One of the most important things to learn in golf is how does it feel when you are playing great. Most golfers experience it in their own way and on their own level. For some it may be one shot per round for others it may be one hole. If you have begun to understand the need to feel greatness then it may last for a short stretch of holes and maybe even for most of the round. However long you have that feeling of greatness you need to analysis it and learn from it.
Ross Wortham, a buddy of mine in high school, was one of the best money players that I have ever seen. He could get on a birdie run like no one else and I mean a birdie run. We grew up on a little course in West Texas and Ross could really bomb it with his old Tony Pena persimmon driver. As long as Ross was, he was equally as good with the wedge and the putter. I once saw him in a stretch of four days shoot 60, 60, 61, 59. It was truly greatness.
Ross was known all over West Texas even as a school kid. He would venture up to Odessa Country Club about every weekend and get into some money matches with the local oilmen. Now, I wouldn’t recommend this to you junior golfers out there but back in the 70’s we didn’t have AJGA and other great tours like you guys have so we found the best game we could to challenge our skills. Ross wanted to play for the competition, not so much for the money. He won and won a lot. Much like a lot of stories you hear about Lee Trevino playing for a couple of hundred dollars when he only had five dollars in his pocket, that was Ross. On some occasions he would invite one of the guys off our team to venture up north with him. He would even call on the services of some of the best players on teams we competed against to join him in matches at OCC. I was lucky enough to be in about a half dozen of those trips and I can tell you I learned more about greatness in those matches than I could have picked up anywhere else in the world.
On our trips back home I would pick Ross’s brain about what he was thinking about in this situation or standing over that last birdie putt that he had to make or well, the list goes on and on. Ross would always frustrate me by saying, “I don’t know! I don’t think about anything.” I would keep on pressing him and walking him back through the whole round shot by shot. Finally totally frustrated Ross would say, “I just see the shot and go hit it! I don’t think about results or the score.” WOW! There lies the answer and one that took me forever to understand.
I believe that you will find that when you play great your mind is clear and all you do is see the shot and hit it. Nothing more, nothing less! Understand that our mind is better than any super computer. The old adage of garbage in, garbage out is especially true when we play golf. However, if we make all our calculations, pick the club and then see the shot and hit the shot you will usually find greatness. The key is to learn how to do that forever shot during the round. Ross did!
Ross also went on to play college golf at Houston Baptist with a guy you might know, Collin Montgomery. I have lost track of Ross, but I would venture to guess that somewhere there are a few oilmen who are a little light in the wallet today because they played a match against a man who understands what it is like to feel greatness.
Author Resource:
Randy Beckett is an author, speaker and consultant with over 30 years experience. For great information on Feeling of Greatness, visit http://www.aboutjuniorgolf.com
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