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The 1999 British Open by Taylor Spalding It appears that the golf world has a new coinage. It's called the "Van De Velde effect." This syndrome occurs in the state of unabashed confidence and the belief that fate has been dealt in your favor. This condition is opposite to that of the ill-tempered hacker, who shakes his fist to the heavens and pushes his state to the point where calamity can only perpetuate itself. Both situations however point to reality of the sensitivity to the initial condition. This term, which I borrow from the scientists, means that one tiny change at the center causes major changes at the periphery. This tiny factor is what holds that hacker along the front slope of the bell curve and the professional along the back slope of the bell curve. Van de Velde's plight had nothing to do with the tired cliche' of the "golfing gods." It had everything to do with tendency of golfers to allow an emotional state to govern the decision making process. There may not have been butterflies in Van de Velde's tummy, but at least there was a meal moth fluttering about. This slight disconnection at center caused two successive pushes to the right on the final hole. His good luck on both of those shots is what really did him in. Van de Velde did not want to just win, he wanted to win boldly. He may have done just so if only the ball had made it's ricochet off the other bank of the Barry Burn. He may have done so if he had pitched out to the fairway on his third shot. Perhaps an ill-fated tee shot would have shaken him to his senses and forced him to be more conservative. So many possibilities present themselves. To me it seemed like poetic justice that a Scotsman won the tournament. Paradox seems to work it's way through even into the state of a man on the edge of glory and adulation. What a game! What a game! The content of this site is an attempt to find symmetry in that paradox we call golf. For example: We must awaken to the nature of greed and its disasterous effects on our ability as golfers to stay in the present and witness the ball. Yet we must also awaken to the nature of efficient movement and proper goal setting if we are to attain some sort of self-mastery in the game. You will often hear me refer to this as the Game/Play paradox. At one end of the spectrum, the greedy player finds a prison in his obsession. At the other end we find the player who has no interest in either the mastery or the mystery of the game. He becomes bored and might as well be skipping stones on a placid pond. All the while the true and even tempered player finds a freedom in his leisurely attentiveness. |
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Copyright © 1999, Golden Barefoot Golf. All rights reserved |
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