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College Tribune | 3rd March 2009
you’ve given away your ten best songs and don’t have anymore in you, all of a sudden nothing comes out of you. It’s the same as a golfer standing over a golf shot and all they are seeing is a bad shot. It’s amazing how it affects your swing. “A lot of it is getting this clear, clear picture in your head. You can have the most technically perfect swing in the world but if you don’t trust it and won’t believe in it, it won’t work for the most important shots of your life.” This theory on a clear mind spring to memory the great film Happy Gilmore’s and his ‘Happy Place’. “I remember seeing it a long time ago, laughs Rotella, You’d certainly say when Padraig is playing his best golf and he’s thinking, he’s got a happy place on his mind. I’m not suggesting he’s thinking of the same stuff as Adam Sandler, but yeah, there’s no question when your mind is in the right place, you’re smiling, you’re happy on the inside. With Padraig you can see it on his face, he’s smiling, even if he misses a shot because he knows he’s going to go get it in the hole.” Dr.Rotella’s books enjoy huge success and the story goes that Davis Love Jr urged him originally to put his theories and tips into a sort of golfer’s help manual. His titles include Golf is a Game of Confidence, Golf is not a Game of Perfect, Putting out of your mind, Putting Like a Genius, The Golfer’s Mind: Play to Play Great, Golf Of Your Dreams and his latest publication, Your Fifteenth Club: The Inner Secret To Great Golf. “The Fifteenth Club is for players who really want to get good, and who want to play tournament golf, they love that book. This is really book for people who want to see how good they can get and play competitively.” Rotella waves away such skepticism; “I don’t care. All I care about is the people I work with and as long as they believe in what we’re doing and believe in themselves and believe that their mind plays a role. I don’t spend a minute thinking about people who think it’s useless or a bunch of junk. I think anybody who plays competitively knows that their mind is either helping them or hurting them.” And with a hundred or so professional clients winning twenty-four majors between them he has no reason for doubt. With Harrington failing to make the cut in his last two tournaments and a disappointing first round defeat to Pat Perez at the weekend in Arizona he now more than ever needs his mind doctor. “Talking to him yesterday, he probably did a little too much work on the technical side of the game over the winter and got a little bit too into his golf swing. But he knows what he has to do and that it has got a little away from him.” While Harrington is keeping a low profileat
Election Sport
the moment another Irish star is rising; Rory mcilrath. At the weekend in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana he overcame the Tigerslayer, Tim Clark, in Friday’s third round by a 4-and-3 margin. Perhaps he is the one to watch this time around.
Westys Superleague “Well played ref’, shite again.” An interview with a superleaguer by Stephen West Following another (a)rousing defeat I felt it prudent to try and interview a member of a team which wallows at the shite end of the table, just above girls (who are, of course, not allowed in the Superleague) and well below the marginally talented. This is the voice of every nonleague footballer, every rugby footed “legend” and every footballer who ended up on a shit team. It’s harrowing, I know. Gentle- up stuck with the team I’m with now. men, meet “Sam” Westy- What were your initial plans for the Superleague? Sam- I was hoping to set up a team with my friends, win a few games and a have a laugh. West- But that didn’t happen, did it? Sam- No, not at all. All my mates bailed on me after I signed us up, they all left me 50 euro short. I ended
Westy- Shhh sh sh, no need to cry. Why are you so upset about it? Sam- They are just awful, the captain’s a joke, he doesn’t have a clue. I’m convinced half of them have never played before. Sometimes it hurts to play. Every week its six or seven nil. I’m in the trenches out there. Westy- It can’t just be the team?
Sam- It’s the ref’s too. I think I’ve had them all now. Five I think. Only two are any use, the tall guy with the cap he’s good. The other one wears sweaters and has floppy hair he’s sound, the rest <shudders>. There are two that are identical, both short and wea about thirty to forty layers of rain coats. They are dreadful they have the ol’ cement boots on, how can someone call off side when they are rooted to the centre circle? The last one’s this little knacker that thinks he’s the dogs danglers. He lopes around the pitch in a shell tracksuit, whistle clasped between his lips. He thinks he’s Clint fu****g Eastwood or some shit. Sam refused to make any further comment. This is the end of this sorry experiment. There will be no more. Stephen West.
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