Blown Away

So, have you been blown away by the golf at the 91st PGA Championship at Hazeltine this weekend? With eight hours of TV coverage on Saturday and Sunday, I was glued to the screen and surprised by both the show and golf wind conditions. The television commentators also contributed to the feeling of the wind with all their hot air and false hopes for a golfer named Tiger Woods. Have they not only love quotes YE Yang on how the odds against him beating Tiger should be 70-1, based on Tiger having just won his 70th PGA Tour event last week, so that he had won his first start of this year.

Although I've never played there personally, I vividly remember Tony Jacklin told me and our two other playing partners at Brookmans Park Golf Club, Hazeltine on the challenges, just one week after his victory in the U.S. Open there in 1970. The course seems to have been even more difficult and therefore more picturesque since Dave Hill's scathing comment at the time that "everything that really lacks is 80 acres of corn and some cows."

Anyway, there I was watching golf and really looking forward to the cut and thrust of another battle between Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington at the weekend, with Padraig seems to put his demons behind him and Firestone the past. I also hoped to see the exploits of the great pretenders of Europe and see a real return to form from the likes of Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Given all these emotions, I almost forgot to look for all the teachings of psychology course that blew across the screen.

Now, I'm sure you've watched most if not all weekend cutting and thrust on television or, if you're lucky, you were in Minnesota to look for real. I am here focusing on the psychology of golf all the golf wind, golfers and windy in my next article, anything that puts wind of people like Lee Westwood, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and many others.

Now, I do not want to take anything away from YE Yang and his outstanding performance this week. Something really special to beat Tiger Woods by two strokes back on the last day of a major. It is also interesting to note that the last 2-under 70 equaled the low score for the day with only 2 other players. Having said all this, what happened to Tiger?

Well, I think I noticed the first real problem I saw in the Tiger surprisingly strong mental game. It has been hanging over my nose for some time, especially with his occasional poor performance in the Open championship. The problem is with golf games, he can not control and, more importantly, predict. Here at Hazeltine, as so often on sites Open Championship, players are faced with the uncertainty of a strong wind and swirling. The wind starting blowing in one direction, the clouds move in another and the flag on the green floating in still another. Tiger can not predict what will happen to his ball and, unlike his great ball-striking, it is beyond his control. This he seems unable to treat.

I was struck by the contrast between the reaction of Tiger two shots in particular during its last 9 holes on Sunday. Both have been unlucky and not the result of a bad performance once, but it really upset him and the other, he accepted philosophically. The first blow was struck by an iron flyer with a six that flew way over the back of the green on one of the many long par 4s. You could say it was half expecting it as he quickly recognized what had happened and calmly and confidently played the next move. His response suggested that he had not accepted as a bad move, just unlucky.

The second was his tee shot on the short 17th where he moved away several times as the wind swirled and changed direction. He panicked and looked more like a rabbit in the headlights of a tiger. However, he used his psychology course.