Golf Tips

Tiger Talk #2

I was leaving the golf course at Bay Hill last week and walking up the 9^th fairway when an errant tee shot came careening into the trees right as I walked by. I looked up the fairway and lo and behold it was Tiger. Since I was virtually standing on his ball, I decided to wait until he arrived to watch him hit his next shot.

I learned a few things watching him hit his shot onto the green (which he did successfully):

1- As he walked down the fairway, he was obviously irritated. He was walking and swinging, trying to “figure it out.” Once he arrived at the ball, his demeanor completely changed.

2- He cleared the debris away from his ball and fortunately realized he had an open line to the green, so that appeased him slightly, I believe. I don’t think he even noticed the hundred or so people swarming around him.

3- Prior to doing anything, he stood behind the ball and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He completely relaxed and appeared to gather himself and began to focus. You could just feel the “zen-like” state happening, so to speak. It was pretty cool.

4- He and his caddy went through their normal pre-shot routine and Tiger NEVER lost focus. He appeared to be in a zone, yet was looking at the green, closing his eyes, visualizing exactly what he was going to do.

5- Once he was ready, he walked into his shot and with a line of people only a few feet from him a good 100 feet down the fairway proceeded to smoke a 7 iron right past them all and onto the green. Never once did he look at a spectator or waver in his focus.

The point I want to get across to all of you is what I believe makes Tiger the ultimate champion. The minute he got to his golf ball, he completely forgot about his tee shot. All of his mental energies were focused ONLY on the shot at hand. He gathered his emotions, focused his mind, and executed the routine he does over and over and over with such success.

As a side note, Tiger leads the tour in the “Comeback” category. This stat tracks the number of birdies a player makes after a bogey. We should all try to draw from this and apply it to our own games.