Lessons from The Players Championship

  I have asked several people that play golf as a profession what were the lessons they learned from The Players Championship. The most common answer I got was Sergio should have hit his shot on 17 to the middle of the green. While I somewhat agree with this answer I think there is a lot more to it than his break down on the 17th hole.

 I believe Sergio lost the Championship not because of 17, but because of his mind set. He was playing to beat Tiger and prove to the world he could do it. He criticized Tiger and caused some conflict with Tiger drawing a club out of his bag and the gallery applauding it. I respect both players and their golf abilities, but I also have to say that Tiger Woods proved once again to the world that he is a true champion. Tiger hit a terrible shot on 14 that cost him a double bogey. He could have given up, but instead he said to himself “I need to finish one under par” and that was exactly what he did.

 There are two mindsets according to PHD Carol Dweck. A fixed mind set and a growth mind set. The fixed mind set tends to blame everyone else for whatever happens to them such as a gallery applauding when Sergio was hitting his shot. The growth mindset says what can I learn from this and get better which is what Tiger did after his double bogey on the 14th hole.

  The lesson is to never give excuses a place in your golf game. No more windy conditions, bad greens, bad luck, terrible bunkers, slow play or bad playing partners, etc. For all the golfers out there, have a growth mind set with every round you play good or bad and leave the excuses out of your game forever.

All the best,
Dana