Harvey Penick: Suggestions and the Mind

"The golfing area of the brain is a fragile thing that is terribly suceptible to suggestion".

                                                                                                                      Harvey Penick

Tom Kite, Harvey Penick y Ben Crenshaw

Harvey Penick died 18 years ago but he is an unforgettable figure in the history of world golf.

It is highly recomendable to read about his life because he is the best swing instructor that ever lived.

Penick was a Texan that was passionate about teaching the golf swing and his ideas only became known in a massive way when he decided to publish, at the very end of his life, his thousands of handwritten notes that had been stored in a cardboard box, at his home, over a lifetime.

His first book, a masterpiece, was called HARVEY PENICK´S LITTLE RED BOOK and was only published some three years before his death.

Penick taught thousands of amateur and profesional golfers. His better known pupils are Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, PGA Tour stars. And Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth and Betsy Rawls, LPGA legends.

Mr Penick, as he was known, was the University of Texas men´s golf coach for 32 years and led his team to dozens of wins in USA intercollegiate competitions.

But, what I have discovered is that Harvey Penick also knew a ton about the mind and Mental Golf.

When his youngsters from the University of Texas had to face pressure packed situations, his advice was to "Just take dead aim". He knew what he was talking about, because, as the best modern Mental Coaches in the world know and subscribe to, this simple advice avoids negative thought entering the mind at crucial moments.

A few days ago I was skimming through the Little Red Book and I came across Penick´s frase that I placed at the begining of this article. I would like to reapeat it because I think it is of great wisdom:

"The golfing area of the brain is a fragile thing that is terribly suceptible to suggestion".

Enourmous for me because it fits in so well with my personal discovery two years ago of the method of Conscious Autosuggestion and that led me to write my first book, earlier this year, called: Mental Golf: The Power of Conscious Autosuggestion.

Penick didn´t like when his friend Jimmy Demaret named a shot for pressure situations as his "choke stroke". Demaret wanted to be able to hit a shot straight under pressure, however difficult the situation. It was a three quarter swing designed not to fail, hence the "choke swing".

Harvey Penick didn´t want to hear anything involving "choking" because he knew that the mind, being terribly suceptible to suggestion, could, in fact, lead the golfer to do just that.

This thinking by the great Mr. Penick is fully corrobarated by frenchman Emile Coué, the father of psychotherapy, and the creator of the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion developed at the beginning of the twentieth century.

What we say, think or write about our golf is tremendously relevant and consistent with the results we produce on the course.

Coué teaches us that there exist two types of autosuggestions: unconscious autosuggestions and conscious autosuggestions.

Unconscious autosuggestions can produce the best or the worst effects depending on the circumstances.

The eternal optimist,  by nature generates unconscious autosuggestions that are positive and confident, and tends to be a happy and successful person.

But, on the other hand, the enternal pesimist tends to generate unconscious autosuggestions that are negative, and almost always is a person that does badly in life and is a failure.

However (and this is the key proposal behind the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion), CONSCIOUS autosuggestions can be crafted carefully to ensure that these conscious messages are positive, confident and optimistic  in nature and, then, derived appropiately to the Unconscious Mind.

In this way Conscious Autosuggestion can become an incredibly powerful tool for life and, yes, also for golf.

This makes a lot of sense because golf is a hugely complex game. Every shot counts, played on a terrain full of difficult obstacles, and, furthermore, the hole, where we must put the ball into, is extremely small.

Not surprisingly, then, there is huge pressure in competitive golf and the game requieres a very sound and strong mind. This is why Chapter 2 of my book is called: "Golf will hit us when we are down".

It is common, then, that a golfer´s autosuggestions (unconscious or conscious) tend to be mostly negative. And, as our Unconscious Mind cannot make judgements and accepts what it recieves as true, it ends up carrying out a "programing" that is negative, not confident and pesimistic in nature, that explains why many great golfers cannot score well, especially under pressure situations.

This is why Harvey Penick makes so much sense to me when he rejected Jimmy Demaret´s "choke stroke"or when he advised his players to "try and go to dinner with golfers who are great putters".

