Crown on the Crowne

Mickelson came through, with not unexpected results, but with a surprisingly unexpected finish. His shot from jail will make it to the gallery of the best remembered, as it should.

What may not make it to the unforgettable came from a Golf Channel discussion (we think it was on Friday, but if not, it was Crowne connected) when Tim Rosaforte talked about Rod Pampling's putting which did not appear to him (Tim) to be quite up to Rod's more recent performace. Reason: he didn't have his wife's sport psychology input as usual, or as Tim put it, Rod's "own Rotella" to keep him calm and on his game.

Of course, we now know that Rod hung in there to the last hole of the tournament, falling to a tie for second purely via Phil's spectacular second shot on 18. We don't know if Tim thought that happened because Rod's "coach" (and wife) wasn't present, but we doubt that was the case.

What really caught our attention was not so much that Tim mentioned that early on, but that he made it sound like players need their "sport psychologist" like Linus needs his blanket. And he makes "Rotella" sound like a synonym for golf psychology.

We have a "flash" for you. If what Tim implied is the way it is today, both players and coaches are in a lot of trouble. The mental game coach's job is to provide the means for players to manage themselves in the game. It is not to have a symbiotic attachment that requires an umbilical feeding tube necessitating the proximity of the helper to the player, in order to avoid death and dying on the course.

If the coach is not an enabler and the player is a poorly prepared dependent soul, it may be necessary to have access to breast-feeding, but if everyone is doing "the job" that isn't even in the blueprint.

The point:
It is high time that players, gurus and commentators opened the box and climbed out of that dark place they have hunkered in for the past 80 years. When someone as bright as Rosaforte doesn't hear it, it's getting pretty bad.

Conventional wisdom doesn't provide one iota of memorable content addressing how to move from a dependent, defensive, cautious, doubt-ridden view of what ought to happen, to a content rich, balanced, trustworthy, flexible, researched process that brings independence and freedom to the self-management required for effective solo, solitary, self-initiated, self-executed activities like golf.

Truth is, we thought Pampling handled himself pretty well without his "shrink," but that evidence will likely be overlooked since he didn't win.

We will be glad to explain all of the "how to's" in the game that others seem either not to recognize or are unwilling to share.

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