Tag Archive for: Thoughtful Thursday

I often ask myself this question. What does golf mean to me?

In a slight departure from my normal Thoughtful Thursday musings, I have decided to challenge myself to creating an A- Z of words I find myself using to help people improve their performance.

While the majority of my time is spent coaching golf, I do spend some time speaking to people in all walks of life and business regarding enhanced performance whatever their endeavour.

Many years ago, when I first started working with my good friend and co-author of The Lost Art” books Karl Morris, I started to understand the importance of “Attention”.

Karl has been banging the drum of the significance of what appears to be a fairly simple word for a long time now and I am eternally grateful that he has.

What you are about to read is from our best selling book – “ The Lost Art Of Putting”.While initially written with putting in mind, we have had feedback from dozens of people around the world about how this simple but profound concept has helped them in a variety of areas of their lives both on and off the golf course.

ATTENTION

What are you doing right now? Yes, you! Are you really here with us? Or are you just glancing at this book and scanning the information waiting to see if you find something that will instantly fix all of your putting issues?

How quickly could you be distracted and taken away from us?What if your phone beeps with another one of those oh-so-important alerts?

Would you be able to stay with us or would we lose you to another video of a cat playing with a ball of string?

Unfortunately, most of us are in a constant state of low-level distraction. Our attention is literally hopping from one thing to another all through the day. Then we attempt to play a game like golf which absolutely demands our attention to be here and now on the task at hand.

What do we find so engaging about things that don’t really engage us? Why do we treat this wonderful piece of machinery we have between our ears with such little respect and more importantly, are we any happier for it?

What has gone so wrong with the simple ability just to be present in something for a period of time?

In his wonderful book, “The Hijacking of the American Mind”, Robert Lustig explains how we can gain a rush of the neurotransmitter, dopamine to the brain when we go on Facebook and get a like.

The problem being, dopamine can become addictive. We crave the hit it gives us and like all addictions, we need more and more to fuel the sense of need. It is as if our brain begins to crave these short-term hits and fixes of instant social media gratification. The more we get, the more we want. But what price are we paying for this?

This craving for attention from others and the distraction this causes actually plays havoc with the attention that really matters – your own attention to what is truly important to you.

Lustig talks about the difference between dopamine and serotonin.Dopamine is the pleasure driver and the more we get the more we want. Serotonin however, is more of a driver of happiness and contentment. Serotonin paradoxically, isn’t an instant hit but tends to create a sense of satisfaction because you have been absorbed in a challenging activity like a gym session, solving a complex problem or being fully engaged in a practice session.

The reason we mention this is we firmly believe great putting and indeed great golf, comes from your ability to pay attention.
I hope you found this little excerpt helpful, even if you don’t have issues with your putting (which puts you in the minority) or even if you don’t play golf.

Whatever you choose to do in life for business or pleasure, please be aware of the power of attention and pay it the respect it deserves.

Until next time, have fun, take care and do your best to make every day a good one.

Gary Nicol.

Just over a year ago, I received a phone call from my good friend and business partner Andrew Coltart at 7.30am one morning asking if I was alone and sitting down. Alarm bells!

Numerous scenarios ran through my mind but nothing could have prepared me for the news Colty was about to share with me.

Our close friend, Gordon Brand Junior had died. Hammer blow!

The initial conversation was short. Very short. We both had to hang up as we literally couldn’t talk for crying.

What you are about to read is something I wrote a year ago and wanted to share once more on the anniversary of his passing.

A year has come and gone and I still wait for the phone to ring with Gordon’s name appearing on the screen.

Gordy was the ultimate prankster and part of me still wants to believe he was having a bit of fun at my expense. He was very, very good at that!

12 months on, I raise a glass of Mateus Rosé (he liked that) in his honour.

As I sit here writing what I hope will be a fitting tribute, I am literally holding back my tears.

Gordon Brand junior was a very fine golfer who won 8 European Tour titles, 2 Senior, now Staysure Tour titles and played on 2 Ryder Cup teams in 1987 and 1989.