Yes, because as the mind is terribly suceptible to suggestion, a good putter is always more confident and positive than a poor one, and Mr. Penick didnt want his players anywhere near somebody who talked about a "choke shot".

The conclusion to all of this is obvious:

Any golfer, of any handicap. must always feed his Unconscious only with positive, confident and optimistic autosugestions. Anything negative, pesimistic or lacking in confidence must be eliminated totally from thoughts and conversations, on and off the course.

Henrik Stenson did what nobody has done: FEDEX CUP and RACE TO DUBAI

Nobody had ever won the FedEx Cup (PGA Tour) and the Race to Dubai competition (European Tour) in the same year.

 

But Henrik Stenson has done just that by winning, in brilliant form, last week-end, the DP World Tour Championship, the final stage of the Race to Dubai.

Last September, the Swede, had won the PGA Tour, Tour Championship, to win the FedEx Cup and its U$ 10 million bonus.

Stenson is now ranked N° 3 in the world behind Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

Since he turned pro in 2001, Henrik Stenson has had one of the most irregular careers ever known, including a major second slump in 2010 that took him from N° 4 in the world all the way down to N° 220, before recapturing his form towards the end of 2011 when he won the South African Open.

Last Monday Stenson´s long time Mental Coach, Torsten Hansson, gave an interview that is fascinating from the mind side of the game.

He revealed how they used a metaphor of "climbing the highest golfing mountain in the world" to achieve their objective of winning the Dubai final.

And it worked for them as Henrik played almost flawless golf to win the DP World Golf Championship over Ian Poulter, and a star studded European field, by six strokes.

Hansson tells the story as follows:

"I used a metaphor these last four days when we were working hard to try and get these titles, that we were attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world.  We had been struggling in the bushes and then the woods but then suddenly we could see above the tree tops and we could actually start climbing".

"In these last four days we were in the last stages of our climb and I told Henrik, 'It's going to be hard because you're totally worn out and it's freezing up there but you must be really aware of where you're putting your hands and feet'.

"When you're at that level of climbing you have to be 100 percent certain where you put your hands and feet so I was just trying to tell him, 'Don't move anything unless you are sure you have a good grip'.

"We take it one shot at a time and we don't do anything unless he's absolutely positive about the shot he's about to play."

Torsten Hansson

In my opinión, a brilliant metaphor or analogy.

 

Because it adresses one of my key pilars of Mental Golf.

 

In effect, in my Seminars, Workshops and in my book, MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION, I teach that one of the three essential pilars of great golf under pressure is RIGOROUS AND CONSERVATIVE PLANNING of every shot and putt.

 

The other two pilars are SYNCHRONIZING BODY AND MIND in order to hit great golf shots and putts and keeping a POSITIVE, OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT "GOLFING RECORDER" (Unconscious Mind) at all times.

 

Good on Henrik Stenson. He was patient during the dark times and he now wants to climb other mountains in 2014 (MAJOR golf tournaments).

 

Without a doubt his chances are good and he has a great Mind Coach by his side.

 

 

Golf will hit us when we´re down

"Golf will hit us when we´re down" is the title of Chapter 2 of my EBOOK:

MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION

 (Those of you interested in purchasing the book, or reviewing, free of charge, the Index, the Introduction and part of Chapter 1, can do so by clicking on the above title of the book).

In this Chapter, I put forward the seven reasons that explain why golf is so difficult in comparison to other sports or games.

I am convinced that it is essential for golfers at all levels to clearly understand the reasons that explain this tremendous difficulty of the game of golf, and the reasons for so much pressure and propensity to colapse in competition.

Three of the seven reasons are the following:

The first is that the golf course is just packed full of obstacles. Only matched by some types of motocross, golf courses are full of trees, water, out of bounds, bunkers, rough, sloping fairways and lightning fast greens, among others.

The second is that 95% of the time we play stroke play. In other words all shots count. And we don´t get any mulligans. And just one bad shot can ruin the best of rounds.

The third reason is all about having too much time to think during a normal four and a half hour round. It´s what I call in my book "paralysis by analysis" or "mental stew".

