Laura Davies, recent winner of the NZ Womens Open Championship and Padraig Harrington are the subjects of two articles from The Telegraph’s Oliver Brown.

Oliver writes, “Laura Davies, fresh from winning her 73rd worldwide title ahead of this week's Australian Masters, offers the most powerful antidote to Padraig Harrington's habit of obsessive practising.”

It’s said that when Ben Hogan was asked the secret of success, he said he dug it out of the dirt. As for Laura’s longevity on the golf circuits of the world she says, “If you want to play the amount of time I have played – this is my 23rd season – you can't stand on the range all day. You have to be sensible."

Laura also says, "You see so many young players now injured all the time, maybe it has something to do with all the practice."

Oliver headlines his article about Paddy, “Padraig Harrington still tortured by doubts ahead of Honda Classic”. And then writes, “…with all the freshness and vitality borne of a two-month winter break, and yet he sounds as if he needs a session in the psychiatrist's chair.”

Now there is a scarey thought which I’ll come to later on involving another Irishman.

Paddy says, "You will always see peaks and troughs…When I have success I look at that and go and work on my swing." And Oliver observes, “Usually, a trough is the consequence.”

Now if that sounds familiar you may be recalling the comment on my previous post which included a bit about Cambo.

“Cambo’s cure is; "Basically, I've always faded the ball from left-to-right. I wanted to draw the ball right-to-left which means you get more distance. I'm going back to what worked before and hopefully it will fall into place.”

Oliver writes, “It has to be asked how much of Harrington's curious mindset, at times alarmingly self-doubting and at others serenely self-assured, owes to Rotella, the author of such titles as Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect.”

And I got the feeling that Oliver is not a big fan of “Doc” Rotella. Which brings me to the previously mentioned other Irishman.

This from Philip Reid of The Irish Times, “McIlroy turns to mind-guru Rotella”.

Philip begins with “Rory McIlroy added a new part to his armoury yesterday, working with Dr Bob Rotella ahead of this week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach in Florida…”

Rory is quoted as saying, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with me or my game, I just think that Bob can help me in some way and it’s definitely not going to hurt…I feel as if my putting can get better and I think he can point me in the right direction with pre-shot routine and how to think leading up to hitting the putt.”

So part of Paddy’s problem is he’s thinking too much and Rory thinks he needs to learn how to think right. And if he’s right, is “Doc” Rotella the answer?

Shouldn’t Rory simply learn to go with the flow and instead of thinking, just be in the moment?

 And can these mind gurus really help?

Take for instance a shot-selection decision that got lots of coverage this week involving the latest “great white hope” on the US Tour, Rickie Fowler.

Greg Enholm writes, “Let's look at this past week. On hole no. 15, with water twenty yards short of the green, Rickie Fowler layed up from 230 yards out. Fowler can bomb it as a young twenty-one year old, this was very reachable for him. To compound matters, he hit to an in-between yardage, missed the green with his third shot and needed to get up and in for just a par. He never gave himself a chance at birdie!”

The question is, could Rickie Fowler’s decision-making processes be improved by going to a mind guru or instead just learning how to be in the moment and go with the flow?

Greg heads his article, “A Lesson Learned: Winners play to win” and for sure if it's not in your DNA then no “Doc” Rotella or other mind bender is going to help.

Thinking back to Laura’s comments,"You see so many young players now injured all the time, maybe it has something to do with all the practice."

Since Rory has started to experience some of the “young players” syndrome, maybe he should be listening to Laura Davies and not Bob Rotella.

Thought for the day:

“I’m not going to get it close, I’m going to make it.”

            Tom Watson moments before his famous chip-in at Pebble Beach

Guid gowfin’ at the weekend

Slainte

Stan