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Nerves, Our Major Enemy
”Some guys get so nervous playing for their own money, that the greens don’t need fertilizing for a year.”
All participants in sports experience nervousness at the start of a game or contest. The nervousness usually leaves quickly after the contest starts and there is bodily contact. In football, the most nervous player is the kickoff return man and the place kicker. I had a friend of mine who played for Army during the glory years when Blanchard and Davis were All Americans. They were playing Notre Dame and he was to return the kick off. He was so nervous that he took off down the field and had not even caught the ball.
There have been so many occasions when we have seen situations where it is evident that a last minute field goal will decide the game. The place kicker has been kicking into the net in anticipation of the inevitable. Finally the moment arrives and he is called on to kick. He is just getting ready, when the opposing team calls “Time Out”. Now he has to calm himself down again. He is well aware of the people in the stands, plus thousands watching on TV, the Center, and the holder who is also under as much pressure. If one of them fails, and the kick is not good, the kicker will usually get the blame and have to live with it the remainder of his life. That is a tremendous amount of pressure to be put on a young individual. Those moments I depicted, were the quiet moments of an active sort in which the mind can get active. The kick return man, waiting, and knowing, that a thundering herd is about to trample him. The place kicker, having to wait, and knowing everything is on his shoulders.
Golf is one of the most difficult of all sports. It is a quiet sport that permits the mind free to imagine just about everything negative. Standing on the first tee, after taking a few respectable practice swings, you turn and look down the fairway. Where did it go? You now see nothing but trouble, and you feel as if everyone in that crowd around the first tee is a better player than you. Chances are that your first swing will be a mad lunge that will not even resemble your practice swing.
There is not a professional on the Pro Tour that does not experience some nervousness on the first tee. It is usually essential to get off to a good start, and it usually will indicate how you will play. I have been of the first tee when I would wish that I were somewhere else.
The day I was elected into the PGA I had to play in a tournament, and had all of those “old” pros standing around watching.
The only time that I had ever been that nervous before, was the time my High School Principal made me stand up on the stage before the entire student body and recite a piece of which I had not ever memorized the title. After repeating his prompting the first three lines, two words a t a time, I can still hear him saying, “Sit down, Larsen”. I did get off a good drive, but even though my game had a relapse after that, I did not care because I had gotten off of the first tee.
When a player is experiencing a good round, and has momentum going, and suddenly there is a hold up in the group in front because of a player in trouble. The player has to stop and wait for a time before being able to continue. This waiting period has not only made him lose his momentum, but he has time enough to become aware of the problems the player in front had experienced, and now negative thoughts have entered his mind. Momentum is involved in all sports.
Putting is where nerves are the most evident. If you are gifted as a putter, you can putt with a broom -stick. All of those weird looking putters we see that are used on the Tour, are mainly to give them something different to look at and momentarily make them forget that they are having putting problems. Next week they will have another style putter. As long as these companies keep paying them to use that particular putter, also helps ease the pain. The long putter, the belly putter, and all of those contortionist grips, are just their ways to control their nerves during the putting stroke. I was told, when I was young, that when you missed a straight putt on the left, you were choking. I have spent my entire life missing on the right, but I am not choking.
Another problem occurs in tournament golf, that I am sure has happened to you at some time or another for some reason. Your nerves upsetting your stomach and you have to go to the bathroom. This happens all of the time on the Tour, and they have the benefit of the Port- O- Lets. Occasionally you will see one of them making a dash for one, and there have been occasions when players had gotten themselves locked in. Golfers are usually careful of what they eat before playing, or between rounds.
A druggist had to leave his store for a short period of time and entrusted the store to his young assistant. Upon returning, he asked if they had had any customers while he was gone. The assistant said, “Yes, I had one man who wanted something for a bad cough.” “What did you sell him ?” asked the druggist. The assistant said, ”EX-LAX.” The druggist said, ”That is not for a cough.” “Oh, Yes it is. That is the man standing out there waiting for a bus. He does not dare to cough.”