Rory - Talk of the town...

Alex_narey

Alex_narey

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Morning all,

Our resident Mind Game guru, Gary Leboff, is about to write his latest column for the magazine this month. It seems that Rory's unforunate demise is top of the agenda. Any questions/problems/personal experiences you would like to direct to Gary that correlate with what happened to Rory then please feel free to post here. I will send a selection on to him for his next few columns.

Thanks,
Hope you are enjoying the sun.
 
Rory was clearly a big candidate to lose from in front (thinking Swiss tournament a few years ago), however, he is by far the first in recent times. In fact he is the 3rd of the up and coming players who recently have had a decent lead going into a major and failed to break 80 (Rory (80), Dustin Johnson (82) and Nick Watney (81) the other 2). Is it genuinely harder ffor these guys to be 4 ahead than 2 or 3 behind?

Nick Watney has already been out and won a big tournament since (big credit to him for that and Dustin for finishing 2nd in that too). Does the losing experience make you a stronger person next time round, or does it make you more likely to blow up again next time in the same position, or does have different effects on different people. If it is the latter, which category do you think Rory falls into, and how should he be trying to make sure he comes out stronger?
 
Does Gary Leboff think that Rorys blow up and all the sympathetic attention he was getting on the last day affected Angel Cabreras Chances on the final day?

Final group in on the final day of the Masters must be hard enough without all that going on.
 
Years ago I played a club match and unexpectedly hammered my opponent. At the return match the other team saw me in a different light, and their expectation changed such that they put their best player against me.

I lost the first ( 3 putt from inside my opponent - who one putted ), but managed to hold my own for the next four holes, but then lost every hole until I got stuffed 8 & 6 ( I think - if I'm out a fraction you get the gist ).

I suddenly couldn't hit the ball at all. I tried REALLY concentrating. I tried forgetting about it, and just walking up and hitting it. I tried everything I could think of to stop the rot. I just totally, TOTALLY lost it.

My question :

Does the raised expectation often cause a negative reaction, and what is the best way to deal with such a total collapse mid round?

This happened many many years ago and I still remember the feeling, even more than I remember the actual round itself, although some of the horror shots are still very vivid in my minds eye.

:( :D
 
I feel i play my best golf when i'm relaxed and playing bounce games with little or nothing at stake and not counting score/points etc. Give me a medal card and i start to over think things with (usually) a destructive effect. While our monthly medal is vastly more important and prestigious than the so-called "Masters", Rory's recent 4th round collapse did make me wonder if he had started to over think things etc.

My question is, during a competetive round of golf, what strategies can you suggest to help reduce these destructive over-analytical thoughts from getting in the way of a good score?

Cheers, Ray
 
Another question.

Rory's nerves ( I assume ) affected his putting stroke first, which put more pressure on his swing as the round progressed.

Putting is perceived as being more mechanical over these 'short' putts than the rest of golf shots. Should we be having a different mind set on approach play, to how we think once we hit the dance floor?
 
Can you ask gary why is it that as with golfers of our level we play ourselves into contention with our normal game, then as we get there the game changes maybe to a safer better not mess up what i have type game, what is it that goes off in the head to trigger the nerves & stops you playing aswell as you were ?? why cant we keep playing attacking scoring golf , would it be better to loose playing the golf that got me in winning position or try play safe & blow it anyhow ?? how do we stop geting ahead of ourselves thinking of final score with 3 holes to play etc ?? finaly does rorys caddy have to take some of the blame as with van de velde in the open ? what can the caddy do to stop the slide ? sorry for all the questions but was 3 over with 3 to play the other week & the putts & shots that came natrualy for the 1st 17holes all of a sudden became hard, when the inner voices told me , 3 pars gets me in in 75. how do you turn off those dreaded voices in the head , (bogeyed the last 3 holes by the way)
 
With the 3 examples of players who had a reasonable lead 'blowing up' and finishing down the order, is it psychologically more difficult to hold a lead than to chase a leader down?

I believe it is, as with a lead you are expected to maintain it irrespective of how anyone else is playing. This surely gets back to playing the course not the individual - was it all the cheers from the galleries that affected Rory - was he imagining incredible feats by other players and subconsciously that affected his game.

I remember being 3 up with 5 to play in a matchplay competition to someone I perceived at that time to be a better player and lost 1 down. The following year we were drawn togerther again - this time I was the hunter - he was 2 up at the turn but I triumphed 2&1. I found it easier to hunt than be hunted.
 
I have played in a few competitions in the last year or so. I seem to start reasonably well (despite some nerves) but it all starts to go wrong towards then end of the round.

I've figured out that this is down to a lack of concentration. I did think it was boredom but I'm wondering if it's more about over concentrating at the start of the round and getting mentally tired towards the end.

I understand that the professionals find ways of switching off and on during their round rather than concentrating on golf the whole time. What tips do you have that I could use to allow me to learn how to switch off and on when I need to?
 
Thanks for these guys - do keep them coming.

Crap Hacker can I have you full name? Handicap and club if applicable?

