Zen Golf Newsletter
April 2008
- The Masters
- Listen to Dr. Joe
- Tournament Notes
- Checking Emails
- More from the Tour
- Dr. Joe at Your Club
- Golf Shop: Gifts for Mother's Day
and Father's Day
The Masters has come and gone, so the opening of golf
season is now official! Congrats to Trevor Immelman and a
speedy rehab to Tiger!
The Masters
The Masters Tournament is now playing as such a difficult
test that the traditional roars of back-nine excitement have
been largely absent. The days of big hitters making eagles and
birdie runs and a fluid/volatile leader board to the last hole
may be forever in the past. This year the winner ground out a
three-over-par 75 on a day when all challengers succumbed to a
demon or two. It equaled the highest closing round ever by a
Masters Champion, set almost 50 years ago. Still, take nothing
away from Trevor Immelman. It is rare that someone is near the
top of the stat chart in both driving accuracy and driving
distance.
Trevor got some special help from his idol, Gary Player.
Putting advice: to keep his head down – my
version of that would be to stay more focused on the process
of rolling a good putt than worrying about how it will turn
out. It is that worry that produces the anticipatory look that
pulls us up out of our putting posture.
Attitude
advice: believe in your self and be ready for
adversity – the first part is important; the second part
doesn’t get mentioned often enough. That doesn’t mean
expecting that you’ll hit a lot of bad shots – it means
pre-acceptance of the ups and downs that usually happen
through a round, understanding that they’ll be magnified on
that course and in that circumstance, and not letting the
adversity start a negative cycle that brings ever more
adversity.
In Tiger’s round we saw something highly unusual – the
expression on his face after he missed 4-foot par-saver on the
fourth hole. As he marked and reset his ball for his second
putt, there was a look of drained resignation, on which David
Feherty commented during the broadcast. Only later did we
discover that he was playing in a good deal of pain from his
knee. While he said that it didn’t directly affect any of the
swings he made, the cumulative affect of ongoing pain is
stressful and exhausting. The resultant fatigue would make it
harder to focus on those critical putts inside 10 feet, and
would explain why he was missing the putts that he is usually
the best in the world at holing. If it’s hard to focus on path
and pace, there is a tendency to steer the putt, and that’s
what it looked like Tiger was doing on the short ones. It
matches his description of having no trouble on the long
putts, but on the short ones feeling like he was “dragging”
the putter through the stroke instead of releasing freely.
***********
Listen to Dr. Joe
“At the Turn” with Peter Kessler, on The PGA TOUR
Network, XM Radio Channel 146, is featuring Dr. Joe on a
regular basis. They had a great talk on Monday after the
Masters. Listen for Doc’s comments, usually in the second half
of the 8-9am Eastern time broadcast. Check website listings
for re-broadcast times.
Dr. Joe was an invited speaker at the World Scientific Congress of
Golf, March 25, Phoenix, AZ.
http://golfscience.us
While in Phoenix, Doc gave a talk to the ASU Lady Sun
Devils Golf Team.
Doc has also spoken to a number of collegiate men’s teams
in the past year, including UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Memphis,
and Colorado (the latter two during a tournament in southern
California). He’s also recently worked with individual players
from Memphis, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara.
***********
Tournament Notes
Some past tournament thoughts didn’t fit in past
newsletters, so let’s catch up with some of our PGA Tour Notes
. . ..
FBR Open: In Phoenix, we were treated to our second
playoff of the PGA season. J.B. Holmes had birdie
opportunities twice on eighteen that day. After a back nine
filled with indecision and more grinding than a mental game
coach ever wants to see, J.B. came through with the putter and
secured his second PGA Tour victory.
Watching Holmes trying to visualize some shots, especially
his 3-iron to the island green on the 15th hole was painful.
Nick Faldo, the broadcast commentator, described his
discomfort with the shot, and the ball ending up in the water
hazard was not a surprise outcome.
Holmes, who obviously loves the 18th hole, stood over the
tee shot with supreme confidence both on the 72nd regulation
and 1st playoff holes. This comfort zone allowed him to put
the indecisiveness behind and swing freely, setting up short
pitches, and correspondingly short birdie putts, both times.
Swashbucklers like Holmes and Mickelson are extremely fun
players to watch. They will try just about any shot at just
about any time. This can cause unnecessary stress toward the
end of a long day or week. The best players know how to
conserve mental energy throughout a round or a tournament.
PODS Championship in Tampa: Sean O’Hair returned to
the winner’s circle, showing the determination that had him
leading last year’s Player’s Championship going into the final
round. He showed a good attitude in response to his quadruple
bogey on 17, and there have obviously been no long-standing
effects. Stewart Cink showed some vulnerability after losing
his eighth 3rd round lead in nine opportunities.
***********
Checking Emails
Let your fellow readers know the ways that ZEN GOLF or ZEN
PUTTING has helped in your life and/or your golf game by
emailing us at info@zengolf.com. (Also,
don’t be afraid to recommend working with Dr. Joe to your
friends; once you’ve raised your game, it’s only fair to let
them know how you did it.)
***********
More from the Tour
TOUR Streaks: Tiger Woods kept his PGA Tour and
worldwide streaks alive, winning Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill
Invitational, (with yet another world class Nike commercial
moment)! Bart Bryant gave it all he had, but we all know that
sometimes that’s just not enough against Tiger. The next week
at the World Golf Championship tourney at Doral, however,
Tiger’s putting touch was missing, and Geoff Ogilvy was able
to string together nine Monday morning pars to hold off the
strongest field of the year.
Lorena Ochoa now has a four tournament streak going (and 5
of 6 so far this year), including the first major of the year,
the Kraft-Nabisco. She qualified for the Golf Hall of Fame,
with her 11-stroke victory at the Corona Championship in her
home country. She is the second youngest ever to qualify, and
becomes eligible for induction in 2012. Interesting to compare
her domination of the ladies’ tour with Tiger’s domination of
the men’s. Is she thinking of the Grand Slam?
Christina Kim, who started working with Dr. Joe in January,
made three consecutive Top Ten finishes in Hawaii, Singapore
and Phoenix. Congrats to Christina!
Stat City: One of our favorite PGA Tour statistics
is the “Bounce Back.” This is a measure of the percentage of
time that a player is over par for one hole and then under par
for the following hole. Through the Zurich Classic, Steve
Flesch, Rory Sabbatini, Padraig Harrington and Anthony Kim
were all bouncing back at better than a 30% clip!
***********
Dr. Joe at Your Club
If you’d like to see Dr. Joe at your club for a
presentation or a private lesson, or if you have a company or
association that would like to hear one of his “Mastering the
Mental Game in Business” presentations, please contact us at
the office, 805-640-1046, for scheduling and other details.
***********
Golf Shop: Gifts for Mother's Day and Father's Day
Please visit the Golf
Shop at zengolf.com for Zen
Golf and Zen
Putting, as well as specials on CD
audiobooks, audio
downloads, informative and entertaining DVD's,
and Zen Golf
Hats. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are on the way –
consider a gift certificate for an in-person or phone lesson
with Dr. Joe!
***********
For more information on any Zen Golf programs, please call
the Zen Golf International office at (805)640-1046 or email info@zengolf.com
Feel free to forward this newsletter, or links to
archived newsletters. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if
there are other topics you’d like to see addressed in our Zen
Golf Newsletters, or any other feedback that will help us
serve you better.
Yours in Clarity, Commitment, and Composure,
Ken Zeiger
Program Director,
Zen Golf International
©2008
Dr. Joe Parent
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