Confidence Personified

Filed in archive Golf News on December 29, 2007

Courtesy; getty images
At what age in a golfer's career is he or she most confident?

This may seem like an odd question to pose but don't we often equate confidence with youth in the same way we equate physical strength or agility?

After all, most Olympic athletes are in their 20s and most professional golfers seem to demonstrate their greatest talents in their 20s or 30s.

In fact, when we think of confidence in golf, we immediately turn to Tiger Woods as the benchmark, don't we?

It's astonishing how often Woods represents the epitome of different things in our world: wild financial success, ridiculously high levels of professional achievement, good looks, near physical perfection thanks to his workout regimen, a beautiful wife and a lovely child.

How can it get better? Well, that's Tiger's "worry" and not the subject of this article.

My point is that we automatically consider confidence as one of the characteristics of youth.

Of course, confidence is not the purview of only the young. And Carl Mason is a classic example.

Mason plays on the European Seniors Tour, not a tour that receives a lot of coverage in North America which is why Carl Mason is not a household name among senior golfers the way Tom Watson or Hale Irwin is.

But Mason had his confidence mojo working throughout 2007. And at the age of 54, he won five tournaments on the Euro Seniors slog this season, becoming the biggest money winner in the tour's history at the same time.

So take heart, those of you who think you're "over the hill"! Confidence is a state of mind and, as long as you're above ground, you have a mind.

Sure, Tiger's the richest athlete on the planet. But you can stand over a 20 footer for bogey on the 18th green and roll the ball with Tiger-like confidence.

Better still, you can do it with your own confidence. I'm 56 and I'm counting on it.