“On the PGA Tour, where all the players can hit quality shots, the mental side is at least 90 percent of the margin between winners and losers” (Tom Kite, in the prologue of “Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect”, by Bob Rotella and Bob Cullen). “A golfer can and should decide on the way he thinks” (Bob Rotella and Bob Cullen in “Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect”).
Two quotes on the mental part of the game, very decisive. These types of quotes are usually right on the spot, direct and profound. And there is a lot of truth to them. Unfortunately, no saying, even standing by it as if it were an order, can guarantee anything. Sergio Garcia, for example, adequately decided how he should be thinking during the last round of the TPC Sawgrass and still wasn’t able to win. He decided that the first three rounds tangled up on the greens were history.
Since the moment he didn’t make the putt on the 1st hole, it was clear. The Spanish golfer wasn’t going to give away any type of emotional edge to his rivals. And after, whatever it took, but the tournament had already decided in that ten percent that doesn’t have to do with the mental side of things: the putt that didn’t land on the 13th, the 3-wood Fowler missed, after which he ended up placing the ball perfectly for an eagle on the 16th, Sergio’s fantastic putt on the 17th to work his way back into the fight, or the one he missed by a thread on the 18th, during the tie… Crucial moments that also have a little to do with luck, truth be told.
