Tiger at the Masters: An Ultimate Test of Toughness
From his days as a child golf prodigy, Tiger Woods has thrived in the spotlight. But can any athlete be mentally prepared for the circus that will unfold at this year’s Masters? After taking a four-month leave of absence from golf to deal with the fallout from his shocking infidelity scandal, Woods will make his highly anticipated return to the sport this week, at the Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga. In an interview with SI.com last month, Sean McManus, president of both CBS Sports and CBS News, called Woods’ return to golf “the biggest media event other than the Obama Inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years.” A hyperbolic reach from the leader of the network set to broadcast the final two rounds of the Masters this weekend? Sure. Still, the cameras will be glaring, the tabloids screaming, and one of Woods’ alleged mistresses has indicated she plans to dance at a strip club in nearby Atlanta. This will be a Masters unlike any other.(See Tiger Woods in the 2010 TIME 100 poll.)
In the midst of such madness, what can Woods do to stay focused on his golf game? Before we give out psychological advice to the embattled golf superstar, let us be the first to admit that he probably doesn’t need it. Until he proves otherwise, Woods is still the mentally toughest athlete on the planet. “He wrote the book that we’re all using,” says Gio Valiante, author of Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game, who is currently acting as golf shrink for Camilo Villegas, one of the best young players on the PGA Tour. “He’s got this belief system that is perfectly constructed for adversity.”
Valiante has played golf with Woods on about a half-dozen occasions. “More so than any other person I’ve ever studied, he’s the best straight learner I’ve ever seen,” Valiante gushes. “He makes mistakes, but then you watch him go about his business and he doesn’t make that mistake twice.” (Of course, you could argue that the sheer number of Woods’ alleged mistresses, over 15 by some counts, proves that he’s quite capable of repeat offending.)
The key, says Valiante, is Woods’ constant quest to be better. As TIME wrote in a 2000 cover story about Woods: “What is most remarkable about Woods is his restless drive for what the Japanese call kaizen, or continuous improvement. Toyota engineers will push a perfectly good assembly line until it breaks down. Then they’ll find and fix the flaw and push the system again. That’s kaizen. That’s Tiger.” These words were written after Woods’ first reconstruction of his golf swing, a revamping he undertook after winning the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes. Despite his continued dominance, he has made major changes to his swing at least two more times in the past decade. “He has taken the greatest game in history, broken it and put together something better,” says Valiante.(See a brief history of the Tiger Woods scandal.)
Valiante believes Woods, who has undergone therapy, will reconstruct his life along similar lines. His game will surely follow suit. Valiante points to a relatively overlooked quote from Woods’ March 21 interview with ESPN. “The strength that I feel now, I’ve never felt this type of strength,” Woods told the network. To a psychologist like Valiante, those words are particularly telling. “Think about that,” he says. “Woods is finding strength through redemption and humility. It’s like when A-Rod admitted he used steroids. A massive burden was lifted off his shoulders, and he could go out and play.”(Comment on this story.)
Despite Woods’ obvious resolve, a little advice from the golf shrinks couldn’t hurt, especially since he’s entering a pressure cooker with the potential to break even the best athletes. For example, if Woods were on his couch, Bob Rotella, a noted golf psychologist and author of Your 15th Club: The Inner Secret to Great Golf, would encourage the golfer to truly relish this uncomfortable comeback. “Love the challenge,” Rotella says. “This is a totally different challenge than you’re used to. Go out and test yourself. Go love it.” Rotella also recommends that Woods pal around with his fellow players in the clubhouse. “After you’ve had a problem, you want to see if your buddies still like you,” Rotella says.
Patrick Cohn, a sports psychologist based in Orlando, Fla., and author of Peak Performance Golf: How Good Golfers Become Great Ones, says that Woods can block out distractions by not trying to block out distractions. Instead of telling himself to tune out the occasional heckler, he should just visualize placing the ball in the fairway. “Once you focus on the right stuff,” Cohn says, “distractions fall by the wayside.”(See the top 10 scandals of 2009.)
