Tiger did it! He won the Masters. This win is up there with Arnold’s dramatic come from behind 1960 U.S. Open win, Hogan’s comeback (from serious injury) win at the 1950 U.S. Open, coined the “miracle at Merion”, 46 year old Jack’s ’86 Masters, and Tiger’s ’97 Masters, and, yes, amateur Francis Ouimet’s amazing win […]
Patience
Remembering to Forget
World #1 Dustin Johnson has skills that are impressive but stands out in one particular area of the game: the ability to remember to forget his last shot and even his last round. Amateurs would have difficulty emulating his swing but could learn a lot from DJ’s mental approach to the game. You can see […]
Masters Sunday: Rory or Reed?
OK. Final day at the Masters. Iconic. Historic. Tense. Dramatic. Who will triumph? Reed is a bulldog. He won’t let go of that three shot lead so easily. His game is sharp, decisive, intelligent, in control. As he reports, he is patient. That’s the word he keeps using, and it’s one of the most demanding […]
The Masters: Back to Tradition
Unlike most spectator sporting events, golf is known more for its polite applause than end zone antics. Even at the height of Arnie’s Army or Tiger’s legions, fans would quiet down when a shot was about to be executed. And I’ve been watching early episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf in the 50s and […]
Pain
All sentient beings, possessing a body, eventually come face to face with pain. In the course of a lifetime, there’s no getting around it. We are in a certain relationship with the experience of pain, and that relationship is often an adversarial one. Pain is something to avoid or get out of, and whole industries […]
Mindful Golf at the Battle at Birkdale
Jordan Spieth was three shots clear of Matt Kuchar going into the final round of the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale. In the first four holes of that round, Spieth, unbelievably, scored three bogeys, erasing that lead, giving Kuch and the field new life. Most golfers, pro and amateur, would have collapsed further from […]
Dealing with Injuries
China has recently banned golf for its 88 million Communist Party members (yes, 88 million!), labeling it bourgeois, decadent, and too representative of Western values. But we democrats know it to be a game that can etch good character and perseverance, especially in the face of injury. Though not quite as brutal as rugby, it can also wear […]
Bad Rounds
We’ve all had them. I had one yesterday. Frustrating. Demoralizing. Even embarrassing. They hit like a sudden cold that we didn’t see coming. First the sore throat on the warm up range where say 7 of 10 shots are not hit well, but 3 are solid, and we think, “Great. I’m ready. I’ve got it […]
The Challenge of Concentration
As we see from the playing of the British Open this week, golf requires sustained and all-encompasing concentration on every shot. This is a daunting task that most golfers often back down from. I remember during a three-month meditation retreat at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts years ago, I reached a point […]