Sandhu

[mpare]

Sandhu buffed the ice with his body yesterday. Ready as ever to take on his rightful responsibility for this all too typical performance, he explained to a CBC reporter that the root cause of all his troubles lay in the fact that he hadn't been picked by Canadian skating officials to be on Canada's team in 1998! This says it all about why this man can't skate under pressure. My advice to the dear darling: take responsibility for your failures and do something about it or get out of the limelight.

[BC MIST]

Sandhu buffed the ice with his body yesterday. Ready as ever to take on his rightful responsibility for this all too typical performance, he explained to a CBC reporter that the root cause of all his troubles lay in the fact that he hadn't been picked by Canadian skating officials to be on Canada's team in 1998! This says it all about why this man can't skate under pressure. My advice to the dear darling: take responsibility for your failures and do something about it or get out of the limelight.

No Candu Sandu, didn't. Again.

Highly talented but no attitude. The parallel to golf is that once you develop the fear mode, it is almost impossible to overcome and perform consistently well. Stojko and Browning had no fear and were world champs. Nicklaus and Woods had/have no fear and were/are the best of their respective eras.

[Chieflongtee]

No Candu Sandu, didn't. Again.

Nicklaus and Woods had/have no fear and were/are the best of their respective eras.

They have fears and doubts. They are human. They have learned to deal with them and overcome them.

[Andru]

They have fears and doubts. They are human. They have learned to deal with them and overcome them.

Correction the have fears yes. Doubts I've never heard Jack or Tiger say they doubt themselves. In fact I've heard Nicklaus say he's never missed a 6 footer for par. Yes, he has, but in his mind. He's perfect.

[Hank Hill]

That performance was painful to watch. He should stop blaming others and look at himself. Also, what's with all the makeup??? He should be out practicing his routine rather than wasting time putting on all that lipstick and eyeliner.

[Chieflongtee]

Correction the have fears yes. Doubts I've never heard Jack or Tiger say they doubt themselves. In fact I've heard Nicklaus say he's never missed a 6 footer for par. Yes, he has, but in his mind. He's perfect.

When in the ZONE yes fearless and doubtless. When in a SLUMP plenty of both.

[BC MIST]

Correction the have fears yes. Doubts I've never heard Jack or Tiger say they doubt themselves. In fact I've heard Nicklaus say he's never missed a 6 footer for par. Yes, he has, but in his mind. He's perfect.

Exactly. It is incorrect to assume that the golfing greats have fears until they acknowledge them. Nicklaus' mindset was different than most and this is one part of his game that set him apart.

Years ago in the Alexander of Tunis tournament I played with Graham Cooke, one of Canada's best ever, amateur golfers. Early on the front nine at the Royal Ottawa he lipped out a bunker shot, swore and threw his club to the ground. He then hit the stick from a bunker shortly after and repeated the action. On number 9, from the right green side bunker, he holed the shot, put his hands on his hips and exclaimed, "Finally!"

His sole thought was to hole the shot. He did not see miss in the equation and was surprised when he did. He had, NO FEAR!!

Watch young kids play golf, particularly around the greens. They smash everything at the hole and have NO fear of missing. That is the way to play golf. Be a predator. You have to see the perfect shot everytime and know that you are going to do it, everytime. That is what makes champions.

[Chieflongtee]

Exactly."Finally!"

.

Did he mean FINALLY I get a break?

[BC MIST]

Did he mean FINALLY I get a break?

How can you suggest that holing a bunker shot is nothing more than getting a "break?" That means that his holing out on #9 was pure luck. Quite the contrary. As I mentioned above, Graham's mindset is to make. Plane and simple.

I would not presume to know how other golfers think, but, my attitude is, "If I can't birdie the first hole, I can't birdie them all." I "see" hitting every fairway, holing every iron shot and just in case I don't, I see chipping in or sinking every putt. Do others just try to get the ball close? Do they hope they hit the fairway, or green? The "Hope and Pray" mindset simply keeps golfers scores up.

