Golf: Reflecting on the Masters, why didn't Kenny Perry win?

What makes a winner at the very top of any sport? It's fascinating but to me assuming that athletes and professional sports men and women are physically prepared which they must be in the first place otherwise they wouldn't be there, then mental attitude makes the difference. Call it mental skills, motivation (wanting it enough), mental toughness, sport psychology, whatever, it's that complex bit between the ears that matters.

So Kenny Perry is walking off the 16th green with a birdie having hung in all day (just) after a nervy start during that final round. Has he looked at the scoreboard up till now? Perhaps, most pros do, but sure as eggs are eggs I bet he looked as he walked off that green. Campbell and Cabrera are drifting off the pace and there it is, the two greatest threats, the guys at no. 1 and 2 in the world, Mickelson and Woods are effectively out of it. Mickelson and Woods weren't really in it at the beginning of the round either but they are such good players that they both still represented real competition and Mickelson got to within 2 shots of the leaders at one point. But no, as Perry walked off that green, it was all in his hands to win it.

Now this is where you have to be ready. What experience could prepare him for this. He had never been in this position before - a position, a very real position to win one of golf's majors and go down in history. Being ready for this is what mental skills are all about, or should I say mental practice. Belief that any player can reach these golfing heights means that he should have been practicing for this occasion. Practicing mental skills can take a long time depending on your overall attitude but Perry would have been the oldest man ever to win it; 48 I think. He therefore had had plenty of time to get that practice in. I do not know if he uses or has used a psychologist so don't know whether that played a part.

The bottom line is that he bogeyed the last two holes and blew it. To me he bogeyed those last two holes because he thought that he would win, got ahead of himself, took his mind off what he was doing, anxiety crept in and.... chance gone. He didn't have the attentional focus in the right place get the job done. That old cliche - take one shot at a time applies in spades. Now these things are easy to say and extremely difficult to apply in the heat of one of golf's greatest competitions coming down the stretch but he wasn't ready for it. He still had a reasonably makeable putt on the 18th to do it so what was he thinking. By his own admission he was thinking that Woods and others had made this putt before rather than visualizing the putt making its way to the hole.

What of Campbell and more importantly Cabrera. They had drifted away. There was little pressure on them until suddenly the gift of a play off was presented to them. Cabrera wasn't going to let that pass up - at that point he had nothing to lose - different pressure altogether.

Simply put Perry wasn't prepared for that moment. If you as a pro golfer think that you could have dealt with that more effectively, you genuinley know you are a winner. My view is that many times most golfers don't know until they are in that position. Who could you honestly put money on to come through time after time or even just the once. Only a few come to mind Woods, Faldo, Watson and Nicklaus. Often the player himself won't necessarily admit that he didn't/doesn't have it (and why would they) - take Greg Norman after his collapse against Faldo in the 96 Masters.

These are once in a lifetime events for most pro golfers so you have got to be ready. In the wise old words of Baden Powell - be prepared. Using a sports psychologist should be part of this but it doesn't guarantee anything. A player must know himself inside and out to develop this skill.

Keith

Keith Irving
iStadia