When Woods was a teenager, he worked with a hypnotist to help place his mind in the proverbial zone. And given his recent revelations that he’s reconnected with Buddhism, it’s fair to assume that Woods is doing a fair amount of quiet introspection. Do more of it, say the psychologists. With practice, you can enter an altered, hypnotic state on the golf course, though not to the point where you’re barking like a dog on command. “You are aware of what’s going on,” says Ken Grossman, a Sacramento, Calif.–based hypnotherapist who has worked with many athletes. “You’re not out in left field.”
For example, Jennifer Scott, a golf hypnotherapist from Phoenix, suggests staring at some object on the course — perhaps a leaf on a fairway tree — and taking a deep breath while waiting to take a shot. “Your eyes are very powerful,” she says. “If you’re darting your eyes back and forth, you lose focus.” Summon the subconscious and give yourself a mantra. “Think peace, harmony, relax, relax,” Scott says. “The golfers I teach love those words.” Denise Silbert, a hypnosis expert from La Jolla, Calif., recommends selecting a physical trigger, like holding a golf ball while walking down the fairway, which will signal your brain to slow down. “As I hold the golf ball, I feel a calm energy,” Silbert says. “I let go of the conscious riffraff, I’m reprogramming the unconscious mind. The verbiage in my mind is affirming: ‘Fairways of power, greens of solace.’” Are you in a trance yet? For Woods, Scott suggests a less hippie-sounding mental chant, perhaps, “I’m the greatest player in the world, see each shot as it lands.”
While affirming his greatness, Woods should also visualize his most triumphant moments. “I’d have him channel a mental movie,” says Grossman. “While he’s in that relaxed state, he should recall his 2008 U.S. Open championship win against Rocco Mediate. He would want to remind himself he won that with a broken leg, and here at the Masters, he’s not even feeling any pain.”(See the top 10 awkward moments of 2009.)
And despite the pain he may be enduring in his personal life, the shrinks don’t recommend betting against him. “His head will be in a good place on the golf course,” says Rotella, the golf psychologist. “He’s going to put all his energy into playing great, and that crazy mother probably will.”
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Tiger Woods at the Masters: A Test of Mental Preparation:
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I’ve never been much of a sports fan, getting excited, usually, pretty much only for championship games (and sometimes the playoffs leading up to the finale). But Tiger Woods got me far more excited than I ever dreamed I would become over any sport, including football — and I grew up in football-crazed Texas. (If you think high-school football is a waste or a joke, here’s a hint: don’t say that to a Texan!!! )
Now that Tiger has been dragged through the mud, I hope he is indeed able to stay focused on his game and returns to his former glory and to his providing enormous inspiration to untold numbers of people, and not just golfers. I remember seeing a television show about a guy, a professional chef, who had long dreamed of opening his own restaurant, something he finally did — inspired by Tiger. He said he had followed Tiger’s professional career closely, and tried to figure out how to apply Tiger’s approach to golf to his own approach to establishing his restaurant, which was inordinately successful in an inordinately short time — for which he credits what he called “Tiger tactics.” (Incidentally, the chef’s other source of great inspiration was one that on the face of it seems entirely disconnected from Tiger: Sun Tze’s The Art of War — but think about that a few minutes. Interesting, huh?)
Regarding Tiger’s problems in his personal life, you know what? — They’re absolutely, 100%, completely, and totally none of my business. He’s a golfer, not a guru. Both the media at large and the general public remind me of vampires sitting around drooling, rubbing their hands in gleeful anticipation of the next revelation. So the hell what??? That’s between him and his family, plus anyone else whom he may wish to let in. I find the morbid fascination with the “Woods’ Woes” on the part of so many repulsive. Sure, I hope he gets his personal life straightened out, especially now that it has been laid as bare as a devout Catholic bares his or her soul in the confessional. Were Tiger not already famous, his marital cheating wouldn’t raise many, if any, eyebrows. What competent editor would run a story about anyone completely unknown who couldn’t keep his pants on? Lots of guys have been guilty of marital infidelity — but they don’t become rich and famous for it.