While it may sound somewhat arrogant, the best players only see success. They don't see failure. They don't see the water, bunkers, OB or the like.

[Chieflongtee]

I know what you are saying but unrealistic in real life. If you were to do so you would score an all time low of 54 which to my knowledge has never been posted.54 would be with a birdie on every hole. And 36 with an eagle on every hole. And while I don't want to take anything away from Graham what are the reall odds of sinking a bunker shot?

[jvincent]

And while I don't want to take anything away from Graham what are the reall odds of sinking a bunker shot?

From a decent lie, with green to work with, I'd say about the same as chipping.

I've holed probably a half dozen from the bunker in my "career". To a certain degree, yes, they were lucky, but only in the same sense that sinking a 40 foot putt is lucky. I'm a good enough bunker player that I am trying to get it in the hole from a decent lie. Whether it hits a pebble on the way and pushes the ball in/out of the hole is luck. Hitting it in a way that it has a legitimate chance of going in is not.

Obviously if I'm buried in the lip, I'm just trying to get it out.

[beefstuf]

It is definately the mindset that these athletes have been training for all their lives. These athletes have exercised this no fear attitude as much as they have exercised their physical attributes. The best players blame themselves for their failures, never the equipment, the committees, the noise, etc.

They have trained to eliminate all extermal factors and visualize all attributes of success. We watched Sandhu and he did not skate with charisma, and passion, or with the mindset of a gold medal winner. A gold medal winner skated like the russian who won this event. Like this was the last attempt to win a medal in his entire life. Like this is the moment that he has been training his whole life for. I know cliche....

IMHO of course. In golf especially if you are fortunate enough to reach a certain level you fail because of the doubts or because you did not plan / visualize the shot you need to make. If you focus on that shot to go in, it will go in. Luck is something that is achieved through hours of practice.

[BC MIST]

I know what you are saying but unrealistic in real life. If you were to do so you would score an all time low of 54 which to my knowledge has never been posted.54 would be with a birdie on every hole. And 36 with an eagle on every hole. And while I don't want to take anything away from Graham what are the reall odds of sinking a bunker shot?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think you have missed the point. When you have a bunker shot, what is your ultimate goal? Not leave it in the bunker? Just get it on the green? Not skull it over the green? With this kind of negative thinking, what is the probability of your "yipping" the shot, in some way, compared to a golfer who only sees the bottom of the hole? The answer is obvious. Graham and many other expert golfers only see the positive and their ultimate goal is MAKE. . Because golf is so difficult, scoring 36 or 54 won't likely ever be done, but it is possible, however, remotely. No-one believed in 59 until Al Geriberger did it. Then Chip Beck, Davis Duval, Annika, Notay Begay and others. Perhaps there is a 55 out there somewhere.

Have you ever seen someone with the putting yips? The left wrist collapses, the right releases, the heads looks up, the knees move, the shoulders rotate, and the golfer misses. He then pulls the ball back and strokes it firmly into the backof the cup. Why? On the first stroke that counted he was afraid of missing. On the second that did not matter, where there was NO FEAR, he could make the putt blind folded.

Did you watch Tom Watson in his latter years when he had 6 foot putts? Yikes! FEAR makes your muscles go twitchy.

I firmly believe that if a golfer thinks he is going to miss, he will, but if he thinks he is going to make, he may. That subtlety separates the champions from everyone else. Now, choose one.

[Chieflongtee]

I have not missed your point. Success brings success. Remember success forget failure. Play the perfect shot in your mind if you'd like it is only going to happen 5 or 6 times a game at best. And if you expect to hole everything you will end up a very frustrated golfer. Of course I'd like to hole out every bunker shot and every chip and so on. But in real life it's a different story.

[jvincent]

And if you expect to hole everything you will end up a very frustrated golfer.

I think the subtle difference is between EXPECTING and TRYING.

I'm trying to hole them all, but not expecting it. I've played with guys who expect everything to go perfectly. They usually don't have fun.