Proper understanding of the seven reasons that explain the enourmous propensity of players at all levels to collapse under pressure situations is essential for expert golfers, as well as for mid and high handicappers.

CONCLUSION:

From this Chapter, "Golf will hit when we´re down", come two vital conclusions in order to properly develop a solid Mental Method to overcome pressure.

1. The first conclusion is that it is vital in golf to always plan each shot and putt in the most rigurous and conservative manner posible. Easier said than done. Because this is an activity that we carry out via our Conscious Mind, and, in many instances, this mind does a poor job, because, as I explain in Chapter 1 (The Power of the Mind), it posesses a relatively ineficient processing capability, specially under pressure.

2.  The second conclusión is that it is vital that the golfer know how to ensure an always positive, confident and optimistic "Golfing Recorder" (Unconscious Mind), to compensate for all the times that "golf will hit us when we are down".

Understanding these concepts are essential in order to play great golf consistently and to know how we can  appropiately apply the Mental techniques and behaviors that I recommend in my book.









:

The Lone Ranger and the Power of the Unconscious Mind for Golf.

As many of you already know, I have recently published my first book in Amazon EBooks. The book´s name is:

MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION

(those of you who would like to purchase the book, or to review, free of cost, the content of each chapter and the Introduction, can do so by clicking on the title of the book, above)

Chapter 1 is called "The Power of the Mind" and in it I tell the following story of when I was a child:

"At a fairly young age I learned about the power of the unconscious mind.

I was about ten years of age when I read a book that was part of The Lone Ranger series.

Yes, the one who fired silver bullets and who wore a mask while chasing bandits together with his faithful partner Tonto.

On many occasions The Lone Ranger had to get up early in the morning to chase and catch bandits. The law-enforcer had a valuable silver watch but didn’t have an alarm clock.

Well, according to the book’s author, the Lone Ranger would fall asleep visualizing the hands of his watch at exactly the time he wanted to wake up, which permitted him, as if by magic, to wake up exactly at the specified time.

 

 At the time, I thought it was an exaggeration by the author of the book to make the main character look like an even more impressive hero.    

But, for some reason which I cannot recall, about three years later I remembered the Lone Ranger method in order to achieve an “automatic” wakeup.

I tested the method for a few days until, to my surprise, I mastered it. After this, I managed to always wakeup exactly at the desired time.       

And for almost 50 years I have never needed an alarm clock to wake up early!"

Well, I tell this story to illustrate something essential that all us golfers must know and understand.

And I explain it in Chapter 1 as follows:

"The contents of the unconscious mind are equivalent to a “software” which has been programmed since birth, and which is our great life computer.  

The conscious mind is approximately 10% of the total mind. The unconscious mind makes up the remaining 90%, which never sleeps. The conscious mind is turned off and does not function while we are asleep. 

An essential point for the golfer is to understand the great power of the unconscious mind.  

The conscious mind processes information at a rate of 40 bits per second. But the unconscious mind processes information at 40 MILLION bits per second.    

Later on we will talk about why this is so, but it is essential we understand that our unconscious mind is ONE MILLION TIMES more powerful than our conscious mind. And, in addition, it manages our organs and is responsible for ALL the movements of the body.

 

  Yes, including the golf swing.

On the other hand, it is interesting to know that the unconscious mind controls the vast majority of our senses.

Our vision for example, which is a sense we use extensively on the golf course, has approximately six million connections to the mind; however, only 40 of these connections are to the conscious mind.

The balance, in other words, 5,999.960, are connections to the unconscious mind".
 
Conclusión:

The Unconscious Mind is tremendously better at golf than the Conscious Mind, (with one great exeption: the planning of each shot).

This is so because the Unconscious Mind is ONE MILLION TIMES MORE POWERFULL than the Conscious Mind and because it "manages" our golf swing, among several other relevant characteristics that I explain in my book.

My Mental Golf Book is now available in English

Dear golfing friends and followers of my BLOG.

I´m proud to announce that by book on Mental Golf is now available for purchase on AMAZON EBOOKS.

The book is called:

MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION

Those of you who might be interested in buying it can do so by clicking on the above mentioned title.