Just as the sports psychotherapists quoted in this story all essentially say Tiger needs to stay focused on his golf in his public persona, we need to stay focused on it too.
After all, that’s why we began paying any attention to him in the first place.
I’ve never been much of a sports fan, getting excited, usually, pretty much only for championship games (and sometimes the playoffs leading up to the finale). But Tiger Woods got me far more excited than I ever dreamed I would become over any sport, including football — and I grew up in football-crazed Texas. (If you think high-school football is a waste or a joke, here’s a hint: don’t say that to a Texan!!! )
Now that Tiger has been dragged through the mud, I hope he is indeed able to stay focused on his game and returns to his former glory and to his providing enormous inspiration to untold numbers of people, and not just golfers. I remember seeing a television show about a guy, a professional chef, who had long dreamed of opening his own restaurant, something he finally did — inspired by Tiger. He said he had followed Tiger’s professional career closely, and tried to figure out how to apply Tiger’s approach to golf to his own approach to establishing his restaurant, which was inordinately successful in an inordinately short time — for which he credits what he called “Tiger tactics.” (Incidentally, the chef’s other source of great inspiration was one that on the face of it seems entirely disconnected from Tiger: Sun Tze’s The Art of War — but think about that a few minutes. Interesting, huh?)
Regarding Tiger’s problems in his personal life, you know what? — They’re absolutely, 100%, completely, and totally none of my business. He’s a golfer, not a guru. Both the media at large and the general public remind me of vampires sitting around drooling, rubbing their hands in gleeful anticipation of the next revelation. So the hell what??? That’s between him and his family, plus anyone else whom he may wish to let in. I find the morbid fascination with the “Woods’ Woes” on the part of so many repulsive. Sure, I hope he gets his personal life straightened out, especially now that it has been laid as bare as a devout Catholic bares his or her soul in the confessional. Were Tiger not already famous, his marital cheating wouldn’t raise many, if any, eyebrows. What competent editor would run a story about anyone completely unknown who couldn’t keep his pants on? Lots of guys have been guilty of marital infidelity — but they don’t become rich and famous for it.
Just as the sports psychotherapists quoted in this story all essentially say Tiger needs to stay focused on his golf in his public persona, we need to stay focused on it too.
After all, that’s why we began paying any attention to him in the first place.
Great article on Tiger Woods and the Masters
“An ultimate test of toughness?” My goodness what a farce. To play a game when strangers might say mean things to you? I dug ditches today to feed my family. I will do that tomorrow in Boulder, in 45 degree temps. You are an absurd man.
I was going to write something prolific, and then I read Jane Iddings’ response. Kudos and “wow.” I cannot do better.
Tiger at the Masters: An Ultimate Test of Toughness
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There is no question that Tiger has control of his mind and by controlling it, he will control his behavior — he will play a magnificent game of golf.
He uses all his inner resources to tap into his right brain, to program his subconscious to play that perfect or near-perfect game of golf. We can learn much from Tiger’s full use of his left and right brain.
We can also learn from the experts quoted in this article who tell us to relax (get in an alpha state); visualize past successes; keep the brain focused; program the right brain for success; have a physical trigger to prompt the right brain’s programming; repeat affirmations; and encourage his resurrection as the world’s greatest golfer and possibly the world’s greatest athlete.
Most certainly (aside from his shameful infidelities) he is a role model for programming success and practising kaizen: continuous improvement. His personal life is a learning experience. It does not negate everything else that Tiger is.
Tiger will continue to do wonderful things.
Stop the bull — he won’t even make the cut.
Tiger at the Masters: An Ultimate Test of His Toughness