re: Why do some golfers “lose It” when they are still in their prime?

David Duval

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Neither will come close to Phil’s career.

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I think Rory wins at least one more major. That leaves him one short of Phil.


Saying neither will come close seems like a large exaggeration.

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I think Rory wins at least one more major. That leaves him one short of Phil.

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I think he’ll get a couple more. Phil didn’t win his first until he was 34. Rory is 35 and pretty healthy. His game seems to be more consistent now than anytime in the past decade.

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So Bobby Jones is giving advice to a young Jack Nicklaus . . .

It’s a couple hours before his pro-am tee time, but Nicklaus has transported himself back to his terrific moment with Jones. His eyes are far away, seeing Jones in that cabin, hearing Jones tell him about his “seven lean years” from ages 14 to 21. Jones is telling Nicklaus that part of his problem was that he was relying way too much on his instructor, Stewart Maiden. He is telling Nicklaus that in his struggles he kept running back to Maiden for help.

“Until he taught me not to run back to him, when I learned that, then I became a great golfer,” Jones told Nicklaus.

Nicklaus had the same swing coach (Jack Grout) his entire life, but he believes today’s players rely too heavily on their coaches when their games go awry.

“A lot of times, guys run back to their swing coach too much,” Nicklaus said.

“I made changes constantly in my swing,” Nicklaus said. “If you don’t make changes, you don’t improve, I don’t care who you are, because your body continually changes. My body at 46 was certainly different than it was at 25 and 35, as Tiger’s body is a lot different than it was at 25.”


“Jack Grout, who worked with me from 1950 through 1989, until he passed away, never set one foot on a practice tee [during a tournament], ever,” Nicklaus said. “He came to a lot of tournaments. You never saw him on the practice tee. He taught me to be able to make my own changes, make my own adjustments . . . so I could understand how to play the game. That was the important thing, that I knew how to play the game.

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It's from a Golf Channel interview after Tiger went through his marital issues.

(no message)

While I agree it’s likely JT won’t catch him I do feel like he has the one of the best pedigree amongst tour players. He seems like he genuinely loves golf and wants to grind away.

He definitely needs to go on a run though to catch Phil.

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The current emphasis on distance has forced the professional golf swing to evolve into something that is not sustainable over a long period of time.

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Idk about that. The two best drivers of the golf ball are Rory and Scottie. Rory’s swing is timeless and Scottie’s swing is unique to him. I don’t think either of them have swings that would look any different in any other era.

Then You have guys like finau and rahm who hit bombs with relatively compact swings.

Your point stands for a guy like zalatoris maybe, but he didn’t win any majors pre injury either.

Golf is more mentally harder than physically hard. As pointed out, Tiger was a beast both physically and mentally. However, it was later found out that Tiger had a release mechanism before each match that helped him to concentrate on golf better.

I love the game. And I'm just an average player at best. But sometimes I can shoot in the upper 70's for months at a time followed by can't break 100 for months. Can't explain why, except for the mental game.

But if I were to play professionally, I would want to be the 30 to 40 range on the PGA tour. Why might you ask? Because if you are in the 30-40 range on the PGA , you will make roughly 5 million a year, playing 40 -50 of the best courses in the world, but no one will ever know who you are. You would be able to keep your PGA card and play every year and not worry about having to re-qualify for the tour. Yet, you could walk down the street, go to a restaurant, ....without no one knowing you are a PGA professional. Tiger, Scottie, Rory, Xander.....can't even go to a grocery store without being mobbed by fans. But can you name any golfer from the 30-40 range?

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don't understand why people are saying Morikawa doesn't have a chance.

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He only has 6 Tour wins, Phil has 57.

Phil underachieved in the majors and still won 6. 57 Tour wins is insane. Winning majors, and multiple is the standard, but what really separates the greats is winning majors and being the best in the world for 2 decades