A familiar question posed to sport and performance psychologists is also one that is frequently asked by friends at the pub: ‘what is the toughest sport mentally?
It takes renowned mind coach Don Macpherson just a moment to explain why golf is the psychologically the most challenging sport on the planet, as Rory McIlroy knows only too well.
In response, Formula 1 is often suggested as the most challenging for a mind to master because of the danger posed and the rapid reflexes required. Macpherson admits that the risk drivers put their lives in marks F1 out as a close second. So why would a relatively safe slow-paced sport like golf that many professional athletes use as a means of relaxation be so arduous to master mentally?
It is that very issue of the sport’s pace, or lack of it, that creates the difficulty. “There is more time to think in golf, probably, than any other sport, and this is not just on the course. It’s off the course as well. It is for four days if you’re lucky. And you’ve got all night to ruminate on a f— up when you were leading,” Macpherson tells Telegraph Sport.
Mind coach Macpherson is empathetic in how as he recounts the stresses his professional golf clients experience, with the list of athletes he has worked with including Ryder Cup players. He recounts a session with a golfer who went on to have a successful career but had fudged his chance to win a first title on tour. “I remember it so well, this guy came in and sat across from me on the couch and he was really upset that he had been leading but had been derailed by a shot going into the water. It cost him the tournament.
“I asked him ‘what were you thinking when you made that shot?’ and he answered ‘don’t go in the water’.”
Macpherson describes those thoughts as “monkey chatter”, the ones that are hardest to control. He uses a metaphor where a monkey takes over the mind. The golfer in question had lost sleep and was angry over that one shot and had started to spiral into negative thinking. “He said ‘I did hear the monkey say for f—’s sake, don’t put it in the water. Don’t smack it in the water, whatever you do’.
“And of course he did. So then he says to me, ‘how could I have done that?’
“I said ‘That’s exactly what we’re talking about, you can’t address the ball if you’ve got a negative thought in your mind’. And I said to him, ‘what’s the dominant word in that monkey chatter?’
“He said ‘water’. So I replied: ‘It’s the old don’t think of a pink elephant. You can’t help but think of a pink elephant.’
“It doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to smack it in the water, but it definitely raises the possibility that subconsciously your right hand or your one hand on the club is going to move slightly out of kilter. Your swing isn’t going to be quite right, and you raise the chances considerably of making an error and miss-hitting the ball. And that water hazard is there for exactly that reason. However, that whole episode was my awakening to how difficult golf is.”
So when it comes to the question of what McIlroy needs to do to win The Open in Troon this weekend, having not won a major in 10 years, at first MacPherson is mindful of the work already completed. “Rory will have done a lot mentally but I think what could be going on is that subconsciously there is something where all his good work is being hijacked. I am in no way slagging him off. This is about moving on from the close miss at St Andrews two years ago and the US Open last month.”
Macpherson has worked extensively across sports including two which McIlroy admires greatly. In rugby, where he has worked with the likes of England’s George Ford and Anthony Watson, who have both spoken openly about their work on mental skills. The other is Formula 1 where Macpherson has experience working with drivers from teams including Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Williams, plus Brabham, Simtek and Renault. Coincidentally, McIlroy has invested in the Formula One team Alpine in recent years.
“What I think he needs is a bit of Formula One mind coaching. In particular regarding Formula One levels of visualisation and concentration levels, as I have taught more than 20 Formula One drivers over 35 years.
“It’s learning a very specific visualisation technique. It isn’t just closing your eyes and wishing for the best. It’s extreme detail. It’s using sensory perceptions. It’s in depth. It’s practiced. Formula One drivers that work with, I get them to visualise an entire lap of a circuit, every corner, every breaking point, every apex.”
Macpherson has written the best-selling ‘How to Master Your Monkey Mind’, a book that deals with overcoming anxiety. It is popular with athletes but can be read by anybody and draws on these experiences working at the highest level of sport. In this he details the “Hollywood movies” technique of visualisation of which Jack Nicklaus used and helped to inspire Macpherson.
“Formula One drivers, they have got to be able to concentrate, especially at Monaco.
If it’s p—— down for two hours without the slightest drop in concentration, or they’re in the wall at…
