Seeing Phil Mickelson’s historic performance in last week’s British Open led me to this week’s topic. Phil, one of the best golfers of his generation, had competed for the past 19 years in the British Open with only 2 top-10 finishes to his credit. Entering the last day of this year’s championship he sat in 10th place, trailing such formidable players as Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods and Hunter Mehan. Despite all of the factors going against him, Phil proved once and for all that you can never count him out as he played the round of his life and won by 3 strokes.
My lifelong best friend has what he might call a positive, Zen-like approach to golf and life. After hitting off the tee he’ll watch the ball and say, “Oh, it’s a little to the left.” Translation: It’s in the woods, way left of the fairway. If he hits an errant shot off the tee he’ll say, “I’ll be all right; it shouldn’t be too far off the fairway.” Translation: He’s not going to be all right. That ball is so deep in the woods, we golfers would call it “bear food.”
If he says “I’m close to the green,” he’s really 30-50 yards from the green. If he’s feeling confident he may say, “Watch the flag; I’m all over it. That ball may have gone in.” Translation: The ball is 10-30 feet away from the flag. It did not go in.
However foolish this attitude may seem, he always anticipates good things happening to him. With this attitude he somehow always manages to get himself out of trouble, and he has become a very good golfer (8 handicap). His motto is, “Never count him out,” and he sincerely believes in it.
He once made bets with another golfer during a round. At the last hole, they decided to combine all of the day’s bets. He hit his approach shot into a trap next to the green. His opponent hit his approach shot onto the green, leaving himself with a short putt for a birdie and, presumably, victory.
The fourth man in our group, watching this, leaned over to me and said, “It looks like your man is in trouble now.” I replied, “Never count him out.” Sure enough, my friend hit it out of the trap and his opponent choked, missing the putt and giving the win (and the money) to my friend.
My friend takes the same approach in life. On a recent sales call, the woman who answered identified herself as Melanie and, upon hearing the beginnings of his sales pitch, promptly hung up on him. Rather than give up or get discouraged, my friend called right back and said, “Melanie, I think we must have gotten disconnected.” Melanie replied, “No, your phone is working just fine; we’ve already got that product taken care of.” Click! Ouch.
Once again, my friend found himself in one of the “sand traps of life.” But the story doesn’t end here. Mr. “Never Count Him Out” called back a week later, spoke to a different person, and ended up getting the deal.
We will all at some point in our lives land in sand traps, in the rough, or in the woods, even if we are not golfers. It is how strong we come out of these spots that will determine how successful we are. And trust me, your attitude is a huge factor in how – and if – you get out of these spots.
As the endlessly-quotable Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half physical.”
Have a great weekend,
Ro