Play The Other 90 Percent
Make the Commitment There’s always time for latebloomers to grow by dr. bob rotella with roger schiffman
hen you look at three of the greatest athletes of the modern era—Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady—only one was destined to be dominant in his sport from an early age. Tiger was a child prodigy: He was shooting par at age 5, and he was winning tournaments soon after. He continued to win early and often, capturing three U.S. Junior Championships and three U.S. Amateurs before winning the NCAA individual title at Stanford and then turning professional. He seemed a lock for greatness almost from the beginning because he combined his giftedness with passion and ambition. Now in his 40s, he has amassed 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour victories.
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Illustration by Santino Calvo
Jordan didn’t make the varsity basketball team as a sophomore, then he started getting good his junior year in high school. Coach Dean Smith was criticised for taking a chance on Michael and offering him a scholarship at the University of North Carolina, where he became a star. While playing for UNC, he made a shot that ended up being the deciding basket in an NCAA Championship game. MJ said that really lit his fire and helped him realise he could become great. And he truly dominated the NBA for more than 10 years. Then you have Brady. Unheralded in high school, he was barely decent enough to get to the University of Michigan, where he hardly got any field time the first two years. He improved enough in his last two seasons to catch the attention of the pro scouts, but even so, Brady was only the 199th pick in the NFL draft. Six other quarterbacks were drafted before he was that year, not exactly something to cheer about. His first season with the New England Patriots was nothing special, either—the team finished 5-11. He had to be patient, and he had to have faith that his day would come. It finally did, but it took a while. Things started to fall into place for Brady during the next season. It was a grueling year with five losses, but the Pats pulled it together in the playoffs and managed to make it to the Super Bowl. There, Brady didn’t have his best game against the St. Louis Rams, but it was good enough. New England squeaked out a win, 20-17, on a 48-yard field goal on the final play of the game, and the victory launched an amazing career for Brady. During the next 18 years he went on to play in nine more Super Bowls and collected a total of seven Super Bowl rings. Whether you are a late bloomer or a late starter, you would do well to keep Brady’s story in mind, as well as Jordan’s. It is possible to get really good at golf, or reach whatever goals you’ve set in the game, at just about any age—if you put your mind and soul into it. Others certainly have done it. One of the great qualities about golf is that it’s
