What You Shoule Learn From-Golden Bear's Persistence
The well-known golf Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus will celebrate his 70th birthday this week, but the man regarded by many as golf's greatest player will not have his feet up for too long.
He first picked up a club at the age of ten and was soon winning age events all over the state. Today, Nicklaus is one of the most respected and best loved figures in the game, but it has been a long journey, one that has stretched over half a century. Despite his age, the 18 times majors champion remains actively involved in golf course design and will be straight back to work immediately after his three-day fishing trip.
The business is how Nicklaus, who won six U.S Masters titles, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens and five PGA Championships, has kept his competitive juices flowing in the years since he began to fade from the top level of the game in the mid-eighties.
"When you lose (your) ability to play the game, you lose your vehicle to compete. Competition is my big deal. Competition is what I love," he said in a teleconference ahead of his birthday on Thursday.
"My expectations of my game were very high most of my life. And as my swing speed with ping g10 irons went down, as my ball-striking ability went down, as my ability to dominate a golf course went down, that vehicle left me. So I had to find other vehicles.
"I'm a very fortunate guy in that golf course design is something that kept me in the game of golf. I had my competition with a piece of land and the ground I was working with."
Many in the game would have preferred Nicklaus, who recorded 73 wins on the PGA Tour, to have competed more regularly on the over-50 Champions Tour and in other big events.
But it was hard for the 'Golden Bear' to play at a lower level than in his prime and Nicklaus Designs, the company he runs with his four sons and his son-in-law, filled the gap. Maybe you would say that many swingers are swinging their cheap golf clubs better than Jack Nicklaus, or maybe you would say he is not the best. But I will tell you that no individual has been able to develop and combine and sustain all of the complex physical skills and the immense mental and emotional resources the game demands at its highest level as well as Jack Nicklaus has for as long as he has.
I like his persistence and admire his courage, how about you?
Jack Nicklaus Festoon Golf Summit
About the Author
Technically Perfect Golf Does Not Always Win Over Good Mental Golf
Have you noticed that the winners on the professional golf tours around the world aren't always technically or statistically the best players. They often don't even look like the best player over the four rounds the week they win. Now, I know that's a contradiction, because if they win the event, then they must be the best in that event.
Going back a few weeks to the 2009 Masters, no one would suggest that Kenny Perry, Angel Cabrera and Chad Campbell were the best players in the field, but they were the one's that got into the playoff, despite their obvious mistakes. Many of the technically and statistically better players looked to be playing really well, but despite some amazing heroics from the likes of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, none of them came near getting into the playoff.
You're often hearing me talk about how I started my golf during the golden years of my golfing hero Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear. Listening to me and many other pundits, you'd imagine that Jack was the most technically and statistically perfect golfer of all time. However, I have to admit that although he may still be the best golfer the world's ever known, he was physically and technically way behind the likes of Tiger Woods.
I was recently picked up my rather well thumbed copy of Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible, published in 1999 and re-read his section on the ideal composite golfer - who he would pick as the top three golfers in each of six key technical areas. Interestingly, Tiger Woods appears only once as Number two behind Greg Norman in Driving and Fairway Woods and Jack Nicklaus doesn't appear at all!
A more recent article broadly confirms these results, but this time it includes ratings for the Mental Game and Course Management. The truly great golfers, like Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo, rise to the top in these categories and demonstrate how they make the best of their all-round technical skills through the strength in the areas of golf psychology.
In conclusion, I suggest that although it's good to be as technically and physically competent as you possibly can, you're more likely to achieve consistently good golf by mastering the mental side of golf and your course management first. The time to work on the technical side of your swing and putting stroke is when you are achieving the best results you can with your current ones.
About the Author
Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf" and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.
Visit his website for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.
Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at http://www.golf-hypnotist.com/ and get your free 25- minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 that goes with this article.
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