“It’s the one that threads the swing changes and the fatted wedges and the yipped three footers and the inferiority complexes and the Wednesday evening anxiety together with a poison that tastes like the medicine you’re supposed to drink to get better. The mind.”
“But then I watch the US Open, or the KPMG, and share that experience alongside gifs on my Twitter feed, or fellow players on a buffering stream on a 4 hour bus journey across two European countries and I wonder… whether I win or nearly win tournaments because I find the zone, or whether I find the zone because I win or nearly win tournaments.”
People will tell you that success isn’t about inspiration. Success is about discipline. Doing what you need to do even when you don’t feel like doing it. That truth is one of the things that nearly kept me in America, battling 40mph winds in the mountains of Utah, instead of lifting a trophy in Australia. But success is also about intuition.
“You had it in your hands – after a year of sacrifice and improvement and doubt and trust and loneliness and pride – and two weeks of the same – and in a 45 minute window so quick I’m still not sure it happened and so slow I still feel like I’m living it – you give it back.”
“All those stories – however long or short in the making – only mean exactly and only what you decide to tell yourself over a two week period. Professional golf is about playing well at the right time. However much or little goes into that is the unique part.”
“I believe that, despite knowing that my final month of a year where I’ve learnt more about my formula for success than ever before will be comprised of trips to Q School in the US and in Europe. Golf will throw those ironies in your face with a posturing that threatens to strangle you. The taunts of a reality that you are not where you want to be, that directly contradict your beliefs that you are good enough to be.”
“How would you measure progress in this sport?
Trophies? World ranking? Stroke average? What you consider your best to look like? What you consider your worst to look like? How much you feel you belong?”
“In those moments, the unprompted voice-cracking over a FaceTime call while explaining a final round 75… the dejected pressing of refresh for three hours to see just how close to 60th place you can wind up… they don’t matter anymore.”
