“Ive been playing golf for 50 years, and what
never ceases to amaze me is how, from time to time, I’ll meet a
player who, though not great by any sense of the imagination in any
shotmaking category – from driving to putting – manages to bring
home the trophy in both the club’s match play and medal play yearly
championships.
These days, when I watch this type of golfer in
action, I’m reminded most of Padraig Harrington. Not one department
of Padraig’s game seems to stand out. For this reason, until his
more recent major victories at the British Open and PGA, he was one
of those players who never really got mentioned on the Golf Channel
prior to a major when so-called experts always try to predict a
winner. Having said that, Padraig continues to win on both sides of
the Atlantic, and with his 2008 major victories, proved that there
is more to winning than hitting the ball powerfully.
Gary Player played a similar game to Padraig.
Both hit solid, accurate drives, good iron shots, share excellent
short games, and putt well a lot of the time, but again, neither
player possesses exceptional Tigerlike shotmaking qualities that
stand out. So, what is it about Player, Harrington, and that fellow
player at your local club that brings him into the winner’s circle
time after time?
The success of these players has to do with
qualities outside the shotmaking realm, namely possessing the four
C’s: Confidence, Concentration, Courage, and Common Sense. So, let
me review these qualities common to major championship winners and
taught to me originally by Seve Ballesteros, who, though anything
but an accurate driver of the ball, still won major championships.
My suggestion is that you pass the four C’s you
are about to learn onto your students, who should be looking for new
ways to beat the course and emerge a winner without having to do
anything special, shotmaking wise.
CONFIDENCE
The best dictionary definition of confidence is “full trust.”
Applied to golf, that means essentially this: When a player thinks
he’s going to hit a good shot, he usually will, provided, of course,
that his positive attitude is realistically based on a fundamentally
good swing and at least a fairly good shotmaking ability developed
through regular and rigorous practice.
The harder you prepare for anything, the higher
your level of confidence about it, thus, the less pressure you feel
and the better you perform. Convince your student to relate this
work ethic to practicing golf, as all fine players do, and that
student will definitely begin to play the game with a more positive
attitude about hitting the shots it takes to be a winner.
CONCENTRATION
If you determine that your student tends to joke around too much or
talk too much in between shots, and you notice that these lapses
hinder his or her powers of concentration, encourage them to be less
like Lee Trevino and Fuzzy Zoeller and more like Gary Player and
Padraig Harrington. In short, give them tips to get them into the
game and enable them to stay in the game.
For example, encourage the student to get into
the game by concentrating hard on picking out a target and imagining
a good shot hitting that target before swinging. Encourage them to
stay in the game by imagining circular targets in the fairway on tee
shots and on the greens on approach shots and to count how many
times during a round they can hit the bull’s eye.
COURAGE
Many golfers, pro and amateur players alike, fail to live up to
their full potential because they never learn the secrets of
developing a courageous on-course attitude. These are the immature
types who throw clubs, continually cuss themselves out, sulk, or
even walk off the course after one too many bad bounces or bad
holes. Their problem is that they expect perfection, whereas the
complete and intelligent – and courageous – golfer respects the
game’s unpredictability, takes it in stride, and gets on with the
job as best as he possibly can. Even when he’s having an absolutely
awful day, this player still gives every shot 100 percent
concentration. His final score is his absolute best effort for that
day, and biting the bullet like this hardens him for future rounds.
Courage, then, is not inherited, but developed
through a combination of experience, sheer grit, and determination.
Jack Nicklaus was not a great all-around player. In fact, he admits
to being just a fair wedge and bunker player. Yet, his courage
brought him to the winner’s circle a record 18 times in major
championships. common sense
COMMON SENSE
I’m forever amazed by the foolish chances amateur golfers take
during a round of 18 holes. The typical club-level golfer would
never dream of driving a car 120 miles per hour down a regular road
or gambling a life savings on a flip of a card. However, on the golf
course, many amateur golfers seem unable to retain even an ounce of
common sense.
Playing with common sense involves making the
decision to play aggressively or safely, based on a realistic
appraisal of one’s capabilities. And in doing that, the chief
consideration should be the reward of pulling off the shot relative
to the cost of missing it. What this requires above all else is
discipline, which just might be the most important word in the
entire golfing lexicon.