The spanish language versión has now been available for a few days:

GOLF MENTAL: EL PODER DE LA AUTOSUGESTIÓN CONSCIENTE, and also can be bought be clicking on this title.

This book is the result of five years of studying the Mind and Golf, my personal experience in applying my Mental Method and it´s associated techniques and behaviors in pressure packed competitive situations, and my experience teaching dozens of Mental Golf Workshops and Clinics in the last three years.

What follows is a summary transcript of the book´s INTRODUCTION and a short description of each Chapter.

In Chapter 1, THE POWER OF THE MIND, I summarize the most relevant points which I have learnt regarding the functioning of the mind. The key point in this chapter is what I call our “golfing recorder”, which is nothing more than our self-image of the moment as golfers, and which is located in our unconscious mind.

Chapter 2, GOLF IS GOING TO HIT US WHILE WE ARE DOWN, is a brief summary of the main characteristics of golf. What makes it different to other sports and games, and some crucial conclusions. At the end of the chapter we focus on one of the keys of mental golf, and that is the need to rigorously and conservatively plan every shot on the course.    

Chapter 3, SYNCHRONIZING MIND AND BODY. This is the great Zen and Buddhist concept, which teaches us that in order to carryout great golf shots, it is critical that our mind and body be totally synchronized, in the Present Moment, while hitting every shot or putt.                                                                                       

In Chapter 4, THE METHOD OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION is an explanation of the origin, the key definitions, and the governing laws of the method developed by Emile Coué. This is the only chapter where I don´t refer to golf. I believe, very sincerely, that this approach is so simple and powerful, that it is not only applicable to golf but to almost all aspects of our lives.                                                          

Chapter 5, CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION AND GOLF, summarizes the huge potential that I believe exists for the application of the Coué method for the game of golf. Here, we begin to understand the impact of the Laws of Conscious Autosuggestion in golf and the manner in which we can positively apply this knowledge in order to strengthen our minds.                                                                       

Chapter 6, THE TRIANGLE OF MENTAL GOLF, is a summary of what we have learnt up to this point, and underlines the three main pillars of Mental Golf. Rigorous and conservative planning of shots, synchronization of mind and body as we hit the shot, and the always positive, optimistic and confident “golfing recorder” all become integrated into one powerful Mental Method, capable of makinga difference in those moments of extreme pressure. 

                                                                           Chapter 7, THE DO’S AND THE NEVERS OF MENTAL GOLF, refers to a list of twenty-four techniques, habits and practical behaviors, all based upon what we have learned regarding the functioning of the mind and the Conscious Autosuggestion Method, which helps golfers of any level correctly apply sound mental practices on and off the course.                                                                

Chapter 8, is called GREAT COLLAPSES OF WORLD GOLF. The objective here is to illustrate through real life examples, the most common mental errors made by golfers when under pressure. Here I explain the mental mistake, or mistakes, incurred in by players who are on the top of the world rankings when faced with extreme pressure situations, and in some cases some positives of how they handled the disappointment. This helps to gain a better understanding of the teachings and concepts explained in this book.                                                                                    

In Chapter 9, MENTAL EXERCISES VIA CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION, I explain the idea of performing mental exercises off the golf course, in the same manner we exercise to strengthen our physical condition. I have no doubt that the reader who decides to dedicate a few hours weekly to this, is going to benefit enormously from this book. The method of Conscious Autosuggestion and its associated techniques are extremely appropriate tools to achieve important results in strengthening our mind for golf.

Finally, I end with some conclusions and thoughts outlined in Chapter 10 named CONCLUSIONS. 
                                             
I sincerely hope that this book may be of the maximum benefit to my readers, with my best wishes for an improved and more enjoyable game. 

8 Mental Conclusions from the 2013 Majors

For most of the golfing world the year is over when the last putt drops at the PGA Championship. the fourth and final Major of the year.

 

Adam Scott

But, truth be said, this is not really so as there are several important and interesting tournamants to be played on the PGA Tour and the European Tour towards the final part of the year.

