Today kicks off the first day of the Masters Golf Championship in Augusta, Georgia. As usual, it is difficult not to think Tiger Woods will win this tournament - or any other tournament  he enters. This year he has absolutely dominated the field and it’s almost like the field only plays for second place. At this point in his career he has no rivals that can contend with him on a weekly basis.

Beyond Tiger’s raw talent, physical strength and desire to win is an incredible mindset. It’s a responsibility. The great golf commentator, David Feherty, said that it takes responsibility to hit good shots consistently. This is exactly how Tiger plays.

On the few occasions Tiger actually hit a poor shot he does not not carry negative emotions with him into his next shot as so many others do. Immediately after a chunk, he will display his frustrations but then he moves on and accepts the current position of the ball. Once he knows where the ball is then it is all about how to make the next shot.

It seems like a pretty basic principle: think about what you need to do with your current shot rather than lament on the errors of your previous shot and you will do better. However, people are constructed in such a way that they highly value ego protection. Unfortunately, placing blame on other things allocates the focus away from the current task at hand and instead on superfluous reasoning in a dire attempt to make us feel better. This is what turns one bad shot into a round of bad shots. A player is not thinking forward about what they need to do. Instead, they are thinking about how they were  previously wronged.

The players on the PGA Tour are incredible. They can hit shots the average golfer only dreams about. The reality of the situation is that very little talent differentiates #1 and #100 on any given week. That places a huge premium on the mental aspects of the game and means the winner was the best at keeping his focus on what he has to do next. Look for it. The winner this week will be the one who looks relaxed, composed and confident about his next action because he knows exactly what he needs to do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Competition, Mindset. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.