even stronger belief in what he was doing.

Snedeker tells how he and his team reviewed, at length, his on course performance statistics, and they concluded that they were so good that with confidence and self belief he could beat the best golfers in the world. Specially on difficult courses, like the ones he was to face in the Fedex Cup Playoff season, where his outstanding short game and putter would be a significant advantage.

And his focus in self belief and self confidence started paying off big time.

Let´s not forget that Snedeker led this year´s British Open after two days, and finished in an excellent tie for third. But now he elevated his game to an even higher level. A second place at the Barclay´s and a sixth place at the Deutsche Bank put him into fifth place in the Fedex Cup points going in to the season ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.

This meant that he "controlled his destiny", together with points leader McIlroy, Tiger, Mickelson and Whatney. In other words, by winning the Tour Championship he automatically would win the FEDEX Cup.

In his press conference Brandt Snedeker mentions several Mental Golf techniques that helped him win:

1. His confidence was enormous. He believed in his game one hundred percent. He expected to win.

2. He was patient at all times, including when he hit a couple of punishing shots on the front nine of the final round.

3. He "stayed" in the Present Moment.

He tells that on the 15th, with four holes to go, after he hit a drive straight down the middle, he "went to the future", thinking about the Fedex Cup and what it would mean. He says he almost hit himself in the face, and got back into the Present, reminding himself that there was still a lot of work and golf to be played.

4. He didn´t ever look at leaderboards. This technique contributes to ensure one "stays" in the Present Moment.

Brandt explained it as follows:

"No good comes out of me looking at the leaderboard. I get too amped up. I get too complacent if I'm ahead, or trying to push too much if I'm behind. So I try to play the same way I would if I had a five-shot lead or a five shot deficit".

In my view Brandt Snedeker has reached the top of golf due to his mental fortitude and his exceptional short game and putter.

A personal comment:

Just how important is intense and intelligent practice of the short game and putting ?????

IT´S PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO IN GOLF.........probably 60% of the game.....and we never do enough of it.

And another season comes to an end, and a great one for the top players that play on the PGA Tour.

The recent great form showed by Tiger, Rory, Donald, Phil, Sergio García, Rose and others like Whatney, Dufner, Kuchar, both Johnsons (Zach y Dustin), Bubba, Simpson, Mahan, Van Pelt and Westwood, assures a fascinating and competitive scenario for the months to come.

Kuchar, Rose and McIlroy by Dr. Gio Valiante

I highly recommend that you subscribe to  Dr. Gio Valiante.´s monthly Newsletter.


Gio Valiante con Matt Kuchar

In the September version Dr. Gio has written an interesting article about the mental strengths of two of his clients, Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose, and the world N° 1 Rory McIlroy. All of them will be playing the FEDEX CUP finals at the Tour Championship next week.

One of the key strengths he underlines is Kuchar and Rose´s on course composure, that allows them to rarely lose their cool and quickly "turn the page" when faced with bad shots, bad breaks or mediocre rounds.

He says the same for McIlroy who "bounced back" after his Masters 2011 final round disaster, to win two Majors and several other big tournaments in recent months.

Composure is a key Mental Golf attribute, as anger or frustration on the course will only anchor us to the past. And if we are anchored to the past it only means we are "operating" with our conscious mind, the mind that is bad for playing golf, as it does not allow for the essential mind/body synchronization, key to producing great golf shots.

This is the reason why we will rarely see McIlroy, Rose and Kuchar lose their cool or composure on the golf course.

McIlroy "the next Tiger" is already here

Rory McIlroy won, yesterday, his second playoff  Tournament in a row with a magnificent 20 under par at the BMW Championship, at the famous Crooked Stick links in Indiana.

"Boy Wonder" has won three important tournaments in less than a month (PGA Championship, Deutsche Bank and this BMW) and, in my opinion, only confirms he is "the next Tiger", but that he has also arrived.

What McIlroy said in his press conference yesterday evening is very interesting, and I am convinced he will be unstoppable in the years to come.

He spoke of six key aspects of his game, things that are fundamental to a strong Mental Game.

Let´s see what I mean:

1. He has a magnificent swing that he understands very well:

Everybody knows that his golf swing is near perfect. But he knows how to fix it quickly when it goes wrong.

His words testify to this point:  "I went and did some great work on the range last night after I played, figured a couple things out. My driving yesterday was horrendous, and today I think I only missed one fairway".

A great swing that has changed very little since he was a boy, and that he can self fix very quickly are key to big success.