Thanks
Alex
 
Perhaps all Rory could see on Sunday was the green jacket rather than the greens. How many of us amateurs have had a blistering front nine and then stood on the tenth tee wondering what magical score we might walk off the 18th green with only for our game to fall to pieces with the expectation?

Did Rory have a game plan for the day? Was he aware that Tiger was ripping up the front nine and rapidly closing in? Should his caddie have tried to steady things? We could speculate all day long!
 
I have to contrast Rory with his mate Gmac whose self belief saw him sink a series of 5-10 footers to land the US open, where Rory showed he's like the rest of us where the chance to win just can put the nerves into overdrive, its that steely determination to show the world just how good they are that great players like Tiger show that makes them a different breed. How do they do that, turning anxiety into almost angry determination??
 
To my mind he didn;t do anything different on the front 9 that he didnt do in the first 3 rounds.

First hole, tiny pull, gets a bogey - seeds of worry settle in ?

But look at 8 - the only person who hit a better result was Woods, and he had to hit a massive hook and get a good bounce - Rory's shot was better and longer and got an unlucky bounce - Wood got an eagle, Rory got a par. I think if he'd got a reasonable boucne and a guranteed birdie
he would have been in a better mind frame in the few holes ahead.

But even at that stage he was 1 up after 9 in the final round of the Masters - you would take that on Day 4, let alone Day 1.

So on 10 - was that a bit of tightness, or trying to push it a bit harder, or nothing in particular - who knows, maybe he will tell us. Seems just one of those holes where he got an outrageous bounce off the tree. Bit like Rose on 17 couple of years back in the final round when he was contending.

And i guess at that point the adrenaline disappeared and he got a downer, and at that point the muscles dont fire any more - hence the 4 put and several other putts that didnt even hit the hole edge. Poor guy - had reached the mental peak.


What worries me is other prodigys and young pups who got very close to winning a major at young age - Sergio comes to mind. Adam Scott comes to mind. Monty even comes to mind (albeit a bit older) and depressingly, so does Westwood too. Others - Chris Wood , Darren Clarke,
Will they actually ever do it ?

Why is it that Sean Micheel, Louis OOsthuizen, Todd Hamilton, Rich Beem, Paul Lawrie, Larry Mize etc etc etc get through the door and other (apparently "more worthy") dont ?

Is it that famous, but key, aspect of the game of golf that keeps us coming back for more - week after week - the rub of the green ? If it didnt exist woudl we stil be interested ?
 
Rory lost because his putting isn't good enough, end of. If he could putt better he'd have been 10 shots ahead on Sunday and under zero pressure. Don't waste time and money on some snake oil selling, stating the obvious charlatan and get some putting lessons
 
most of those I have spoken with about Rory's round have said the same thing - all he had to do was play par golf. did he have this plan and did he lose confidence in it by the results of the early holes, both his and others.

and what was going on with his caddie - he seemed to go missing at crucial times, had they had a row or did Rory decide he didn't need advice?

how much was he affected by playing with Cabrera? He had obviously had a ball playing with Jason Day for three days (and the 12-year old for two). then final day huge generation gap and no camaraderie
 
For a tour player, and one of the best players in the world, his putting suks. He's something like 140th in putting stats and that was before Augusta. His game relies on great driving and firing irons in close, you dont have to be a good putter when you are putting for birdie from 12 feet on most holes. But when his putting comes under pressure as it did in round 4 due to his poor play he doesnt have anything to fall back on, his scoring suffers, and his head just goes. Compare his confidence when his is playing well to when he is playing poorly, its like two different golfers. I dont think it really has much to do with his mental state as much as he just cant handle playing poorly as he doesnt get anything back on the greens. He KNOWS that poor shots result in dropped shots, and he pushes too hard, for example his overly ambitious fairway bunker shot on Hole 2.

Alas I think he'll go the way of Sergio, brilliant tee to green game, but a poor (for tour standards) putting game. He doesnt need a mind guru, he needs a competent putting coach.
 
Alas I think he'll go the way of Sergio, brilliant tee to green game, but a poor (for tour standards) putting game. He doesnt need a mind guru, he needs a competent putting coach.
Click to expand...


Except, he is working with one of the best putting coaches going. It looked to me that his mental state was different. He lost his confidence in his stroke early in the round and the triple on 10 knocked him sideways. He had a couple bad putts early on, a couple very poor chip shots and a couple bad full swings before his putting left him for good on 11 and onwards.
It will be interesting to read what Gary thinks happened.
 
Feel for the young guy but in terms of a question relevant to club golfers:

As was said earlier we have all done it - nice front 9 and blown up on the back. Maybe its a monthly medal or a comp at the local club - maybe a PB score coming up, nerves get a bit twitchy and scores go skyward.

"what methods could we adopt to try and recognise this in our own games and do something during the round to counteract it"

More practice strokes just don't seem to cut it - sometimes getting an over read is even worse.

So what works and is it different for different people - more commitment to the putt, reflect on other times we have made the same putt ???

Bottle that and sell it and you are on your way to the top

:D
 
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