Golf course.......Or, obstacle course ???????

I´m pretty sure about where I stand on this.

One of the great challenges of golf is to overcome the enormous quantity of obstacles that we face on every golf course and that affect every single shot we hit.

Let´s think about it a bit. We face trees, bunkers, tall and complicated grass (rough), water, out of bounds, very fast and complicated greens and, normally slopes of all types and kinds......and other obstacles such as wind, heat and humidity.

And what complicates matters even more is that 99% of the time we play "stroke", or "medal", play, where absolutely all the shots that we hit count and add up to our score.

This is so different to tennis, for example. In tennis one can lose a few games and win the set. Or one loses a set and wins the match.

Not so in golf. Every single shot is crucial and, therefore, two things become absolutely essential :

1. One has to have the capacity to hit the ball where we want it to go.

2. One has to have the capacity to "get around", or successfully overcome, the multiple obstacles we constantly face on the golf course with skill and a lot of physical and mental talent.

Jack Nicklaus, the best "golf course manager" that ever played the game put it very well:

Jack suggests that there is an enormous amount of quality teaching regarding the first point. There is, for sure, excellent quality instruction and tens of thousands of capable instructors all over the world.

But quality teaching about how to effectively plan one´s way around the golf course and how to manage the mind, is very scarce, indeed.
It has a lot to do with our frame of mind on the course and how we think.

In this respect I happen to be a great admirer of Jack Nicklaus.

Nicklaus tells us that the reason many consider him the best golfer that ever played the game has a lot to do with his realization, at a very young age, that the key to golf is the conservative and rigorous planning of ALL his shots.

Jack never, ever, hit a shot without knowing the area where he wanted the ball to go to.......and, with the knowledge that even if he didn´t hit a very good shot, he was sure to be in an acceptable position for the following one.

Nicklaus never directly shot at a dangerous or risky corner flag stick. He preferred to aim at the middle of the green where he could guarantee his par and have a chance at a birdie without any risk.

I have said it before and I will say it many times.

A key element of any on course Mental Method to assist us when pressure hits, is the strict, rigorous and conservative planning of all golf shots.

When we plan shots badly or we take on too much risk, the price to pay can me ferocious.

Not only because of the unnecessary additional shots we add to our scorecard, but also because of the negative impact to our mind.

A dumb planning error will "take us out" of the unconscious, intuitive or automatic mode, that is so essential for the mind/ body synchronization that allows us to hit our best golf shots.

Therefore, rigorous and conservative planning of ALL golf shots in a round of golf is essential.

This can be seen clearly if we examine the scorecards of pro golfers.

Almost all of them can produce the same amount of multiple birdies and occasional eagles in any given tournament. But the difference between winners and losers is the capacity of champions to limit bogies and the dreaded "others" (doubles, triples, etc.) to a minimum.

The conclusion is simple but fundamental.

The rigorous and conservative planning of all shots, including putts, is key to success on the golf course, or, better put, on the obstacle course.

Why USA lost the RYDER CUP 2012

At the start of Sunday morning very few people thought that the USA could lose this year´s version of the Ryder Cup.

A 10 to 6 point lead, after the Friday and Saturday foursome and fourballs, seemed impossible for Europe to turn around.

To win, Team USA needed to reach fourteen and a half points (of a total of 28), so they had to win only 4 and a half of the 12 up for grabs in the Sunday individual matches.

So, what happened ???????

Typically, when the best golfers in the world go head to head in match play, about half the matches are won comfortably by either of the contestants, and the other half of the matches tend to be very disputed and go down to the wire.

And this Ryder Cup proved to be no exception.

Europe won four matches with ease:

Donald beat Watson, McIlroy beat Bradley, Laurie beat Snedeker and Westwood beat Kuchar.

And the USA won three matches without a problem.

D. Johnson beat Colsaerts, Z. Johnson beat McDowall and Dufner beat Hanson.

Up to this point a normal Ryder Cup scenario that does not explain the American team´s disaster.

But when we look at the five "disputed" matches, those that were won or lost on the final hole, the USA players won none of them.

In fact, they lost four of them and only tied one. And, worse still, with two holes to go the USA was winning two of them and was tied in the other three.

Let´s see what happened:

Poulter and Simpson were tied after 16: Result: Poulter won the final two holes with a par and a birdie.


Rose and Poulter

Mickelson was one up on Rose after 16. Result: Rose finished with spectacular birdies on 17 and 18 to win by one.

Furyk was leading García by one going into 17. Result: Furyk made bogey-bogey versus Garcia´s par-par to lose by one.

Kaymer and Stricker were even after 16. Result: Kaymer makes a par-par finish versus Stricker´s bogey par and the USA loses another point.

Tiger and Molinare were also even after 16. Tiger wins 17 with par and, when Europe had already reached 14 points and retained the Cup, he loses the 18' th with a bogey to tie his match.

So, of the five "disputed" matches, USA was leading two and in a tie for the rest of them with two holes to go, and only was able to add half a point to their total. The European´s managed a spectacular four and a half points to accomplish a fantastic feat.

If we consider the scores of the ten players involved in these five "disputed" matches that went down to the final two holes, the result for the Americans is catastrophic.

