Imagine you have been grinding all day to stay within one stroke. Every time you have made a great putt your opponent limits their damage. You’ve missed several makeable putts and don’t have your A game.
Mentally you still know anything is possible and you believe you can pull it off.
Then… You blade a 9-iron that gets 1 inch off the ground and it plugs into the fairway bunker for an unplayable lie.
Game, Set, Match…
That is exactly what happened to Victor Hovland two weeks ago at the PGA Championship. He was hanging tough all day long one stroke behind Brooks Koepak. And he hit a horrible shot on the 16th hole that made the final two holes irrelevant.
Two weeks later at The Memorial, Victor found himself in a similar position. A few strokes behind at the start of play on Sunday. Getting off to a great start on the front nine and near the lead after 12 holes.
And that is when history repeated itself. He stubbed a chip from 2 feet off the green that only went 1 foot. After the shot he leaned his head towards the sky and let out an audible grown. Had that error have just cost him any chance at winning again?
After the tournament Hovland lamented how he thought in that moment…
“I could have been worse”
“I would have bothered me more in the past”
“My second chip was close enough for an easy bogey”
Now that is some world class self talk. All three of those statements he made have an optimistic and positive tone. So much so that you should read them again. And then make them statements you use on the course every time you play.
With just six holes left he was 3 strokes behind. But that is when everything started going right for Hovland. On those final six holes he entered the zone when every other player in the field was staggering home. He stuck pins, made clutch up and downs and sunk putts to put pressure onto Denny McCarthy. That pressure was enough to get McCarthy to bogey the final hole and setup a playoff with Hovland.
In the playoff Hovland kept it simple… Middle of the fairway, middle of the green, 2 putt, WIN!
What have we learned?
You need to develop some world class self-talk in your golf game. First listen to what you are saying to yourself. It you deem it as negative then just think of Victor Hovlands smiling face because he always has one. And think of his positive attitude in everything he does. His energy and attitude are infectious.
And think about what he said when asked if he is mentally tougher because of what happened at The PGA Championship
“The more you are in that spot and the more you learn from it,
Instead of beating yourself down when you don’t preform the way you want to preform,
I think that is just a way better way of handling it,
Instead of thinking I’m not good in these situations.
You just have to keep learning and I think I did a good job with that”