| The lessons we can all learn from the meltdowns of Morikawa and Spieth  Source: Getty Images In the past two weeks on the PGA Tour, we have witnessed a couple of epic meltdowns. At the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Collin Morikawa seemed firmly in control. He had played 67 holes without making a single bogey, and as he walked to the 14th tee on Sunday, the two-time major champion led by six shots with five holes to play. As it turned out, Morikawa bogeyed three holes in a row. That opened the door enough for the fast-charging Jon Rahm to barge in and claim the title. A week later, at the Sony Open, three-time major champion Jordan Spieth opened with a six-under par 64 that featured seven birdies and trademark magical golf from the Texan as he tied for the lead. Less than 24 hours later, Spieth could not do anything right in submitting a five-over par 75 card. Four straight bogeys around the turn, including one on the easiest holes all week, and Jordan had to pack his bags on a Friday night. He became the first player in more than three years on the PGA Tour to miss the cut (by one shot) despite leading after the first round. “Yeah, this sucks. I mean, I’ve never led a tournament and missed the cut before,” Spieth said, brave enough to front up to the media after the round. Most other players would have denied any such requests and retreated into a corner with family and friends. “I wouldn’t have replayed anything… I didn’t really make any bad decisions. Just got the ball in the wrong spots at the wrong places. “Just a bad day. Didn’t feel like it was much different. Felt like I had a really bad deck of cards today. Made a couple bad swings from off the tee. Other than that, I didn’t play that differently. I just ended up a foot into the rough here, right behind a tree there. It was a weird, weird day.” What does this say about golf? And what does a player need to do when they have a round like what Morikawa and Spieth experienced? The first thing to appreciate is that there are so many parts in a golf swing – starting from the basics like grip, stance, posture and alignment to the unexplained powers of the mind – there are hundreds of things that can potentially malfunction. And it all feeds into impact of the clubhead with the golf ball, which has got to be 100% right. Even a 0.1% mishit can lead to a poor shot. In cricket, a batsman can get away with boundaries even after edging their shots to the areas behind square. No such leeway in golf. At the elite level, players are expected to flush every shot they hit. You hit one bad shot, and unless you have a mechanism where you get over the anger in a hurry, you can carry its residual effect for several holes. I once had a long conversation with Jeev Milkha Singh on the subject, and he had some interesting points to make. “Golf is just like going to the office. You will have some good days in the office and some bad. And even in a single day, you are bound to have some tough stretches. It’s not going to be all smooth from 9 to 6,” Jeev explained. “So, there are a couple of things you need to realise. You are going to hit a few bad shots in every round. Even if you shoot a 62, there is no way you can hit 62 great shots in one round. And you cannot carry over your emotions from the previous shot. Believe me, it is very easy to say, but it’s actually one of the toughest things to do in golf.” A master in getting over a poor shot is Tiger Woods. It’s an art that Jeev wanted to learn from the then world No1 when they were paired together at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in 2008. “Tiger may still look calm and composed after hitting a poor shot, but he told me that he feels the same rage as the rest of us. But the way he has trained himself is that he draws an imaginary line about 10-15 yards from where he hit his shot. The moment he crosses that line, he has trained his mind to blank out the last shot and focus on the one which is coming up next,” Jeev reminisced. What can a player do when he goes through a round like Morikawa and Spieth? Obviously, Morikawa’s being a lot more painful than Spieth’s, given that it happened with the finishing line in sight. This is the second time Morikawa had to endure a Sunday ignominy, having lost the 2021 Hero World Challenge to his good friend Viktor Hovland. He hasn’t won anything since then. I was walking with Rory McIlroy in the final round of the 2011 Masters when he smashed his tee shot left on the 10th hole and capitulated. However, the worst implosion I have witnessed first-hand as a golf journalist was Martin Kaymer relinquishing a 10-shot lead over Sunday back nine at the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.  Source: Joy Chakravarty Unfortunately, the German has been unable to add to his 15 international wins since then. But McIlroy overcame his Masters misery by winning the US Open by a stunning eight-shot margin 10 weeks later. McIlroy had not spoken to the press after the Masters round, and he also said he stopped reading anything written about him. Asked at the Well Fargo Championship a month later how much time it took for him to get over the disappointment, he said: “A couple days maybe. I’m fine. It was a great chance to win a first major, but it’s only golf at the end of the day. No one died. Very happy with my life, very happy with what’s going on, very happy with my game.” Kaymer took a different approach. He asked the Tour for a special press conference a day later on the eve of the Dubai Desert Classic, and in a soul-stirring half an hour, he laid bare all his emotions. He had spoken to his dad and felt that was the best way to get rid of the unwanted excess baggage in his mind. Both are excellent ways to handle such a disappointing situation. However, there was just one major difference. Kaymer seems to have found an external factor to blame. Around the seventh hole of Abu Dhabi Golf Club, the European Tour Production started moving the Falcon trophy with the lead group and several shots of the German was taken with either the trophy in the foreground, or background. It was as if the TV producers had decided that the trophy belonged to the leader. And somehow, it just affected the single-mindedness of Kaymer. McIlroy, on the other hand, accepted complete responsibility. In the same interview at Wells Fargo Championship, he said: “The first thing, I don’t think I was ready. That was the most important thing. You know, I displayed a few weaknesses in my game that I need to work on,” he said. “But you’ve got to take the positives. For 63 holes I led the golf tournament, and it was just a bad back nine, but what can you do? There are three more majors this year and hopefully dozens more that I will play in my career.” It reminded me of a line by Jocko Willink, a Navy Seal officer turned author, who wrote: “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.” And, as Rory McIlroy clearly demonstrated, it is true on the golf course as well. You should read about… Tour stars ready to make Netflix debut with ‘Full Swing’ on February 15 … Sahith Theegala will be among several top stars who will be a part of Netflix’s new docuseries that promises to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional golf. The series covers the whole of 2022 season, which was made even more interesting with the PGA Tour-LIV Golf spat. Apart from leading PGA Tour stars, and a surprise appearance by McIlroy, the series features Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Ian Poulter and Joaquin Niemann. Augusta National Golf Club, the PGA of America, United States Golf Association and The R&A also gave full access to Netflix. Watch the video. Nelly Korda joins the Nike family… A week after showing off their latest signing in the form of new men’s golf sensation, Joohyung Kim, Nike Golf has announced that it has also added the LPGA superstar and world No2 Nelly Korda in its remarkable list of brand ambassadors, which includes Woods and McIlroy. Korda was earlier endorsing J Lindberg brand. Amazing story of the pro who finished rank last at Sony Open, and yet… had the smile of a winner! Michael Castillo shot a 13-over par for his two rounds and missed the cut by 15 shots, but you need to hear the remarkable story of the head pro at Kapalua, who seems to be on the verge of winning a more important battle…against cancer. | 
