Take your punishment
You can learn the most from the players on TV by watching how they handle problems. Professional players make most of their decisions with their heads, not their hearts. So pay close attention to rules, situations, and the times when a player has to manufacture a weird and wonderful shot to extricate the ball from trouble. And don't forget to watch the more-frequent occasions when a player accepts that a mistake has been made, takes the punishment, and moves on. That's when you know you've been watching a real golfer, one who understands that everyone makes mistakes, and that he or she just made one.
That last point reminds me of a time when I let my heart — or my ego — rule my decision-making process. I was playing in Memphis, I think. Anyway, I had to birdie the last three holes during my second round in order to make the cut. After my drive at the 16th, I had 223 yards to the hole, which was cut dangerously close to a large lake. I chose a 4-iron, convinced that I had enough club. I didn't. Splash!
I turned to my caddie and told him to give me another ball. He did. I hit the next shot perfectly. Splash!
"Give me another ball." Splash! "Give me another ball." Splash! "Give me another ball." Splash!
By this time, I knew that I clearly was using the wrong club. I knew it. My caddie knew it. The local police knew it. But I wasn't going to give up. This was my manhood we were testing here.
Eventually, my caddie handed me another ball with a 3-iron, one more club. I said, "What's this?" He told me that I had only one ball left. So I took the 3-iron and hit my last ball onto the green. I holed the putt for, I think, a 15.
The moral of the story? If you do stuff this stupid, they might make a movie of it. In this case they did — the movie was Tin Cup, and Kevin Costner was my alter ego in my pursuit of disaster.
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