On Concentration
Published July 17th, 2008So the British Open - excuse me, The Open Championship - is happening right now. It’s Tiger-free, which I’m sure most players are glad for. However, it may not have mattered, the weather conditions are positively brutal. Royal Birkdale - the course - isn’t considered a difficult one (compared to some on the British Open rotation), but as always at The Open, weather is a huge factor. Round 1 leaders are only at 1-under par. One player walked off the course halfway through his round, and numerous others (including #2 in the world, Phil Mickelson) have struggled and complained vociferously about the conditions. Which brings me, somewhat obliquely, to the purpose of today’s post: Pro Golfers - whiners?
Everyone who even tangentially follows general sport news knows of how touchy golfers are to noise. Dead silence is required when players are hitting their shots. A cough or sneeze will draw glares of doom. A camera click will cause Tiger Woods to drop his club in disgust after his shot, turn and verbally berate the offender, all the while staring at them with a look that could crack glass. If your click was particularly egregious, Steve Williams (Tiger’s caddy) may just throw your camera in a lake. In other words, these guys don’t screw around with this. You hose their shot, and they lose the tournament by 1 stroke - you just lost them potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. You do this in a major, that’s like screwing with someone’s super bowl victory.
Is this an overreaction? After all, some might say, Alex Rodriquez has to swing at 95mph+ fastballs being thrown at an unknown (beforehand) location - and he’s pretty good at it. All the while, the crowd is going INSANE with noise. Doesn’t seem to bother him. Same with an NFL quarterback, who has just seconds to survey the field, determine who is open and throw the ball with pinpoint accuracy while on the run (him AND the target) before he gets crushed by someone around twice his size. From behind. Again, with crowd noise. Of course, neither of these players is expected to be successful 100% of the time, and that needs to be taken into consideration. Golfers can’t afford to miss even once. That said, even with dead silence a baseball player won’t bat 1.000 nor will a quarterback hit 100% of his receivers. So how is golfing different than those sports? Read the rest of this entry »
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