 

On the PGA Tour the Play-Offs will determine the winner of the rich FEDEX CUP and the final Race to Dubai tournaments will determine the winner of the European Tour Order of Merit.

 

However, as a Mental Golf Coach and a keen observer of the world golf sceen, I believe that some important conclusions can be drawn from the four 2013 Majors.

Play the final holes in the Present Moment (Adam Scott). the creative ideas of a great Mental Golf Coach (Justin Rose), the value of a great short game (Phil Mickelson), and rigorous and conservative shot planning (Jason Dufner), are techniques and behaviors that allowed the aforementioned players to win the 2013 Majors.    

 

Below are my 8 mental conclusions covering the Majors of the year.

THE MASTERS: Won by Adam Scott

1. The winner, Adam Scott, has to be credited with overcoming his 2012 British Open disaster where he abandoned the Present Moment and suffered severe "mind/body desynchronization" when he probably "thought" that with two bogeys in the final four holes he would win. Big mistake, also, to "think bogey", because in all probability his Unconscious Mind understood that it was fine to make four in a row.

But at this year´s Masters he made sure not to make the same mistake and this was made clear by Scott at Butler Cabin when he said: "This time I made sure I stayed in the Present Moment and I just took it one shot at a time".

 2. Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day both made basic mental errors that cost them dearly.

Snedeker by telling the press , the evening before the final round, that he would be disapointed if he didn´t win, just encouraged an excessive conscious effort and the dreaded "reversed effect" of  Conscious Autosuggestion. The more you consciously try and acheive an objective, the lower the probability of achieving it. The Unconscious Mind interprets this excessive effort as a sign of difficulty and it evoques the distinct possibility of failure. What ends up happening, as a result, is a "psycho-motor" breakdown and the player can´t seem to hit good golf shots.

When Jason Day had three holes to go, in the final round, he was leading by two. Clearly he "left" the Present Moment, just like Scott did in the 2012 British Open, and lost mind/body synchronization to bogey 16 and 17 to lose by one.

3. Angel Cabrera did everything right and didn´t win a second green jacket because he was unlucky, and, as I like to say, because the golf hole is just plain too small. His chip on the first playoff hole and his putt on the second didn´t drop by a question of millimeters.

US OPEN: Won by Justin Rose

4. A great performance from strong minded Justin Rose, who works with Gio Valiante, the excellent Mental Coach from the USA, for some years now.

Rose prepared mentally before the US Open by repeatedly watching a Star Wars mini video, given to him by Valiante, where the hero is told that he has to "Do, or do not. There is no try".

Interesting fom the Mental angle because it´s true that to try evoques the possibility of failure.

The second thing Justin did was to repeatedly review a photo of a tunnel that his wife had given him some years back. And acording to his caddie to be in the tunnel was to plan, execute and then forget each golf shot.

Again very interesting because this is an excellent analogy for staying in the Present Moment.


BRITISH OPEN: Won by Phil Mickelson

5. Something quite incredible happened to Adam Scott at this year´s British Open, played two months after his Masters victory:

On the 12th hole of the final day he managed to get into the lead........and, again, for the second year in a row, he shot four bogeys in a row, this time to lose any chance well before the final hole.

My theory is that the incredibly strong emotion of losing last year´s British Open with four bogeys on the four final holes got "chiseled in stone" in Scott´s Unconscious Mind. And, a year later, in almost identical circumstances his "golfing recorder" simply led him to repeat the same disaster.

6. Mickelson displayed a marvelous short game throughout the entire British Open, but most especially on the final day.

And which was Mickelson´s best shot ?

In fact, it wasn´t one he did at the British Open at all.

It was his extraordinary wedge shot, from a tight lie, from 30 yards, on the first playoff hole to win the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.

This shot, in my view, was key for Mickelson´s confidence since he had a terrible three putt on the 72´nd hole at the Scottish and wound up in a playoff that never should have happened.

If Phil had lost the Scottish Open after this "collapse" on the final Green, I dont think he could ever have won the British Open the following week. This great wedge shot, and his great Open short game and putting come directly from this unbelievably good shot.

