POST-MASTERS POP QUIZ
The wind was very tricky. (And then some!)
Can you match the following comments from last Sunday’s Butler Cabin interviews with the Masters' winners?
“[At the start] I let my emotions get the best of me.”
“The wind was very tricky.”
“I didn’t commit to the wind…”
“I was nervous all day; I felt it all day. I didn’t let it bother me.”
“…this is unlike any other sport. …you’re so alone out there and you have to figure out and you have to fight and no one’s gonna pull you off the bump and you just have to figure it out… and I did, coming in.”
Here are the answers:
Low amateur, Andy Ogletree, describing how it felt realizing his childhood dream to play with Tiger…at Augusta….in the Masters! Let that sink in. Now he’s turned pro and presumably is on his way. Wishing him the best!
DJ, simply describing conditions on the course.
Tiger, summing up his 10 on 12.
DJ, 2020 Master’s winner, with a record-setting score, adding, “I’m proud of how I handled it. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Tiger, responding to Amanda Balionis, “…a second nine like we’ve never seen from you, starting with that 10 on the 12th; but then you birdied 5 of your last 6. Take me through what was going through your mind on the 12th and how mentally tough you had to be finish the way you did.”
What was your take-away from this? Did you notice not a single mention of anything besides the objective conditions, coping with emotions, and being mentally tough?
Were you amazed to hear Tiger say, “you’re so alone out there”? Tiger?! 24 years on the PGA Tour, with a professional caddie at his side?! Does that resonate with any of you?
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P.S. In an opinion piece in Morning Read dated November 22, Mike Purkey, who’s been writing about all things golf for more than 30 years addressed Tiger’s performance on 12 and beyond,
“He hit it into the water with his tee shot, hit his third from some 50 yards or so into the water, his fifth all the way into the back bunker, his sixth from the bunker back into the water, his eighth on the green and two-putted for a smooth 10.
And the cause was certainly and entirely mental. Nothing more. He didn’t hit three balls into the water because of his back. He did it because he lost control of the situation between his ears. He looked totally helpless. In fact, it wasn’t entirely clear that he could get out of the bunker by himself.
Woods is arguably the most mentally tough golfer of all time, and the nearly 45-year-old Tiger simply went brain dead for about 20 minutes. You can’t make a 10 on a 155-yard hole any other way.
Woods with his full complement of mental capacity never would have allowed such a thing to happen. When he won the Masters in 2019, four players squarely in contention for the title hit their tee shots into the water at the 12th. Woods hit well left of the right-side flag, into the middle of the green, which is probably where he won his fifth green jacket.
Mental fuzziness happens all the time to golfers his age. Ask Phil Mickelson how difficult it is to focus properly and completely for 72 holes. It’s why Champions Tour events other than senior majors are only 54 holes. As golfers grow older, no matter how great they’ve been, they find that concentration is tougher for a sustained period.
After the 10 on the 12th at the Masters, Woods remarkably made birdies on five of his final six holes, which is what makes him so great. …And it’s those five birdies that should leave the lasting memory.
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