70. If great golf is a gift from God, then so be It; but the gift is available to most if you can reframe your ideas. The main challenge in golf is getting your mind around the ideas that work

In these days of mass media coverage, there are many columns and reports every single week when the word Genius is used to relate the fantastic exploits of the likes of the top players, especially Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia. When the same two are discussed in the Golf Club bars around the world, more often than not, it is unanimously agreed that they are "Born with a Gift" Quite often, such descriptions are overused when applied to "Stars" in other sports Woods and Garcia however are special as was Ballesteros in the 70s in so much that they have achieved such high level of performance and golfing maturity at such young ages.
                            
How is it that such performance is possible in one so young? I honestly believe that in a game such as golf, where physical prowess does not have such a bearing as in other sports, the question of performance is between the ears. How this is so can be understood by the following example.

The story goes that a Math's lecture in a University was proving to be a bit tedious for a particular student and he subsequently spent the time daydreaming of other things. At the end of the period, the class dispersed and the student hurriedly scribbled down the equation on the blackboard believing it to be the assignment for the next lecture. At the next period he handed in the completed paper only to be informed that there had been no work set at the last lesson. It transpired that the equation written on the blackboard that the student copied down and later solved, was supposed to be unsolvable. The student you could argue is now elevated to the level of Genius but in truth, he was simply just not aware of how difficult (or impossible) the problem was.

I think Woods and Garcia do not realise how difficult the game is or rather how difficult the majority of players believe the game is. This is undoubtedly what sets them apart. If it is a Gift from God, then so be It; but the gift is available to most if you can reframe your ideas. The main challenge in golf is getting your mind round the  ideas that work.

With golf, if you put a low limit on what is possible and it is a fact that people do put themselves down, then you should hardly be surprised when you fail to achieve. Sadly, we are all too often exposed to a low limit when we start for the simple reason that we play a lot of our early golf with players of a similar poor standard. I often hear people of a high handicap remark that they have learnt a lot on the occasions they get to play with a Good player. All you learn when you play with poor standard of player’s week in week out is that swings are usually followed by oaths and searches in trees and rough. If you were exposed to the high standard of a good player on a regular basis, your perception of the game and your belief in what you are capable of would change beyond recognition.

A “Genius” in whatever field elevates himself above everyone because he dares to see and reach for something that no one else has even thought of. He, and he alone, sets the limits of what is and isn't possible.