One of the key behaviors I constantly recommend to my clients is an intensive short game practice program. Nothing strengthens the mind and our confidence more than a great on course short game and Phil Mickelson is living proof of this.


PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Won by Jason Dufner

The Mental key to winning tournaments at the highest level in world golf is CONFIDENCE.

And, in my opinión, confidence can only be acquired via three strategies:

Strategy A.

By intensive and continous practice of shots. Hopefully, with at least  50% of this practice happenong on a golf course.

Strategy B.

 By using a Mental Method and it´s associated techniques and behaviors during the hours before we tee it up, and for the full time that we are on the course, in order to achieve a calm, clear and confident state of mind in order to perform at our best when pressure hits.

Strategy C.

A combination of A. and B.

7. I have no doubt that Jason Dufner used strategy C. to brilliantly win the PGA Championship 2013.

Dufner´s driving a iron play were simply outstanding.

Always in the center of the fairway with his driver and incredibly good irons to the green. On several ocasions he was only left with tap in birdie putts thanks to his wonderful irons.

For sure this is due to his great work and intensive practice with Chuck Cook his excellent swing coach. (Strategy A).

And on the final day, in the lead, Jason Dufner excelled in one of the most important behaviors of a successful Mental Method. His shot planning, and course management, was close to perfect. He was smart and conservative. On the green he usually only faced uphill putts and his second putts were almost always tap ins. (Strategy B.)

PLAYERS STRUGGLING FOR MAJORS

8. My final conclusión is that Tiger Woods, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Jim Furyk were not able to overcome the Law of Reverse Effect (or Reverse Effort) of the Conscious Autosuggestion theory.

Most probably they were all just consciously trying too hard. They want Majors too badly. And by trying too hard, the exact oposite of what we want so dearly is achieved.

A big mistake because, as I explained in the case of Brandt Snedeker at the Masters, this Law  states that excesive conscious effort is only interpreted negatively by our powerfull Unconscious Mind by "thinking" that the task must be very difficult and that the chance of failure is very high.

This contradiction of ideas ("want to win"/"it´s very difficult") produces the psycho-motor breakdown that explains bad swings, high scores and choking in these situations.

As long as these top players dont learn how to "trick" their powerfull Unconscious Minds with smart messages of diminished effort, they will NOT win Majors.

It´s going to be fascinating to watch the 2014 Majors.

Most probably a couple of young players will win Majors next year, but, by far, the most interesting aspect of next years´ big tournaments is to see whom of the big players learn the lessons of Mental Golf and make great comebacks.
























 

Why Tiger will probably never overtake Nicklaus

Tiger Woods is with out a doubt one of the best golfers of all time, with 14 Major Championships to his credit.

But he is now 37 years old and the following question is a fascinating one:

Will Tiger be able to equal or surpass Jack Nicklaus´ 18 Majors ?

In my opinion the answer is no.........unless Tiger makes some big changes in his Mental approach.

Personally I love Tiger´s golf game ever since I was lucky enough to walk inside the ropes with him in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the year 2000, when he and David Duval won the Team World Championship for the USA.

And he has enjoyed a wonderful career winning some 100 professional tournaments world wide.

However I feel there are two powerful reasons that, I´m afraid, will keep Tiger from ever reaching Jack´s mark of 18 Majors.

The first one is the incredibly good and superior competitive level that exists today at the top of world golf. Nicklaus never had to face such strong competition.

As a matter of fact, neither did Tiger ten years ago.

To prove my point I used the information that is available on the PGA Tour and European Tour statistics sections.

First I looked at the annual scoring average of the PGA Tour and grouped the information into three six year periods. 2012 to 2007, 2006 to 2001 and 2000 to 1995.

Then, for each period, I calculated the average annual scoring for every year´s leader of this statistic. The result was almost the exact same for each period: 68.7 strokes per round.

Now then, for each of these three six year periods I calculated the number of players that had achieved an average of less than 71.0 strokes per round.

And the results are the following:

Period 1995 to 2000:      An average of 70 players per year, shot less than a 71.0 scoring average.

Period 2001 to 2006:     An average of 80 players per year, shot less than a 71.0 scoring average.

