Imagine if you were playing the Masters how you’d structure your week. Practice rounds with legends! The Par 3 Contest on Wednesday! Lunch on the clubhouse verandah!
The temptation would be to pack it all in and many players have done just that. But if the objective is to compete you might think about it differently.
Whenever the discussion turns to the benefits of experience in the Masters most of the focus is on understanding the nuances of the golf course – where to miss off the tee, the mowing patterns around the greens, the subtle breaks of different putts.
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But another sneaky factor is how golfers manage their energy and determining what’s expendable.
“My family probably does everything for me,” Tommy Fleetwood said. “I come here and I think I’m at that point where I just want to do everything to give myself the best chance of winning and I know that’s what I need to do.”
Cameron Young recent winner of the Players Championship said, “My attitude generally has been 51 weeks of the year it’s the Masters and it’s Augusta National and this week it’s my job. I would love to get here last Saturday and play 18 holes a day just because you don’t get to be here that much. But at the end of the day I don’t think that’s best for me to play well Thursday through Sunday.”
Sports psychologist Bhrett McCabe who works with several tour players says many Masters competitors revert to one of two extremes. Some try to soak in every element of the experience but run themselves ragged. Others decide the way to funnel out distractions is to lock in on practicing. But they’re so intent on peaking their games they start getting in their own way.
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McCabe says the best approach is to treat the week like a trip to Disney World.
“Allow yourself to take in all the sights and sounds and don’t suppress it. Then the more you go the more efficient you become and what you’re trying to accomplish.”
Like a vacation you’ve been counting the days to McCabe says the solution for players is not to treat the Masters like any other week but to delineate between what is and isn’t essential. Since most players are intent on preserving their energy that likely means cutting down on full practice rounds or ancillary experiences. But doing so allows those players to be more engaged wherever they are and to have something left the longer the week goes.
“There was a tendency early in my career to try to be perfect for Thursday,” said Justin Rose who will be competing in his 21st Masters this week. “Yeah you need to be ready for Thursday but you kind of need to save your gas for Sunday as well. You’ve got to finish strong. If you start great you still need to finish strong, be able to finish it off. I’ll probably do less now than I would have done 10 years 15 years ago for sure.”
