Golf Special Report: Unbelievable meltdowns that have led to loss (Part 1)
To a layman, the word competition can have a thousand different meanings –the adrenaline rush, a thrashing victory, fist bumps, head bumps, crowd’s roar, lethal conquests, extreme nerves and many more.
Among the laughter and the tears, there’s also intense mental pressure. No player is immune to it and while some can handle it, others can’t. A player maybe the best of the best at one instant but give him a little pressure and he falters. This is also called
‘choking’ in English, which means tension taking the best of you.
Some of the golf’s biggest stifled up performances have occurred on annual basis, making many fans wonder. Below, a number of players have been compared and ranked that cover events from all parts of the history.
The Triple bogey:
The bottom of the list observes Jean Van de Velde from the British open of 1999. This player had been playing one confident game till the last holes of the Open. His game had been more confident than the top ranked player would ever play which was until
the 18th turned into a bogey-play. The player was on his last hole to win but apparently, Velde didn’t earn just one bogey, the golfer achieved a triple bogey.
His current presence in the top ten under-pressure-falterers is because his ball managed to find every bunker possible on the field. His white ball travelled through the sand bunkers to the water and from the rough to grandstand.
18th sees a quadruple:
Lorena Ochoa is another great example of how your ball can do wonders and make your game turn directions. At the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, this golfer needed a birdie to win and if that wasn’t attractive enough, the birdie putt was the gateway for entering
the play-off. Somehow, Ochoa wasn’t impressed with the results of her putt and sent her ball into the water. The female golfer played her shot with her driver at the 18th and sent her ball skidding into the water that was on the left of the hole.
Ochoa didn’t achieve the birdie everyone hoped she would and she carded quadrupled bogeys.
A failed par:
After Lorena Ochoa, Tom stands at number eight. The player melted under pressure at the British Open of 2009. The player only needed to achieve a par at the last 18th hole and the game was his in every aspect.
Watson played his last hole and only had a short putt left between him and the victory. Of course, this index holds players who missed one of the simplest putts, so naturally Watson missed a putt this easy for the par and lost the tournament. Call it bad
luck or call it wilting under pressure, Watson failed to spot a putt he had played a thousand times in his career and the said good bye to the British Open victory.
A slow car crash:
At spot number seven on the list of players who weren’t able to handle the pressure at any cost is Sergio Garcia. Garcia was playing for the Wachovia Championship in 2005, when he choked up his game. This had been one sad game for Garcia as he lost after
holding a six stroke lead over the other players.
The players devastating loss was marked as one of the worst performances since the performance of Greg Norman from the year 1996. Garcia entered his final round with topping the leader boards from 6 shots. The Sergio Garcia melt down was marked as a car
crash scenario. They say his game was torturous enough to look away and interesting enough for many to stay. Although Garcia didn’t win the Wachovia Championship, The sad tale of Sergio Garcia render down still manages to earn spot number 7 on this list.
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