THE DIGEST TOUR TALES & TRUE

DROPPING THE C-BOMB

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HERE are moments in any sport where competitors wish the ground would open up and swallow them. Immediately to mind comes the South African, Alan Donald, as he was run out in the semi-final against Australia at the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Jana Novotna too, after blowing a seemingly unassailable lead in the Wimbledon final in 1993. And, on a somewhat more remote stage, this writer, while playing the 54th hole of the 2001 Australian Open. A course record 65 in the second round found me playing in the penultimate group on Saturday at The Grand Golf Club on Queenslands Gold Coast. It was a tough day, windy and hot, with the course set up to test the field. I certainly didnt play vintage golf, but Id hung in there all day to find myself still in the top 10 with one hole to play. With relief from the examination in sight and a solid day nearly behind me, I proceeded to gouge my way down the 18th hole on national TV, making a triple bogey of profound ugliness, in the process blowing myself out of contention. A choke? Maybe. That judgment would have been passed by some. But in reality, I didnt play that hole significantly worse, or with a greater sense of fear or trepidation than any other during the round. In the tightrope-walking world of open golf with its rock-hard
/ NOVEMBER 2012

The use of the word choke may be a sign of the times but it doesnt make it right. By Grant Dodd

Adam Scott collapses on his sword at the British Open.

greens, narrow fairways and high-pressure atmosphere, youre only ever a slight missstep away from potential catastrophe. Add to the mix the necessity of having to push yourself to the limit of your abilities in pursuit of victory and you have a potent cocktail of circumstance from which good or grotesque may eventuate. The sobering experience of such a baptism had me feeling for Adam Scott after his Open Championship disaster this year. Social media lit up

after the calamitous finish, the C word proliferating as armchair champions and 19th hole visionaries tore into Scott following his fourbogey closing stretch at Royal Lytham. Maybe Im just getting cranky with middle age (or less tolerant because of it) but the judgmental and accusatory

manner with which choke is being used in the public domain is beginning to bother me. Once it was merely a sly aside, a potentially useful, playful tool best put to use in a four-ball match as one of your mates lined up a 3-foot putt for the hole. In the modern era, however, it has somehow evolved into a barbed weapon whose primary purpose seems to be to cast aspersions on character. The degree to which it is being applied to golf, and to golfers in particular, demonstrates an emerging meanness of spirit not usually associated with our sport. Golf has many unique components that differentiate it. There is no referee giving a bad call, no team-mate responsible for throwing a poor pass. It comes down to the individual versus the course, the conditions, and themselves. The self-examination inherent in the game once meant that a degree of empathy pervaded. No matter what level you had competed at, everyone from major champion to C-grade beginner knew something about the pain of failure. On recent evidence, with Scotts experience as exhibit A, the goalposts appear have shifted. Defining what constitutes a choke, if such a thing exists, is beyond my capabilities and motivation. Ill leave that task to the skills of the social media trolling brigade. Entrenchment of the C-word in the vernacular may be a sign of the times, and a marker of the future, but it nt doesnt make it any more palatable.

To ask Grant a question,e-mail us at golfdig@newslifemedia.com.au

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