If you want to find out more about his outstanding playing career, there are numerous other sources where you can discover all you need to know.

I want to talk about Gordon the human being. The real Gordon.

They say you should never meet your heroes as you might well be disappointed. With junior that was definitely not the case.

I grew up watching and idolising Gordon Brand Jnr. I loved the way he played. He knew what he wanted his golf ball to do, selected the club and created the appropriate shot. Done. No messing about, he just got on with it. Gordon was one of the true creative shot makers. High, low, fade, draw, you name it, he could play it.

Having watched him as an aspiring young professional in the 1980s, I later got to know Gordon during my 16 year spell coaching on the European Tour.

The first thing that struck me about him was his cheeky smile and his sense of nonsense. Not just humour but nonsense.

Gordon couldn’t help but find the funny side of anything and everything. His quick wit could diffuse any awkward situation. He was a straight talker, brutally honest and never afraid to voice his opinion. As I got to know him, I soon started to understand that when Gordon had something to say, the smart thing to do was to listen.

As a golf coach, I can quite honestly say that no other person on the planet taught me more about how to play the game than junior.

Many years after first watching Gordon play in the 1983 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, I received a phone call from him asking if I would like to coach him. I think it was the winter of 2002/2003.

The conversation went like this – “Gary, it’s Gordy here. I want you to coach me next year.” Wow! One of my golfing heroes wanted me to help him. I was kind of surprised but I was bursting with pride that as great a player as he was would ask me to be his coach.

He continued by asking what the financials were including percentages etc… which took all of five seconds to agree. I then asked what he wanted and expected from me. His answer was typical Gordy, “I want you to make me a better player over the next 12 months or you get fired.” Brilliant! Not one of the dozens of Tour Pros I have worked with was ever as open or frank.

Did I mention he was a straight talker and brutally honest?!

We worked together, traveled the world, ate dinner together, went shopping together (more of that later), had water fights, were rude to each other but most importantly, we laughed together. Sometimes I laughed so hard my sides literally hurt. Gordon was a very, very funny guy.

One Monday morning during the summer of 2004, we were traveling from Sweden to Denmark, going from one tournament to the next. I think there were about six of us, all a little bit jet-lagged (hungover), having quenched our thirst in Malmo the night before. We decided the best way to get to Copenhagen was to jump on the train that crosses the Öresund on one of the most spectacular bridges in the world.

The journey was relatively short and uneventful, apart from being “invited to leave” the quiet carriage for giggling like schoolboys. I don’t remember what we found so amusing but that is irrelevant. The fact we were laughing is what is important.

On our arrival In Copenhagen, we commandeered a mini bus, loaded up clubs and cases and headed for our hotel. Half an hour later we arrived at said hotel which was slap bang in the middle of an industrial estate. None of us liked the look of it, so we decided to cancel our bookings there and then.

Gordon had the number for one of the other “official” hotels and took it upon himself to book six rooms for us. Good lad Gordon, well done. Having said that, I do remember looking at Andrew Coltart and asking him if trusting Gordy to book the hotel was a good idea. We agreed it probably wasn’t but it was hot and we were tired so we decided to go with the flow. What could possibly go wrong?

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at our new hotel and passports in hand, approached the front desk. Almost an hour later, five of us were still trying to check in. Not Gordon, he was checked in, had dumped his bags in his room and was sitting in reception drinking coffee.

Why did it take so long? Were the hotel staff useless and unhelpful? Not at all. What we didn’t realise was that when Gordon had called the hotel to book six rooms, he had given the following names – Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Eric Brown and Gordon Brand.

Naturally he had “forgotten” to share this information with us, so when I went to check in as Gary Nicol, I was met with a blank look. “Could it be booked under another name perhaps Mr. Nicol?” That is when the penny dropped. I turned round to see junior doing his utmost to look innocent and not to choke on his coffee! “What?”
This was Gordon at his best.