Period 2007 to 2012:    An average of 110 players per year, shot less than a 71.0 scoring average.

I did the same with available statistics from the European Tour and I reached similar results.

First conclusion:

Since Tiger started winning Majors in 1997, the fields he has had to face have just been getting stronger and stronger.

If in the 1995-2000 time frame there were some 70 PGA Tour players capable of winning a Major, today, this number has grown to some 110 players, or more.

The same can be said of the European Tour players. If in the 2001-2006 period, there were an additional (many of the top European players are included in the PGA Tour statistic) 20 golfers who could potentially win a Major, today that number has increased to at least 30

Advantage Jack Nicklaus. When Jack won his Majors (1962-1968), there were only a hand full of players who had a chance to win. And, also, as we have seen, the quantity and quality of players capable of winning Majors today has increased significantly when compared to the 1997-2008 period, when Tiger won his 14 Majors.

So the going is getting a lot tougher for Tiger.

The second reason that leads me to believe that Tiger has a low chance of equaling or surpassing Nicklaus´ mark has to do with his Mental fortitude.

Despite Tiger´s excellent capacity for "synchronizing" Mind and Body to hit great golf shots, my belief is that Tiger has made (and continues to do so) four important Mental errors that Nicklaus never incurred in.

1. Tiger has changed his swing at least three times since becoming a Pro. This is a very risky and complicated thing to do because, as we have discussed many times, it requires a huge effort involving the Conscious Mind, the one that is bad at playing golf under pressure. And because it requires thousands of repetitions ("reps" in Tiger´s lingo) for the new swing to become fully automatized, this process takes away critical time from practice of the short game.

2. Tiger has trouble controlling his anger and frustration when things aren´t going well on the golf course.

This is a no-no from the Mental Golf point of view because anger and frustration only contribute to "throw" the golfer out of the Present Moment and out of the Unconscious (Automatic or Intuitive) mode, the great mode for playing outstanding golf under pressure.


3. Tiger, in my opinion, tends to plan his shots too aggressively. This leads to mistakes, and additional avoidable strokes, that inevitably  end up in anger and frustration, with the negative consequences explained above.

4. Tiger is obsessed with winning Majors and reaching and beating Nicklaus´ mark. Jack didn´t have this problem because it wasn´t such a big deal in his days and he surpassed Hagen fairly early on in his career.

This obsession can be dangerous and damaging to a top level golfer because it produces a psychological problem that is clearly described in Emile Coué´s Theory of Conscious Autosuggestion.

The law of Reverse Effect, or Reversed Effort, states that the more effort we put into achieving an objective, the probability of achieving it decreases in, at least, the same proportion.

It´s what happened to Greg Norman with the Masters and Sam Snead with the US Open. They both publicly announced their obsession with winning these tournaments and both collapsed at least twice when they were in contention.

Coué explains that when we consciously want something too badly, the conscious mind sends a "desperation" message to the unconscious mind, and the unconscious interprets that the objective is tremendously difficult to achieve. And as it´s the unconscious mind that controlls all our body movements, including the golf swing, this "desperate effort in excess" leads to a "psycho-motor" breakdown that inevitably turns into poor golf shots and collapse situations ("choking").

Second conclusion:

Jack Nicklaus was better than Tiger at managing anger and frustration, and he was exceptionally good at conservative shot planning ("golf course management"). Jack didn´t have to worry about swing changes during the bulk of his career (he only changed his swing towards the end due to back problems) and he never had to face the "Reversed Effort" issue.

Double advantage, Nicklaus, therefore, when we add up both conclusions.

Some advice for Tiger, in order to give himself a better chance at catching Jack ?

Tiger has proved to be an exceptionally talented, successful and hard working golfer, but, in my view, he could benefit enormously from two things:

1. No more swing changes. Only fine tuning from now on.

2. If he doesn´t have a Mental Coach yet, hire one fast. A good Mental Coach can help Tiger resolve the anger and frustration issues, the Reversed Effort situation at the Majors and his excessive shot making agressiveness.

But, this story is not over yet. We´ll watch Tiger closely at the coming Majors.