TG_341_PREVIEW

10 RULES
Bob Rotella on...
Mind games
One of the world’s top mental coaches explains how you should have
more belief, what you can learn from Spieth – and why strokeplay is best
WORDS KEVIN BROWN PICTURES JIM CARPENTER, GETTY IMAGES
olf is played in the head as much as
G on the ground and nobody knows
that better than Bob Rotella, who
has been conducting mind games with the
world’s top players for the past four decades.
Rotella, whose stable of current stars
include Major winners Padraig Harrington,
Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke and South
Africans Charl Schwartzel and Louis
Oosthuizen, claims that 90 per cent plus of
golf at the highest level is in the head – and is
convinced it’s getting harder to succeed at the
highest level. But there are plenty of mental
tricks his players use to stand out – you could
use them, too.
1
Belief in yourself is everything. And when
you don’t win or aren’t winning trophies,
that’s a heck of a challenge. In basketball if
you’re a decent team you tend to win at least
50-60% of your games, whereas in golf if you
win 1% of the time you’re really good. Tiger
Woods is a prime example – I’ll be more
shocked if he doesn’t get his old form back
just because he’s been there and done it
since he was five. For him, it’s all about going
out there and believing in what he is doing
and right now that doesn’t seem to be
happening.
Belief may be the be-all-and-end-all,
2 though you also need the three Cs –
confidence, concentration and
composure. But when you’re believing,
it’s easy to stay composed, it’s easier
to focus and not be bothered by
anything. Look at Jordan Spieth’s US
Open win this year – he doublebogeyed
the 17th and still won:
think about how good that is! That
gave him the belief to think ‘wow, I
can make all kind of mistakes,
including a double bogey on 17,
and still win.’
You’ve got to have the right attitude. It’s
3 the same with all the top players – when
their heads are in the right place, they can
really play and when it’s not, they’re not so
good. It shows how human they are. You need
to learn how to win to handle the pressures.
That’s what top players live for – to be in
contention on the weekend. That’s when it’s
easier for most guys to deal with.
It’s all about delivering the goods out on
4 the course. When you see the top pros
on the range they can all hit the ball and you’ll
struggle to tell who is a top player and who’s
just pretty good. Go to the pitching area and
they can all get up and down. It’s all about
being in the right frame of mind when you
step out onto the course.
You can take a leaf out of Jordan’s book.
5 He never overswings, never changes his
gait, is always composed. He’s not ridiculously
strong with his ball-striking, but from 100
yards in he’s just so good. He plays to his
strengths, the things he knows he’s good at.
The best players have a huge ego. The
6 Tour game is about narrow margins.
Your ranking in putting can be 100, but if you
look at the difference between you and the
No.1 it’s miniscule. If you look at the fairway
and greens hit stats they’re all bunched
incredibly closely. At some point, you’ve got to
ask yourself ‘was I put on this earth to win?’
Think about how highly you must think of
yourself to achieve that.
Club golfers need to hit the ball in a way
7 that they can repeat. Don’t try to shape
shots, hit it high, hit it low. Find one simple
way – there’s plenty of good pros around who
can help you do that – and stick to it.
Spend a lot of time practising your short
8 game because every hole in every
tournament is going to end with a pitch or
putt. Find a driver, 3-wood or hybrid you can
hit well and regularly find fairways with and
then really get good from 100 yards and in.
Then you can go and play.
Stay on an even keel and take nothing
9 for granted. I’ve been really, really
impressed with what Jordan Spieth (and
Lydia Ko) has done this year, but what will he
be like in 20 years? This game can beat you
up. If he spends the rest of his life comparing
how he’s doing to this year, it could drive
him nuts trying to live up to it. But if he
has his head together and puts
everything into perspective, it could be
pretty neat and then you have another
Jack Nicklaus.
Play more strokeplay. That’s real
10 golf! When you have to count
every shot, it’s tougher. Every weekend,
guys go out and play fourball betterball, or
say ‘that’s good’ to a three-footer. But
strokeplay makes you mentally tough.
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