Another time, Coltart, Brand junior and I were staying in a hotel near Staines for the PGA Championship at Wentworth. I think it might have been Wednesday after practice / Pro-Am day. We were back in our hotel after a long day on the course and range and I was trying to get a half an hour snooze before dinner. Not happening. A very loud knock on my door put paid to that. “Piss off Gordon, I’m trying to sleep.”

“You can sleep later, we’re going shopping” replied Gordon. Despite my protestations that I neither needed nor wanted to go shopping, I buckled and off we went. Our first port of call was a clothes shop. Gordy decided he “needed” a pink polo shirt. He asked the young assistant what size of shirt he thought would fit him. The shop assistant suggested large would be appropriate. Gordon agreed but pointed at me and said with all the campness he could muster “He prefers me in a medium as it shows off my sexy body soooo much better.”

For the record, he didn’t buy the shirt, in fact he had no intention of buying it, he was just feeling mischievous and wanted to have a bit of fun at my expense. He was good at that. Gordon was was an expert in trying to embarrass his friends and took great delight in trying to embarrass me at every opportunity.

Life on Tour could be a lonely place. Missing family, friends and home comforts was commonplace. Gordon understood that better than anyone and made life so much easier for those around him with his sense of humour and love of nonsense.

He always said please when asking for advice and always thanked me for my input, regardless of how well or badly he had played on any given day.

At the European Open at the K Club one year, Andrew Coltart and I were drinking coffee having just had lunch in the clubhouse when Gordon joined us. After asking how much salt we wanted in our coffee, he poured in a good spoonful to both our cups, despite us telling him we generally preferred it without salt!

I congratulated Gordon on shooting an exceptional 66 (6 under) on a particularly wet and windy morning. “Thanks, do you know how I did it?”

I remember saying “No but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“It was pretty simple really. I basically forgot everything you ever told me, did the complete opposite and bingo, 66.” Again, Gordon at his finest.

After all, these years, we kept in touch and met up whenever circumstances allowed. He would send me text messages asking “why can’t I fade it?” I would ask him to send a video and explain what he was trying to do. His response was generally the same “You don’t need to see my swing, you know it better than I do and I’m trying to fade it!”

This would then lead to a long phone conversation about how our respective lives were and what he needed to do to hit a high fade with a five iron.

When Karl Morris and I were writing The Lost Art Of Putting, I naturally asked Gordon for his thoughts. In his prime, he was a magnificent putter and possibly had the best collection of Bullseye putters on the planet, including a few that used to be mine!

Rather than telling me over the phone, he said he would have a think about it and get back to me. Within 24hours, I received an email with some of the most insightful yet simple advice I have ever received. Gordon often joked that the book was pretty good but Page 81 was outstanding!

Two days before he passed, I spoke to Gordon and arranged to catch up with him in a couple of weeks when he was due to play in the Scottish Seniors. Unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

I will never again be greeted by his infectious grin and his customary bear hug. No more conversations. No more water fights. No more salt in my coffee. No more nonsense. I’m going to miss that. We’re all going to miss the wee nutcase that he was. He will be missed by more than he could ever have imagined.

Goodbye Gordon. Sleep well my friend and rest in piece. Save me a seat next to the fire and I’ll see you on the other side.

Gordon Brand junior, great golfer and exceptional human being.

This is a question I believe all golf clubs, coaches, club manufactures, pretty much anyone and everyone in the industry should be asking. Perhaps more importantly, as golfers, it is a question we should be asking ourselves.

I have been around golf and golfers for longer than I can care to remember and have worked in the industry for over thirty years but I’m struggling to recall when I last heard golfers across the board and around the world being asked what they really want.

Club and ball manufacturers appear to believe we all want to hit the ball for miles if you listen to their marketing. Every newly released driver, iron and golf ball promises greater distance assuming that is what we want. Now for some that may well be the case. Not many golfers want to hit it shorter but will hitting our drives five or ten yards further really make us happy.

