Grounder
© Bill Howard
This past Sunday Sergio Garcia won his first U.S. Tour event. In the course of doing so he authored one of the uglier tee shots you are ever likely to see. The tee shot to which I refer was a garden variety ground ball. Sergio sent it bouncing down the fairway. His golf ball never got two feet off the ground. From the moment of impact until it wiggled to a premature end 170 yards from the tee, this shot screamed 20 handicap.
In the midst of an important tournament, Mr. Garcia was slapped in the face by one of golf's eternal truths. No matter how practiced, no matter how talented, no matter how accomplished a player might be; that player is capable of great ugliness each and every time the club is swung.
This brings me to the difference.
Sergio simply watched that hideous drive and played on. He started hitting irons off the tee and won a Tour event. He wasn't beating himself up about the miserable tee shot and trying to banish a swing gremlin. He had a job to do. He needed tee shots in the fairway and did what he had to do to succeed. Driver... three-iron, who cares? Sergio went home with the big check and the hardware.
Most of "them" have a similar strength of mind.
Unfortunately, most of "us" would have been mortified by our horrendous execution. We might have spent the remainder of the round trying to boom long, manly tee shots and merrily bogeying holes right and left. Perhaps we would foolishly try to diagnose an imagined swing flaw. Or worse, try to fix it on the course. We might even give up or lose interest.
We would be obsessed by a shot that out of character.
They forget them and move along.
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