2. He knows how to win:

One of Mental Golf´s fundamentals is that one has to go through a learning curve to win big Championships. To a certain point this can be overcome by mental rehearsals and visualization, but having gone through the experience of winning, and losing, under severe pressure, is key.

McIlroy lost the 2011 Masters and was smart enough to learn from his disaster. At only 22 years of age, he blew away the field three months later at the US Open and he won easily at this years PGA Championship, and now he has won two big playoff tournaments in a row.
He is now totally comfortable with competing under pressure in the biggest of tournaments, despite his young age.

3. His confidence level is supreme:

In his press conference yesterday he said:

"I sort of picked up where I left off in Boston, shot 64 the first day here, and just playing with a lot of confidence right now. I'm confident in my ability and confident with the shots that I'm hitting and confident on the greens".

It reminded me of Bob Rotella´s book "Your 15´th Club. Rotella´s 15´th club is none other than confidence.....plain and unvarnished as he says. It is the essential piece of any solid Mental Method for golf, and Rory McIlroy has it, and this enables him to frequently enter "the zone" and to play near perfect golf.

4. His on course management is outstanding:

Knowing when to play aggressively or conservatively is key in Mental Golf. And McIlroy pointed out yesterday that he feels he is doing a great job in this area. Jack Nicklaus was a master at golf course management and he is still the best golfer that ever lived.

The reason rigorous and conservative planning is so key to Mental Golf is because, if you do it well, it helps you "stay" in the automatic or unconscious mode, the mode that helps you play great golf.

5. His short game and putting is superb:
When asked for his thoughts on the common denominator of his last three wins he replied:

"I think my ability to save par, the ability to limit the mistakes on my card. You know, I played -- I think I had 47 putts the weekend at Kiawah; Boston last week was something similar; and here this week, again, I said my -- a few really crucial up-and-downs yesterday afternoon kept me in this tournament and gave me the opportunity and the chance to go out there today and shoot a good number to win".

There is nothing more important in golf than the short game and putting. And McIlroy and his team have acted accordingly. After last year´s Masters disaster they concluded that McIlroy´s weakness was his putting, and they did not hesitate to get help from the world´s leading putting Guru, Dave Stockton.

And McIlroy´s putting, thereafter, has been simply fabulous, and Stockton´s remarks about his pupil  very interesting: "I have never come across another 23 year old capable of absorbing my concepts so quickly and thoroughly".

6. This year has taught him something vital: patience:

McIlroy mentioned yesterday that he learned a lesson of patience midyear when things didn´t go his way.

This is another key concept in Mental Golf.

Golf is an extremely complex game and it´s very easy to get frustrated. But it can turn extremely quickly.

It is vital to understand that usually "slumps" are normal and that most times the solution is not with technical, club or swing changes. Simply one has to stay patient on and off the course, and things will turn.

I stand firm with what I´ve said in my recent articles (English and Spanish language Blogs). Rory McIlroy is "the next Tiger", but, now, he is already here.

Rehearsal Controls Pressure

I have just finished reading WITH WINNING IN MIND, an excellent book by World and Olympic Shooting Champion, Larry Bassham.

Bassham is the founder and President of MENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, an international consulting firm in Mental Management.

In his book he defines pressure and explains why mental rehearsals are the best way to conquer pressure in highly competitive situations.

But first let´s see how Bassham defines pressure.

Pressure can be divided in two parts: ANXIETY and AROUSAL.

Anxiety is fear, and, fear, Bassham says, can be controlled. Fear in itself is not necessarily bad. In golf, it allows us to plan our shots conservatively. One way of controlling excessive anxiety or fear, is simple experience. Once we have been in a similar pressure situation several times, the negative characteristics of fear are reduced.

The second part of pressure is arousal. Arousal is our level of excitement. The lowest level of arousal is deep relaxation. There is a point between arousal (excitement) and relaxation where our mental performance is maximized.

Mentally rehearsing a performance is key to achieving the appropriate balance between excitement and relaxation. Rehearsing your desired performance moments before we begin a golf game will help center our concentration and move us toward our optimum mental level.

Rehearsing that we are playing great golf will tend to relax us when we are facing a pressure competitive situation and help us get to this optimum mental level.

When anxiety and fear are bound to hit in a pressure packed competitive situation, rehearsal can also help by giving us mental experience, leading us to the optimal level when the time comes for real performance.

Larry Bassham tells us that he competed in the Olympic Games twice physically, but thousands of times mentally. When his day came to compete he was appropriately relaxed and won a gold and a silver medal.

In my opinion, the concept of rehearsal, as defined by Lanny Bassham, can also be used very effectively in golf.