If you spend any time searching for “golf tips” on the internet or social media, it would appear that golf coaches assume you want to possess “the perfect swing”, whatever that looks like?! I see lots of before and after golf swings being posted on social media but rarely do I see before and after golf shots. I always question what motivates coaches who post images of “massive improvements with Dave on the range this afternoon.” Are they giving Dave or themselves a pat on the back? Yes, that is a rhetorical question.

Do we really want better swings more than better shots? While we would all love to look as elegant as Adam Scott, as powerful as Rory McIlroy and as intimidating as Tiger Woods on the course, let’s face it, the likelihood of achieving one, never mind all three of these is pretty remote. Do we want to play better shots? Absolutely, so let’s focus on shots rather than swings.

The golf industry as a whole is great at telling rather than asking us what we want.

I think and hope I can speak for the majority of golfers when I say that what golfers really want is an enjoyable experience. We want to feel good before, during and after our game. If we hit the odd drive 10 yards further, that might make us happy for all of about thirty seconds but it is unlikely to be the deciding factor on whether we enjoyed our day out or not.

While we can influence and control some of our experience, the golf club, course and people we meet along the way should, in my humble opinion play a massive part in making a memorable impression on us.
From a personal standpoint, my ideal day of golf would look something like this –

• I want to wake up and be grateful for the opportunity to play the game I love and appreciate every moment.
• Arrive at the club at least an hour before teeing off to be greeted by someone who is genuinely pleased to my playing companions and I.
• Enjoy a cup of tea and some breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere in the clubhouse.
• The ability to hit a few balls on the range to warm up, do a bit of short game and hit a few putts on the putting green to get a feel for the pace of the greens.
• Play an interesting golf course that looks good but more importantly asks good questions and provides a variety of challenges. High shots and low shots etc…
• I want to have options off the tee and into the greens.
• I want to be able to decide what is the best option for that particular shot and moment in time. Is is a draw, a fade or a straight shot? Is it a high pitch shot through the air or can I run it in along the ground? I might not be able to execute every shot on command every time but I would like the option to choose.
• I want to play the occasional risk and reward short par 4.
• I want to play par 3 holes of varying lengths but not 230 plus yard ones.
• I want the rough to make me ask the question of “will I get a flyer from here?” NOT “will I be able to find my ball?” I do think there should be some light rough off the fairways but not the knee high stuff that contributes to lost balls, slow play and angry golfers.
• I want to be able to pay attention to what I am doing on the golf course and not worry about emails and other notifications distracting me from playing golf.
• It would be a real treat to play golf in good company. To play with people who know and understand the rules and etiquette of the game. People who know how to fix pitchmarks on greens! People who love the game.
• It would be great to play at a reasonable pace and complete 18 holes in 3 hours.
• I want to smile more than I swear after every shot.
• It would be nice to play my best ever round of golf but accept that if I don’t, my whole life won’t come crashing around me.
• I do not want to be consistent. Consistency is a myth and not one player in the history of the game ever achieved it. Consistency eliminates the spectacular and the memorable.
• I want to get better at playing golf through creating a variety of different shots.
• I want to be able to control my golf ball and focus on what I want it to do rather than what I don’t want it to do.
• Essentially, what I really want is to play a well designed, well prepared golf course with good people in glorious sunshine. Ok, the sunshine bit would be a bonus but we are talking about what we really want here.
• On completion of my round, I would like not to have any aches or pains.
• I would love to sit in the bar afterwards, have a nice lunch and a couple of “adult refreshments” while my chauffeur waits patiently in the car park before driving me home. We can all dream can’t we?!
• I do not want to hear about every shot my playing partners hit on every hole. I was there! I saw each and every one of them, good and bad!
• As I leave the clubhouse, I would like to be asked if I enjoyed my day, when I plan to come back. Soon I hope!

That pretty much sums up what I want as a golfer but what about you? What do you really want?
Until next time, please don’t take for granted how lucky we are that we are able to enjoy the opportunity to enjoy this great game and everything it offers.