Zach Johnson Wins The Masters of Golf

I have been ill with a cold like flu since Wednesday so I apologize for not providing my daily post since Friday. On the positive side I was able to watch the 2007 PGA Masters from Thursday's first round and watch Zach Johnson a rookie from the USA Team of the 2006 Ryder Cup hold his own against the best of the best in the game of golf at Augusta National when Augusta was arguably the toughest it has been in close to 20 years. What impressed me most about Zach is the focus in the present he displayed at the tender age of 31 in front of huge galleries, TV cameras airing to over 190 countries around the world and, playing against his idols on a course he walked around as a guest following one of his idols Phil Mickelson only a few years ago dreaming of once playing on this famed course.

For anyone who has played the game of golf most of us know the inner doubts we battle lining up for our birdie putt that comes around not too often if you are a bogey golfer like myself. Amplify that by the distractions Zach had to encounter and you may well, just possibly, imagine the feat of this young man.

Here is the amazing part of all this, to control his nerves he refused to look at the leader board particularly on the back nine of Sunday's last round. In doing so he birdied 3 out 4 holes going into the 17th. Then, at the 17th, he takes a peek at the leader board. As a result he bogeys the 17th because he took himself out of the present and allowed himself to think about the future possibilities. Never the less, he had a 2 stroke lead and the bogey put him to 1 over with a 1 stroke lead. He got focused again and completed the 18th with a par leaving him to wait and see what Tiger Woods would do who was chasing him with now 2 strokes behind after getting an eagle on the par 5 13th hole.

No worries, Tiger made a couple of bad strokes and Zach won the 2007 Masters and had the Green Jacket placed on him by Phil Mickelson.

It is this kind of single minded focus that defines winners. To stay in the present ignoring all outside influences. His long term goals were established including to play and win the Masters and all he had to do now was stick to his plan of practice, play, and improve, in time for Augusta.

This same focus should be applied to business, life, passions. When you want to achieve something important to you, your passion, do you have a single minded focus that tunes out the external negative influences? Are you a winner?

This is not easy and may take practice but it is truly easier if your 'Why' is big enough. Is your reason for succeeding, (your 'why'), big enough, to let nothing stop you from succeeding. Including the failures along the way?