Tiger's Mental Game - Still Solid?

[cbrister]

What do y'all think about Tiger's mental game? Obviously none of us know for sure, but it seemed to me watching him today that he might be just as mentally strong as ever. The way he was all over the course, but still only one over before withdrawing...it makes me think that his head was the only thing keeping him from blowing up.

[9iron]

What do y'all think about Tiger's mental game? Obviously none of us know for sure, but it seemed to me watching him today that he might be just as mentally strong as ever. The way he was all over the course, but still only one over before withdrawing...it makes me think that his head was the only thing keeping him from blowing up.

Actually, he was +2 when he withdrew. Plus, this was after only 11 holes of golf, three of them being par 5's and all of them being on the easier of the two tracks. Not sure how that equates to him being mentally tough.

[iacas]

I have been saying for a few years that Tiger's mental toughness has apparently been incredibly overstated. He has been striping it on the range for years off and on and yet when he gets to the course it goes everywhere.

[mvmac]

I have been saying for a few years that Tiger's mental toughness has apparently been incredibly overstated. He has been striping it on the range for years off and on and yet when he gets to the course it goes everywhere.

Yep, I've seen it in person a couple times. Range swing is much "smoother".

[Patch]

Mental skills, and motor skills might be two different areas of physical ability. Woody's mental game might be fine, but his short game motor skills are suspect. He has lost his short game motor skills with no apparent cause, or explanation.

Then again, as far as I know, a person's muscles do what the person's brain tells them to do. Since his butt muscles are not working as needed, perhaps his brain is not delivering the message well enough to those muscles. That could be a sign of a suspect mental game. That or he is playing a mental game on those who are interviewing him.

[westcyderydin]

I think that when a lot of people think about mental game they think of general characteristics such as toughness, tenacity, hard-workingness, being clutch, and then they will look at their body language to give you and expert opinion on what is going on in a player's mind.  It happens in every sport.

When it comes to golf (or any other sport) it is really more about knowing what to do, making good decisions, executing a game plan, fixing mistakes, changing your plans when needed.

The traits in the first paragraph are important and all, but if you can't do the things in the second paragraph well then it really won't matter.

[Zeph]

The difference between range and course makes me wonder how good his mental game really is. It could be from lack of tournaments, but it's been going on for quite a while now. We've often seen him confident before a tournament, hitting it well in practice. People observing him on the range and everything looks good. Then he steps up to the first tee and the ball goes wild.

[NJpatbee]

Tiger appears to have lost his confidence around the green, while his long game was looking less erratic at this point in his attempted comeback.  He has some serious problems with his back yet stripes the ball on the range.  But the pressure to score has him playing playing like an average golfer with the short clubs.  He has not played many tournaments in the last year and from a distance he does not appear physically or mentally ready to play at a high level.  And now he has re-injured his back.