The dark side of the Fall Finish  PGATOUR.com Contributor If you are outside the top 125 or the top 150 on the PGA TOUR money list right now click away from this page -- now. No, seriously, go away.  (Badz/PGA TOUR)
If you have ever been in a Barnes & Noble or other such mega-book peddler and perused the golf section, then you know that there are as many books about the mental side of the game as any other instruction. Everyone who has ever taken a psychology class thinks that they can help you break 90. And maybe they can -- if you are willing to talk nicely to yourself and smell the flowers after your top-dollar Titleist lands in them. Those books are decidedly one-sided, though. Wait -- hear me out. They don't ever talk about the dark side of the mental game. I make light of this because discussions of my memories of being outside the top 125 and top 150 with two weeks left in the season actually have my shrink on suicide watch. Here are the mental nuts and bolts of the situation. When you're a PGA TOUR player and you're not playing well, self-loathing and angst can seep into your psyche. Of course, if you're on the outside looking in, I know it doesn't seem possible that you could play Pebble Beach for free and have a bad time. But, you have to trust me on this one. Your wife and your caddy will tell you "there is always next week." Those words, though, in many ways are an incomplete truism. With two weeks left in the season you are out of next weeks. Next week is q-school. Next week sucks. Besides, your wife and caddy stopped talking to you weeks ago. As if the prospect of losing your job isn't bad enough, the livelihood of your caddy, your wife, your teacher and even the peace negotiations in the Middle East all hinge on your inability to make a 4-footer. To handle this you have to break down the pressure into manageable increments. I suggest you start with the Middle East then move on to Korea. To make matters worse, some of the people around you are having the time of their lives. Others don't know what to say so they have stopped calling all together. If you are a young rookie, there are kids whose brains you have beaten out at every level who have pocketed millions this year. They show up every week and get interviewed in the press center while you snap hook balls into the woods beside the driving range. Your new caddy hides all the sharp objects. Your old caddy took another bag two weeks ago and now won't look you in the eye as you walk by. If you are a veteran, it is even worse. You remember how to do it. You were that doe-eyed rookie who was on cloud nine in October once upon a time. Heck, seven months ago, you played a practice round with the little punk and he chewed your ear off asking you questions. Now that same kid has taken your job. You are burned out and tired. You haven't had to play seven weeks in a row since long before your kids were born. So, carrying all of this excess baggage, you make your way to the first tee on Thursday and against all logic hope that somehow lighting will strike. Somehow that nagging over-the-top yank that you are hitting three times a round may disappear. And, for a time, it does. You manage to shake in a couple of birdies in the first couple of holes. The gray hue that the world has taken on over the last couple of months gives way to a pleasing blue. The birds are singing and the sun is high and for a moment you are who you want to be. The problem is that whether you somehow make it happen and avoid q-school, the damage is already done. You have alienated all the people around you. Your attitude has strained even the strongest bonds. And, most of all, you don't like yourself very much. So welcome to the last two weeks of the year. The only thing standing between you and q-school is a mouse in Orlando. Spending nights dreaming up ways to dismember the rodent may not improve your play but it will sure make you feel better. I wonder what Dr. Bob Rotella and Dr. Dick Coop think of that? Actually, I know what they think -- one of them medicated me once. |
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