This week has heralded the return to competitive golf of the single most important golfer of our time, Tiger Woods. As he teed off to challenge for a 5^th US Masters title, the question we all had on our minds was – “HAS HE STILL GOT IT??” His first round 4 under par made it very clear. The reason we all admire him so much is not how he conducts his affairs, but his incredible mental golf game. When other stars with once strong golf psychology have had difficulties in their private lives, they rarely recover – think Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomery. Yet Tiger so far seems stronger than ever. How is this?

Any challenge you encounter in life or on the golf course can take you in one of two directions. It will either take up so much of your mental energy that you have none left for good golf psychology. OR if you learn from it, the emotions will be resolved and the lessons propel you forward to even greater things. As golfers and as people, this is our constant choice. Our commitment to tackle and resolve difficulties is directly related to our potential for success.

A few years ago I snapped my achilles tendon in my right leg. After 18 months and 4 operations it still hadn’t healed. I was desperate to move on and get my mobility back, yet knew inside that I still wasn’t ready to move on. The only way I could heal my leg was to resolve bigger issues about wanting to move on with life. As soon as I did, my leg healed within two weeks. Since then my life has turned around beyond I could ever believe. But it took commitment. Consider this:

• When in your life have you learnt from a challenging time?
• What did it take?
• How did you do it?
• What would it be like to take the ability to learn that you used then, and use it in your game now?
• How would it change the way you play the game, now?
• What would it be like to use this in your next round?

Tiger keeps showing us his commitment to developing his mental golf game – to learn and focus under the most intense pressure. His ability to put himself into a trance for round after round is legendary. But his commitment to resolving his own emotional turmoils is even more impressive as he demonstrates new found composure and patience on the golf course.

What separates the stars from the all time greats is the commitment to learning, whatever the situation. I recently wrote an article on how to learn from and resolve frustration after poor shots. I urge you to read this article as this commitment to learning is exactly what it takes to be a Tiger!

No matter what you think about his private life, Tiger still remains the number one role model for what it takes to be at the very peak of the game. I wish him all the best for Sunday. I suspect many more mental golf tips will come from his inspiration for years to come.

If you would like more mental golf tips to develop your golf psychology further, enjoy my other blogs and sign up for free audio tipcasts now.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Golf Coach