But the first couple of times that I worked with her, it became clear that she overreacted when things were going bad during her rounds. When things were bad, they were very bad.
The more we talked, she understood that she had things going on mentally that were impacting her golf. We just didn’t know what.
So we began to work on it.
The thing that I know as a golfer, and as a human being, is that when we’re on the first tee, yes, we are the golfer, but we can’t leave the person behind. Especially if we’re under stress. If things don’t go well, usually the personality we have in us or the person, so to speak, comes through.
With Madelene, I could see on her reaction patterns that something was going on. Something was bothering her when she was under pressure or when she was playing poorly. I just told her the things that I’d gone through as a player and tried to build trust by being very honest about my own journey. And she started to think more about what caused her to overreact on the golf course. . .that maybe it could be something that she’s been carrying with her that was disturbing her.