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It comes from my mum's side. From the genetics side, I can blame her. I always had high expectations for myself and still probably do. And you get frustrated when you don't meet your expectations instantly. I'm no different than Tiger. Tiger's the angriest guy on Tour, but he never lets it affect the next shot. He's angry for five seconds and then it's gone. He'd admit that, too — it's not a detriment.
But there was a time when you'd go back to your hotel room after a bad round and berate yourself in the bathroom mirror.
Yeah, all day I'd be telling myself I was useless. It's bizarre. If somebody else talked to you like that you wouldn't be friends with them. So I just started being more positive. Instead of saying, "You're a bad putter," I'd say, "You're a good putter." It might have been a lie at that particular time, but if you can choose to say one or the other, you might as well say the one that going's to make you feel better.
What was the low point? Did you snap any putters?
A couple of times. I've never actually broken a putter over my knee, but I've thrown it against my bag and bent it a little bit, so I couldn't use it anymore. When you have to putt with your driver for that last six holes that's just embarrassing. Everyone gasps when you walk on to the green and pull your driver out. It's not a very cool thing; it's a bad look. It's just not enjoyable to keep riding yourself like that. At 35, I'd be done. I'd be fishing or hunting or something.
You never sought professional help. Why not?
I've talked to a couple of guys, but none of these [golf specific] psychologists. They're only telling you something that you already know. They don't know how you feel when you're playing your best. They can just sort of point you in the right direction. Deep down, everybody knows what is the right way to think. It's quite obvious: the right way to think is "I'm going to hole this putt" as opposed to "What chance have I got to hole this putt?" You just have to have the discipline to notice that you're thinking badly.
A couple years ago you started spending less time on the practice range and actually got better. What's your secret?
Every now and then I'll spend time on the range if I need to, but I used to start picking at my game too much. If I started hitting it bad, I'd start getting negative and then I'd start picking my swing apart, and by the end of a few hours on the range, I was a complete mess. If I took a week off, the first day I hit balls would feel the best. So I started by just not hitting balls after my round, and I didn't feel like I lost anything. And then when I'd go home and practice during a week off, I'd experiment and just play without any practice on the range. So I started [to realize] maybe you don't need to hit 500 balls a day to be any good.
Try telling that to Vijay.
For every Vijay or Tiger, there are the same number of guys who maybe don't practice at all — Ernie Els, Fred Couples. These guys would probably be annoyed that I said that, but they're not Vijay or Tiger. I mean, they practice, but they're much more chilled out. It's just a matter of finding out where you are. Practice can be a detriment rather than a help. For me, a small amount is good.
You've said you like facing Tiger at his best. That true?
When he's dominating a golf course, it's golf the way it's meant to be played. It's fun to watch, don't you think?
Sure, but not if you're competing against him.
Well, he's harder to beat. But how good is it if I win when he's playing his best? I can say, "I beat the best golfer of all time when he was playing his best."
It must be fun to watch him up close.
Even if he's playing badly he's fun to watch, because he's in the trees and then hitting amazing shots out of the trees. Phil's the same way. He's hit some shots out of the junk that just aren't normal. There are some golfers you play with who you just sit back and watch them play. Phil and Tiger are two of them. No offense to the guys who just pop it up there in the middle of the fairway, hit 80 percent of their greens and hole a few putts here and there, but it's not as fun to watch guys like that.
Could you ever ascend to Tiger's level?
He's always going to be a better player than me by a long way. If we played 100 times, he'd probably beat me 80 times. But if I can beat him 20 times, that would be nice.
You and your wife, Juli, had a baby girl in October. Could fatherhood distract you from golf?
It could, but there are good and bad distractions. I used to go back and mope around the hotel room. I'm not going to do that anymore. It's another outlet that's not golf that I can think about. She's not going to care if I three-putted the last three holes.
But she might care if you win another major. Do you feel like you need to win another to truly prove your mettle?
It'd be nice to win another one because it would give more credibility to the first one. But if I don't, at least I get to sit down when I'm older and say, "I won the U.S. Open."