The five European players were, in total, two under par on holes 17 and 18, compared to the American players that could only manage a miserable 5 over.

What on earth happened ?. European strength under pressure?. Mental weakness and poor shot planning by the Americans ?.

A bit of everything.......let´s see.

Poulter won due to his mental strength and his renown fighting spirit. He is a great match play golfer and when he faces big time pressure he rarely folds. Europe had practically lost the Saturday afternoon fourball until Poulter reeled off six straight birdies and turned around the match.

Rose, who works the mental side with the excellent Dr. Gio Valiante, was simply brilliant with his birdie-birdie-finish. Mickelson could only watch and congratulate Rose.

Furyk, unfortunately, choked as he has all year, when close to victory.

Simply put, he seems to know he will make mistakes in the final holes, as he did in this year´s US Open and more recently in one of the playoff Championships. I didn´t like his untimely celebration on the 16´th green, when he thought his birdie putt, to go two up, was going in, but just lipped out. He seemed devastated that it didn´t drop, a very bad and not recommended reaction from the mental point of view.

García did his job with a couple of solid pars on 17 and 18, but, once again, a disastrous bogey-bogey finish for Furyk to give the match away by one..

Stricker and Kaymer were tied going into the final two holes.

In my opinion, a catastrophic planning error by Stricker on the green at 17.

He was slightly over the green about 15 yards from the hole in some short grass. Kaymer already had made his two putts for par. A half a point would probably give the Cup to the USA because Molinare was very nervous and Tiger had the best chance to win that match.

Stricker´s decision to putt or to chip was absolutely key at this stage. The matches were tied at 13. The USA needed 14 and a half points to win (a tie at 14 would mean Europe retained). Only two matches were left.

The safe play was to putt. This would eliminate any risk of a "chunk" or a "bladed" shot.

Stricker made the wrong decision. His chip was slightly bladed and it went by the hole some twelve feet. He missed coming back. He was one down and now probably needed a birdie to tie the match.


Stricker, D. Johnson and Stricker

Tiger, as expected won the 17´th over the nervous and inexperienced Molinari and went one up, going into the final hole.

But, it was over. Striker didn´t make birdie and gave Europe the point they needed to retain.

And when Tiger missed a short putt to give Molinari the tie, it was irrelevant and the Europeans were already celebrating.

So, if somebody asks me why the USA lost this Ryder Cup, I think I have a very clear answer in my mind.

The Mental strength of Rose and Poulter, the Mental weakness of Furyk and the catastrophic planning error by Stricker on the 17´th green.

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.

García returns to the top with a great win at the Wyndham

What a great win by Sergio Garcia at the rain delayed  Wyndham Championship, that finalized this Monday morning. In the end he won comfortably by two, after a string of birdies on the second nine opened up a four shot lead.

And Sergio´s win makes it even more interesting at the top of world golf, considering the Fedex Cup playoffs, and Sergio´s almost sure participation in the upcoming Ryder Cup, all to be played in the next five weeks.

Is it the time for Sergio Garcia´s long awaited comeback, so many times delayed due to poor putting and a suspect mental attitude when faced with pressure?

All of us who admire his fantastic golfing ability and superb shot making certainly hope so.

The truth is that there have been many encouraging signs in the last few months. After a severe slump last year and a very real possibility of not making the 2011 British Open field, Sergio made the playoff in the BMW German Championship, and his second place earned him one of the last spots in the field. Afterwards came two excellent year end wins on the European Tour.

And during the first part of this year, his name has been on top of the leader boards frequently.

Interestingly enough, García has been talking very positively about his golf all year, with the unfortunate exception, of course, of the Masters, where he stated that he thought that he didn´t have the necessary ability to win a Major.

As far as we know, Sergio doesn´t really believe in working with a Mental Coach, but recently he speaks as if he indeed was working with one.

A couple of examples:

For the last few months, García stopped hitting full practice shots on the range before competitive rounds ( he would always practice the short game and putting, though). He explains his thinking in an video interview to a Spanish journalist ( entrevista) and feels that it has the benefit of starting play "fresh", without the mental burden of potentialy poor full swing practice shots on his mind.

The second example comes from his victory press conference this morning, when he was asked if his local "non professional" caddie had helped him in his great play. (García recently broke off with his long term caddie and plans not to make a final decision until the end of the year).

His reply, explaining that he took no advice from his caddie this week, is very interesting from the mental angle:

"Caddies are great, but sometimes I feel like I depend too much on them," Garcia said. "Instead of making a decision myself, I would wait for the caddie to make a decision for me and then maybe I don't feel comfortable with that and still try to do it. I wanted to start making decisions for myself, right and wrong," Garcia said. "Not all my decisions were good this week. Obviously misread some putts. I hit a couple wrong clubs here and there. But at least I was pretty much a hundred percent committed to most of my decisions and that was nice to see."

Not allowing doubts about our swing when starting play, and never, never hitting a shot without a full commitment, are key elements of any sound on course Mental Method.

Good on "el Niño", Sergio García.

At 32 years of age he isn´t a kid anymore, but has plenty of time to fulfill his great potential, and to win several Majors.