| TALES FROM THE BOX
Striving for
Sunday Success What does it take to go out and win a tournament? In his latest column, commentator Julian Tutt examines the contrasting fortunes of Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. “To tweet, or not to tweet – that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to let rip in a vengeful lather of recrimination” In case you missed the story, inveterate tweeter Lee Westwood became embroiled in a most uncharacteristic tirade against his critics and detractors throughout the Sunday evening of last month’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill. One can only assume that he had resorted to the time-honoured method of drowning his sorrows, having once again failed to claim his first major, and lost control of his senses. I can attest from personal experience that he is normally a very cheerful drunk, so one can only surmise what dark place he had visited after yet another abortive campaign. He later apologised for his inappropriate and uncharacteristic behaviour, but in a way the damage had been done. It showed a side to his character that is not often evident, although he was less than full of bonhomie for much of the early 2000s, when he was flitting from one coach to another trying to rediscover his swing. In that mission he succeeded and has become one of the best ball-strikers and straightest drivers around.
The trouble is that you cannot win a teddy bear at the local crazy golf course if you can’t putt, let alone claim one of the game’s big four events. Westwood’s skill on the greens used to be his strength back in the heady days at the turn of the century when he succeeded Colin Montgomerie (one of the aforementioned detractors) as Europe’s No 1. At that stage he was also one of the very best at closing out a tournament. Those skills seem to have deserted him under the intense pressure of trying to crown his career with a major that few, if any, would begrudge him. So where’s he going wrong and what can he do to put it right in time for Augusta 2014?
Daniel Wong (Tutt); AFP
Westwood’s skill on the greens used to be his strength back in the heady days at the turn of the century when he succeeded Colin Montgomerie as Europe’s No 1. At that stage he was also one of the very best at closing out a tournament. 34
HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
I tried to find the answer from various sports psychologist friends, but professional ethics forbade them from giving specific answers, let alone being identified. However, one highly qualified and much decorated member of the fraternity, who is very familiar with golf, gave me some general points that might apply: Preparation is crucial to performance but it has to be timely and appropriate to an up-coming event. This may require technical or physical emphasis. Many top performers tend to practice more nearer competition rather than concentrate on shorter quality practice – eg playing fewer (but high quality) tournaments and making sure they set correct goals for each of the these. It is preferable to have ‘process’ and ‘performance’ goals rather than a single ‘outcome’ goal. During any competition there are phases. Firstly, and beforehand, getting into the right mind state. Secondly, on the start line, and then finally during the competition. Obviously in golf this almost repeats itself at each hole. Elite performers are very good at the first stage but then in competition, which is over such a long period, tend to have problems maintaining the ‘Ideal Performance State’. What tends to happen is that something affects them to cause ‘internal distractions’ and they start thinking about this rather than on what they have to do next in this situation. Once the internal distractions happen then there is a knock- on to the physical aspects, often seen in body language. Further problems arise because they now start to hit worse shots or at least ones that are not up to their expectations. So they then start to correct things and experiment with adjustments to swing, grip etc leading to a downward spiral in their confidence. After that they move to the phase of safety play – protecting their score – and finally, they stop really committing to the shot and start to distrust their swing. This is seen to be more prevalent on the last day of play. Internal distractions are thoughts. You cannot think of two things at the same time – it is impossible. So if you have a ‘problem thought’ it needs to be replaced by a different thought that helps the individual in that situation or at least does not cause interference. This has to be practiced. Over the years of my involvement with sport as a coach and psychologist I do believe the adage “form is temporary but class is permanent”. I think Woods and Westwood both have class and will shine through in 2014. I had asked my bashful friend about Tiger Woods as well as Westwood, and despite their somewhat different success ratio, it does appear they now have a similar problem on Sundays. Whilst commentating for Sky at the US PGA
HKGOLFER.COM
HKGOLFER.COM
Nicklaus believes Woods (above) still has 10 years at the top – if he remains healthy; Westwood (opposite) made headlines for all the wrong reasons last month. Championship, Jack Nicklaus asserted that he believes Woods still has a good 10 years at the top – if he remains healthy – and therefore expects that Woods can still win the five majors he needs to surpass his own record (which alone would incidentally be equal to Seve Ballesteros’ major haul). Nicklaus maintains that the key to his own success was being meticulous in his preparations for the majors and then having the ability to relax once play had commenced, not letting it mean too much. Intriguingly he insists that he only played at his very best on a handful of occasions, but understood what it took to “win ugly”. He finished in the top five on 54 occasions, with 19 second places, a record that will surely never be bettered. When Woods was at his dominating best, Nicklaus argued that he was a truly great champion in an era otherwise devoid of great players, which was unlike Nicklaus’s generation when he faced the likes of Palmer, Watson, Player, Trevino, Miller and Floyd. But what defines “greatness”? A simple answer might be the number of majors a player has won, and that is only known at the end of their careers. Phil Mickelson has now won five and Ernie Els four, with chances to improve. Are they “great”? Maybe only time will tell, but there’s no question Nicklaus had some serious competition. The one thing those old boys did not have to worry about was the impact of social media (or should it be “anti-social media”?). So many players nowadays seem to revel in telling the world their most intimate secrets, and then bitching about it when it all backfires on them. Of my broadcast colleagues there’s no doubt that Dougie Donnelly is the champion tweeter. He is joined at the hip to his iPad, which supplies him with a steady stream of interesting gossip and intrigue with which to glamorise his commentaries. He is also pretty adept at promoting the Donnelly brand, a skill that has sadly eluded me. Ken Brown tends to dabble on and off depending on his mood, but he is very creative when the muse takes him. Warren Humphreys’ computer is so full of statistics that there is no room for idle chit chat, while Dominique Boulet leaves technological communication to his patient bride. To him a tablet is something to put in his egg nog the morning after the night before. I dipped my toes into the Twittersphere a few times but ended up pressing the wrong button and transmitted hundreds of pages of rubbish, totally clogging up the company’s server. Best leave it to professionals. “To die, to sleep; No more – and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to ... ” HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
35