Monday, March 5, 2001
Best head game: Get Tiger out
By Craig Dolch
c. 2001 Cox News Service
MIAMI — Tiger Woods made Bob Rotella's job harder last year.
Rotella doesn't play on the PGA Tour, but the noted sports psychologist
makes a living working with golfers such as David Duval, Phil
Mickelson, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton, Brad Faxon and Steve Flesch.
Rotella, who spent three days talking with some players at this
week's Genuity Championship, says Woods' name was mentioned more
than a few times during last year's sessions.
“It came up occasionally because some guys were getting more
impressed with his game than their own,” Rotella said. “They
were questioning stuff, from their swing to their thinking to
their strategy to their playing. Those were issues we had to talk
about.”
It was easy to understand the players' feelings. After all, Woods
won nine Tour events last year, including the last three majors
by a combined 24 strokes.
Still, Rotella had a stock answer when he realized how much Woods'
dominance had seeped into their psyche: “I just told 'em,
`I don't think Tiger is looking at what you shot today, so I don't
think you're going to beat him by thinking what he shot.' ”
Rotella said his job has become easier this season, and not just
because Woods has yet to win in five official starts. Rotella
instead points to two Woods victories late last season: The playoff
victory over Bob May at the PGA and his one-shot win over Grant
Waite at the Canadian Open.
What was significant, Rotella says, was not only did Woods really
have to work to get these titles, but they came against two of
the Tour's unheralded players.
“When guys started seeing those guys give him a dogfight
playing their game, it got easier for guys to get back into playing
their own game,” Rotella said. “At this point we're
well past talking about Tiger.”
Now Rotella is working with his players on the Tour's latest development:
Record low scores. Every week, it seems, more scoring records
are broken.
Rotella, a scratch golfer, understands some players have a fear
of going low. Once they get to four- or five-under, they're more
concerned with protecting a good round instead of making it better.
He knows that to shoot a low-60s round, players have to jump over
mental barriers.
“A lot of golfers are comfortable shooting in the 68 to 74
range,” he said. “If they get too far below it, they
will make some bogeys until they get back to where they feel they
belong. You have to get their mind comfortable with going low.”
Rotella thinks the day will come when players are shooting 57
or 58. The key is believing it's possible.
“I know when David (Duval) shot his 59 (at the 1999 Bob Hope
Classic), he felt like he could have played better on the front
nine,” Rotella said. “He thought he could have shot
even lower.”
Rotella also works with stars in other sports, but sees golfers
as a unique challenge because of the nature of their game. Not
only do the average players get paid based solely on their performance,
but there is little opportunity for them to take the foot off
the gas pedal.
“In golf, you basically play against the best players every
week,” Rotella said. “In the NBA, if you're a top-tier
team, you play a team that has a chance to beat you maybe only
once every three of four games and you can coast the other nights.
In tennis, most of the top players can play the first three rounds
at 60 percent and win. That's not the case in golf.”
Not long ago, a golfer using a psychologist might have been perceived
as having a weakness. You never saw Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus
or Gary Player or Ben Hogan use them.
Now it's different. Greg Norman, for one, may have approached
his career differently if he was just coming out on Tour.
“It's a given that players are going to have a nutritionist,
a sports therapist, a trainer, a sports psychologist and a coach,”
Norman said. “Those are five guys you almost automatically
have to have if you want to be successful out here, and you have
got to get them on your payroll very early in your career.”
Story Filed By Cox Newspapers For Use By Clients of the New York
Times News Service
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