Watching the PGA Tour event in Boston reminds me of the shift from playing for par (majors) and having to go low or go home. The tour this year has set up courses more difficult than in recent years and this week it seems to have gone back to a few years ago when shooting close to 20 under is needed for a win. I like the balance between tough golf and going low golf. The course set-up will dictate how these players attack the course. At the TPC Boston the course played soft and there were driveable par 4’s and reachable par 5’s that allowed the players to not only make birdies, but string together many birdies in a row. Momentum in golf is very important and when a player can make a birdie and know there are many more opportunities to come a player’s confidence increases. The confidence feeds more aggressive play, which leads to more birdies. When Mike Weir opens the tournament with a 61 it shows the rest of the field that this week is about playing for birdies, instead of protecting against the high number. It is interesting that when one player goes low it creates a belief in the other  players the possibilities of also going low. When a player now steps on the first tee with a birdie mentality he will go for it early instead of “feeling” his way into the round. I think it is cool to see the best players push the envelope and challenge the 60 barrier.

I love college football. I love the passion, the unpredictability, and the game itself. The team I cheer for is the UCLA Bruins and they had one hellava game on Monday night. The fascinating part of this game through my eyes as a mental coach had to do with the Bruins quarterback Kevin Craft. He is the third string quarterback who got the start due to injuries with the other quarterbacks. His first half against Tennessee was anything but productive, it was down right poor. He threw 4 interceptions in the first half, including one for a touchdown and went into halftime losing 14-7. What transpired in the second half was Jekyll and Hyde. He came out confident, poised, and under control. He passed for 193 yards on 18-25 with a touchdown to pull the Bruins ahead and then win in overtime. 

In the post game interviews Craft said he didn’t feel in rhythm in the first half and his coaches calmed him down at halftime. His coaches kept their confidence in him and had him stick to the game plan and focus on the process of staying focused on each play, forgetting what had just happened the play before. Craft not only turned his performance around he played his best at the end of the game when the game was to be won or lost. As a sports fan I love the underdog story doing well. As a mental coach I love to hear that the mental game made the difference, not the physical game. 

So many times we start a round of golf off poorly and we need to get it back. In golf we don’t have coach to settle us down, we must do it ourselves. You have control of your mental fundamentals, so you can refocus when it goes bad and who knows maybe do something special on the back nine. 

I thought on Labor Day I would revisit one of my pet peeves working with athletes, work ethic. I am amazed how many athletes think that pure talent will get them to reach the highest level of competition. In today’s sports landscape talent is maybe 50% of the success equation. There are many talented athletes, but few who will work at their game with total dedication to achieve greatness. Don’t get me wrong if an athlete just wants to have fun with their sport then practice is not necessary; however when athletes tell me their dreams of what they want to accomplish and yet balk at the work needed to achieve them, then we have a problem. There are some mental game coaches that think the athlete will achieve their dreams by simply dreaming. Guess what, it doesn’t work. This leads to disgruntled athletes who tell me they are not achieving their dream. I ask about their work ethic and I get, “I am working harder then the other athletes I know”. That may be true, but the answer I am looking for is, “I am working harder and smarter then all the other athletes, known and unknown.” I guarantee there is someone out there working harder than you are. It comes down to choices. If you want to achieve greatness in your sport, then hard work is needed, if you want to be good then less work is needed. It is up to you how hard you want to work.

I get a kick out of how each Ryder Cup captain for the United States the past 3 competitions has been so happy on how his team is shaping up. This year Paul Azinger is playing the optimistic, positive spin that his best players are on the team and he has so many great options to fill out the team with his now 4 captain’s picks. The reality is that the US Team is not shaping up well as once up and coming players like Boo Weekley have vanished from good showings in the past two months. Azinger wanted the players to be winners on the tour this year. Again it will be hard to find America tour winners to fill out the team.

Even the current crop of players have hit a wall. Kenny Perry is hurt and has played only one round in a major this year. Will he be ready to play in the most pressurized event in his home state? I hope so, because the US will need a spark. Anthony Kim has really established himself as a force, but I think he will be a little burned out from a very heavy schedule leading up to the Ryder Cup. Jim Furyk has been MIA and Phil Mickelson is still getting help from Dave Pelz on how to overanalyze a putting stroke so you can’t make anything.

I would take Sean O’Hair, David Toms and then see in the next 3 weeks who is playing hot leading up to the cup and pick the other two. 

Good luck Azinger. I am pulling for the Americas, but let’s not push the “America’s are the underdog and the Europeans have all the pressure”. Get in the face of the Americans and tell them to perform at the highest level and to play to win!

I remember when I first started teaching golf and how passionate I was to learn as much about teaching as possible. I would buy all the books, videos, and magazines to learn what the best instructors were teaching to their students. Debating swing theory with my good friend and fellow teacher Ted was always a way for me to be clear on what my teaching philosophy was going to be. Now 15 years later I am amazed at the current crop of teaching pros that learn one swing theory early and will not even listen to what another teaching believes. I may not agree with every top pro; however I have learned from teachers that taught opposite styles (Eddie Merrins vs. David Leadbetter). The teachers of today rely to heavily on video and not enough on teaching. Teaching encompasses communication, learning styles, patience, and most of all getting results. I still hear from golfers who were taught by some name teachers that didn’t understand basic cause/effect of what their miss was and just tried to fit the student into a model. Improving your golf performance needs to include a teacher who can work with you as an individual, not the cookie cutter approach. My advice for students is to ask better questions from your coaches. Ask the tough questions that will make the coach squirm. When I have that type of student I love it because it challenges me and keeps the student on top of his or her learning.

The second FED EX playoffs will officially began on Thursday. What was an interesting concept has now been viewed as a publicity stunt to create interest in a dead part of the golf calendar. There have been many in the media who have shunned these playoffs as anything but a true playoff. I would like to see the final tournament in the playoff be a match play event. After the first three events the remaining top 32 players will participate in the last event. Seeding will be done by the points system, yet when the match play event starts there is no accumulation of points from the year. In every other sport you are rewarded at the end of a successful season with the opportunity to advance into the playoffs. Once there you must win to move on. I think it would make the playoffs truly a way to conclude the season and the final match will now determine the huge cash prize. Before you could still lose the last event and win the overall title and the money that goes on with it. Let’s hope for the Tour’s sake this FedEX Cup has some intrigue. Without Tiger the end of the season has lost its importance. 

I encourage all my students to keep me updated on their progress. Of course I love to hear when my students achieve new personal bests and I am there when they have a bad day. It is funny with golf how most golfers want to just focus on their bad rounds and bad shots. They tell everybody how bad the round went and the various reasons why. Very rarely do I hear a player celebrate a good round and tell others about it. It is almost like they will jinx their next round. Some golfers have even told me it sounds “cocky” to tell others about their golf success. I disagree. You can share your successes with friends and coaches which will be a breath of fresh air for all the times that you may have complained about your game. A wife of one of my students mentioned how she didn’t understand why her husband played golf when he never seemed to enjoy it. She went on to say all he does is complain about his game. This is far too common with golf. Start today by telling your coach about a great shot you hit or a new low round score. One last thing, I just received an email from a student in Texas that shot 61, four shots better than his previous round. How awesome is that!