LPGA 2013: What is Suzann Pettersen up to?
Suzann Pettersen is way up there in terms of golf. It will be surprising to know that that is not because she is the steady type (referring to style of play here).
Pettersen’s golf had been the victim of a 20-month victory drought and the Norwegian has, last year (2011), just been able to rid herself of the winless streak.
Pettersen clinched a victory at the waning 2011 season’s Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in New Jersey.
The victory had come after 2010, and the better part of 2009 had been completely barren. In 2010, it will be a shock to some of you out there that she had been a runner-up in six Ladies
Professional Golf Association tournaments, and unable to rise above the leaders to clinch sweet victory.
That looked like it was the end of her right there in 2010. The agonizing six tournaments were all played well, with some of them seeing her in a much better shape.
Despite being in the leading group in almost all of the tournaments and finishing runner-up, Pettersen was never able to land a single win for the whole year.
That is devastating. The win in 2011 did well to bolster belief in her own abilities and helped her crawl back out of despair that tends to grapple onto golfers in situations similar to
hers.
Golfers are easily susceptible to devastating self-doubt because of the very nature of the game. You see, golf is a very lonely sport, perhaps more so than the other sports (excluding team
sports, of course). Because the golfer is alone in the field, he and only he alone is able to pull off the long drives through the treacherous roughs.
As pressure mounts (as it certainly is when one faces off the likes of Yani Tseng), there is only one asset that can help the would-be great golfer on the field out there: self-belief.
Although the 2012 season has been dry for the blonde Norwegian, the year 2013 will probably forecast sunshine with little or no sign of showers. Things will look up for Suzann Pettersen.
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