I'm responding to a poster who argued that situational confidence and momentum were the needed ingredient rather than a different kind of confidence and professionalism. That has everything to do with luck because in the former case you're leaving everything to chance, as I said, in the hopes that the momentum of others or randomness will boost you to the appropriate performance level.
It's interesting you bring up Spieth because I was going to mention him as well. He could've collapsed and allowed his demons to jump up but instead he rallied, sucked it up, and got down to business. It's not magic. That's what champions do. He may be one of the best right now but ALL the top golfers know what he was experiencing at that time and have overcome similar situations in their lives. You don't win, or even make the Pro tour, without having some of that in your bag. With Spieth it happened on a bigger stage than most because he put himself in that position.
What you saw there was Spieth learning from his mistakes rather than being overwhelmed by fear when a similar collapse seemed to be unfolding. He confronted it with his caddie and DECIDED he was not going to let it happen. He didn't just go along with the breaks and say "oh well, bad luck on that hole, what can you do, I'll get em next year". Hell, on the very first hole his caddie told him "get over it" when he whined about a bad lie for his second shot. It's a constant challenge but one that can be overcome. With the Capitals, such breaks are seen as signs of the inevitable, impending disaster. Then it happens as I described earlier.
And yes, Sergio has been a head case for many years. It took him a long, long time to break through because of it. He's actually a perfect example of someone with massive talent but an inferior mental game 99% of the time, and it's been cited as a case study in some examinations. In golf it often manifests in putting, which is the part of the game that's the most mental and subject to even microscopic fluctuations of confidence. So it should not be any surprise that Sergio struggled with putting for years, especially down the stretch in majors, while a guy like Spieth has as strong putter as his greatest ally. You could see it yesterday with the early misses, then later on he drained everything. That's not a coincidence.
People seem to think the mental aspect of high level athletics is something you have forever or you don't. That's not true. It's something that needs constant work. Like a muscle it atrophies. And like a muscle you can strengthen it through training. Again, whether or not people avail themselves of that opportunity is on them.
