Overcoming a big miss

How you can bounce back from a big loss, if you think about it correctly

DUSTIN Johnson’s three-putt on the final green at Chambers Bay in the 2015 US Open has been well documented. The first putt for eagle raced past the hole and the second for birdie missed from a few feet.

Karl Morris, who has worked with Major championship winners, including Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen, says losing the opportunity to win one of golf ’s major prizes has to be incredibly difficult to deal with.

Thus, it is interesting to look at the mind-set in the type of situation he faced. To a much lesser degree we have all felt the perceived freedom of going for an eagle or birdie putt and then experiencing the tightness that ensues when we have to face the tricky putt back.

A very human phenomenon is at play here called ‘loss aversion’. Simply put, human beings in general will do far more to avoid losing something that they feel they own than something that they may attain.

Many social science experiments have proven that we will do more to avoid losing £100 than we will to go out and get £100.

When we feel we own something we don’t want to let it go. We don’t feel that we own a birdie, but it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking we have a par in the bank.

It is easier said than done, but always look to help players see a putt as a singular task as opposed to ‘being for birdie or par’. Par and birdie are not especially useful labels as loss aversion can kick in at the most inopportune of moments. The more we can see the task as opposed to the outcome the better we will play.

Perhaps one of the greatest golfing minds of all time, Bernhard Langer, missed a short putt to win the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island. The miss would have destroyed a lesser man.

Langer said afterwards he had done all he could before he hit the putt and hit it on the line he picked. The ball just decided to stay above ground.

This contentment and recognition of the vagaries of golf allowed him to move on – somehow, the following week he went out and won the German Masters – and an outstanding career.