golf champs... Nature or Nurture...

[vkurup]

We have a healthy Juniors & 'young adult' section and most of them play in the single digits. However the gap between the club/county's best and the next Rory/Speith etc seems to be enormous.

A few months ago while playing the club medals, while we we were putting out on our 8th, one of our young guys drove about 60-70y short of the P4 green. That is about 60-70y advantage over regular clubbers like me. Then his approach was too deep and eventually he par-ed the hole, but was visibly frustrated. My group which consisted of over 40s, were watching it and most were commenting on the lack of short game and 'Mindset' or 'temperament'. The juniors practice a fair bit and it is a joy to watch them in the range, but not everyone breaks through to the next level

Question is if this a case of nature or nurture. Can you teach the young ones how to handle the pressure and enable winning ways. If so, then how?. Would be interesting to hear from those involved in professional coaching both in golf & other sports.

 

[duncan mackie]

Absolutely normal situation. The answer is yes; but there a fine line between the focua providing the determination necessary to drive a youth to practice and develop and the potential negative elements that discussions aimed at calming the temperament can have on a youngster.

It's also a lot lot easier to deal with this side of things as they mature a little.

The area that can be a more permeates barrier if not addressed early is arrogance; but this may be as much to do with the environt that creates it in the first place. For every individual that has this trait as an effective driver there are a lot who have the opposite now!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think a lot of it has to do with quality coaching at that age and level. If they can get access to top county or national level coaches and work on their games with them then some, not all have a chance to progress towards the pro ranks. Most won't get there though and to that end, there has to be a degree of natural talent and also inner drive