The Fifth Major?
Some branches of philosophy suggest that ‘the self’ is a tripartite soul, comprised of reason, will/emotion and appetite. This Platonic thinking may suggest that if we are to understand ourselves and our tendencies efficiently, then as golfers we need to understand the effect one has on the other. For example, how well do we reason with ourselves when deciding on the correct shot to play? How does our emotion, or our will to score well, affect this reasoning? The Players’ Championship gave us some fine examples over the weekend, and the strongest mental game prevailed.
Rather than focus on the capitulation of Ludvig Aberg, or the underperformance of Xander Schauffele, we are going straight to the 18th tee on Sunday with Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young. The American held the momentum here after tying the lead with a birdie on the famous island green, and he stood on the tee with a chance to strike a mental hammerblow. Water left, trees right. Young said afterwards that he told himself to hit ‘the best shot of my career’, and with the crowd behind him, he did just that - 375 yards, a soft draw into the middle of the fairway.
It was in this moment, in the seconds after Young’s ball had taken flight, that Matt Fitzpatrick’s mental game was under the most intense pressure. The three Platonic parts raging against each other, the Englishman would have had a lot to process all at once - the appetite to win, the disappointment at seeing a lead disappear, the knowledge that his competitor was in the perfect position. All this without considering the effect of the crowd, who had seemed to draw upon the Bethpage-style intimidation tactics in their support of the American hero. Fitzpatrick pulled driver from the bag.
Mentally, this was his first mistake. In trying to follow his playing partner as far up the fairway as possible, he allowed his reasoning to be affected by his emotion. If he had been first to hit, would he have pulled driver? If the situation was removed, the crowd silenced, how would he have played the hole? We’ll never know for sure, but in all likelihood the best way for him to play the 18th at TPC Sawgrass was not the way he chose. The shot was not a bad one, but the absence of enough draw shape saw the ball chase through the fairway and head into the pine straw, all but removing his chance of a par on the hole.
In many cases, it takes years to develop the ability to stay in the present. The fact that the 17th had come and gone and his playing partner had hit an all-timer were both factors outside of Fitzpatrick’s control, consigned to the past. All he had was the moment right there, the shot he was about to take…the control he could exert was his choice of club and the knowledge of his own strengths under the gun. By creating his own world and associating some physical cues to help him zone in, he could have made a better choice. The beauty of the game of golf is that all of this might have made no difference to the result, but that’s immaterial. The goal is to give yourself the best chance, which some would argue he did not do.
Obviously, Fitzpatrick experienced a kind of pressure that in our own games, most of us do not, nor will we ever. That is not to say that we cannot learn from it, and there are a few things that we can all do to help us stay mentally present during a pressure-packed moment:
Anchoring: A physical cue to bring about a calm state. When you are flushing the ball at the range, develop a physical action such as touching the peak of your hat, adjusting your glove strap…anything that feels right to you. Perform that action when the pressure is on and recall that state of mind.
The ‘Swipe’: Unwanted thoughts creep in when you are under pressure. Don’t fight them - replace them. If you’re thinking ‘there’s the hazard, don’t hit it there’, recognise that’s a normal response. Then, in vivid detail, swipe the thought away and imagine the perfect shot soaring into the perfect place. Imagine the old thought being ‘swiped’ as if from a phone screen, and being replaced with your perfect scenario.
The ‘Focused Relax’: When you stand behind the ball, focus your attention on releasing tension from your whole body. Start with shoulders and work your way down to your feet, imagining tension draining away. Visualise your shot in great detail and step in, fully relaxed but focused on your process.
Cameron Young showed mental strength of the elite kind during the closing stretch on Sunday. Far from making mental errors, he executed his mental gameplan perfectly. He does not appear to be a player who overthinks or gets too high or low emotionally, and maybe this is a natural strength. Whatever it was, it worked. In my view, he is the perfect representation of how mentality can affect outcome. For years he promised much, but delivered little. Those days are over.
