During the first round of the 2008 Masters, Tiger Woods stood in the middle of the fairway on the par-five 13th hole. He went for the green across a tributary of Rae's Creek. The ball tracked for the hole, hit the green and rolled through to an awkward spot from which Woods had little or no angle to the hole. But he was feeling confident and tried the high-risk pitch shot. The ball caught the edge of the green again, and tumbled back into a hollow. Woods was staring at what would become the first of eight bogeys for the tournament.
What's a golfer to do but shrug his shoulders and go on? So much can happen on a golf course—even at the immaculate conception known as Augusta National—that is out of a player's control. He who hopes to finish the round with his mind unscathed, if not necessarily his scorecard, needs to have an accepting philosophy and realize that, well, stuff happens. Get on with it.
"Man, that was a sweet shot," Woods said of his stroke from the fairway to the 13th green. "I thought it was a perfect shot. Then I ended up with probably one of the worst places you could put it." Did it rattle him? Maybe not as much as it would have rattled everyone else. Woods shrugged it off and kept on keeping on. That's what a solid philosophy can do for a golfer. Woods didn't win the Masters, but even though he didn't play his best game, he clawed his way to second place, finishing three shots behind winner Trevor Immelman.
Give Immelman credit, too. He didn't simply have a better week than Tiger. He ran into his own problems late in the final round—including a double bogey on the par-three 16th—but he took to heart the message fellow South African and three-time Masters champion Gary Player sent to his voice mail on the Sunday morning. Player told him that he was bound to face adversity, but that he should stay strong. Immelman did. And having adopted a winning attitude, there's no reason he shouldn't take more championships.
Cameron Diaz chucked her club at the 2006 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
Don't have a philosophy of your own? Borrow one of these
› "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." —Walter Hagen, from The Walter Hagen Story, by the Haig, Himself
› "Accept the fact that you have no control over the ball once
it leaves the putter." —Bruce Crampton
› "If someone tells you that there is one 'perfect' golf swing, walk away and don't listen to another word he says." —Claude Harmon
› "Never do anything stupid." —Ben Crenshaw
