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The Open: Jason Day Talks to Tiger Woods
The smartest thing Jason Day has done is getting to be friends with Tiger Woods and have him as a mentor. The really interesting part is that getting close to Tiger is like getting inside the vault at Fort Knox so Tiger must have seen something in him to make him feel it was worth his time. Maybe he saw a little of that legendary toughness.
Last Monday in an interview Day talked about some of the most important things that he has learned from Tiger about collecting trophies, especially major championship trophies.
“When I talk to him, it’s about how mentally tough he was,” said Day. “When he would try and play against us and when he didn’t have his best stuff, he would just find a way to get it done. Miss it in the right spots. His game plan was, ‘I just got to get this ball in the hole.’ The mental strength that he had, just the will to try and get the job done regardless of how you’re hitting it is probably the biggest thing.”
Only three people in my lifetime had that ability and that was Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. It is tough to win even with your “A” game but to win without it is just shear will power and mental toughness.
“To really try to conquer yourself and try to conquer your ego at times,” Day said of the challenge of winning majors. “If [Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy] beat me just because they play better, that’s fine. But if I beat myself and let them beat me, that’s what’s disappointing and frustrating for me.”
“Sometimes you stand up there and think you can play shots that are not percentage shots, and being able to hit away from certain locations. Even though you want to take them on and hit that heroic shot and turn out to be the victor, sometimes it’s just not the right time. That’s kind of conquering your ego a little bit.”
Winning at the highest level is about managing yourself and your golf game around the course and optimizing whatever the golf gods have given you to play with that day and nobody knows how to do that better than Tiger Woods. I am really glad to see him mentoring a younger player and somehow I think he may be pulling for Jason Day this week.
The Open is my favorite major right behind the Masters so I get really excited about watching what the best in the world can do in this major. If you have never played golf across the pond it may be a little harder to understand, but between the golf course and Mother Nature you can be assured that anyone hoisting the Claret Jug is a hell of a player.
Cover Photo via Flickr
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