Short-term memory a must

Golf's not a perfect game, a concept few players take to heart

For all intents and purposes, it was the final hole after seven weeks of the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing. After two weeks in Hawaii followed by stops in Palm Desert, San Diego, Phoenix, Monterey and Los Angeles, it would be a fitting conclusion to a most exciting two months of professional golf. Tony Finau was already in the clubhouse and Los Angeles native Max Homa had just stiffed his final full shot to within 3 feet of the cup on the 18th hole. All Homa had to do was tap in the short putt to win his second tour event in less than two years.

Homa grew up in nearby Valencia, played college golf at the University of California-Berkeley, and won the individual title at the 2013 NCAA Division I Championships. He also qualified into the United States Open that summer. He turned pro later that autumn, had a ninth-place finish at the Frys.com Open (now the Safeway Open) that September, qualified onto the Web.com Tour for 2014, and won on that circuit in May in South Carolina. Max was a tour rookie during the 2014-15 wraparound season. He had an up-and-down career for four seasons until his breakthrough PGA Tour win at Quail Hollow in North Carolina in May of 2019.

That 3-foot putt for the win would be a big addition to Homa’s golfing resume. After all, while it is called the Genesis Invitational at storied Riviera Country Club, longtime golf fans know it as the L.A. Open. One of the oldest and prestigious events on tour, it was first contested in 1926 and its perpetual trophy includes such golfing greats as Macdonald Smith, Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson, all World Golf Hall of Famers.

As fate would have it, Homa missed the putt. He pulled it slightly left and it power-lipped out. He tapped in for par and headed off to a playoff with Finau. Walking off the green, you could see Homa’s caddie, Joe Greiner, tap him multiple times on the shoulder. He said to Homa, “This is our city, this is your golf course, this is your tournament to win.” Max also recalled the text his wife and sent him earlier in the day. It stated, “Forgive quickly.” Two holes later, Max Homa was the Los Angeles Open/Genesis Invitational champion following a playoff win over Tony Finau. He had stayed in the moment, he had stayed positive, and he won in Los Angeles.

Successful professional golfers have to have the short-term memory of a major league relief pitcher to succeed. One can’t dwell on the “could have beens” or “the might have beens.” If they do, their time will be limited on the PGA Tour. It’s pretty easy to state that the most important shot in golf is the next one, but that’s easier said than done.

I am often asked how amateur golfers can improve their games. While my standard answer is to tell them to work on their short games, the other area of immediate improvement is a whole lot more difficult. I see and hear it all the time during high school golf tournaments and among the regulars on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit.

I spend a good deal of my time at the scoreboard. The scores will start to come in and I have a habit of making note of especially good scores. My headshaking moment normally comes when I compliment the golfer. “Well done. That was a rock-solid net 67 you shot. Congrats.”

Seldom does the amateur golfer just say “thank you.” Dimes to dollars

I’ll initially hear how the score should have been lower. Instead of focusing on the fact that the golfer putted well or hit their irons close to the flagstick, I then hear a litany of negatives about multiple three-putts or bad break lies or that one shot that was barely out of bounds. I’d like to think that I’m baffled about all this, but I know that it is an inherent trait in most competitive golfers who actively play the game, but don’t play it for a living. Of course, if they did, they’d be living out of their car while searching for another mini-tour to find some modicum of success.

However, this is not an adult trait. Early on in my high school coaching career, I was secretly appalled by the negativity of junior golfers. After all, you haven’t been playing the game for all that long and yet you expect some form of perfection every time you play. That harkens back to the title of that best selling golf instructional book that was written by sports psychologist, Dr.

Bob Rotella. The title of the book? It’s called “Golf is not a Game of Perfect.”

I have at various times “ordered” my high school golfers to avoid negative recreations of their round on the long drive home after a tournament. Sometimes I have had a ground rule that I will “fine” them when they start talking about four-putts and balls that bounded into the lake. The fine? The next time they play, they will get their three-pack of Titleist Pro V1 golf balls, but the “fine” is that there will only be two golf balls in the sleeve.

Golfers also seem to forget the other side of the coin when they start complaining about their lack of golfing perfection. I never seem to hear an amateur golfer attribute their great round to the fact that they hit their tee shots into the trees on three different occasions, but each time the ball bounced back into the fairway. I never hear that they might have misread the putt, but they pulled it slightly and it went dead straight into the hole. I guess they’re seldom lucky.

I’m not telling you anything new when I say that golf is a really difficult game. It’s all about six games rolled into one when you consider the skills needed to hit a driver off a tee, hit fairway woods and irons off the ground onto the green, hit shots out of the sand, chip balls close to the hole, wedge it near the flagstick with bite on the ball, and have the touch to be a good putter, if not a great one. Professional golfers at the game’s highest levels are naturally gifted, put in the time and effort (a lot of time and effort), and have the confidence to hit that 3-iron 240 yards over the water onto a distant green. Yet just as importantly, they have the ability to stay in the present. They “forget” last week’s missed cut. They ignore difficult playing conditions.

Former UC Berkeley standout Max Homa has now won his second tournament of note on the PGA Tour. Following his overtime win Sunday afternoon, he stated that he told his wife, “I think I choked a little bit.” “Little bit” is the operative word. Homa lacked the long-term memory to perseverate about his miss. He had the confidence in his game to stay in the moment. Most importantly, the end result was that he is now the champion of the L.A. Open.