Tiger Woods

"You must think like a champion to play like a champion!"

Woods:

Intimidation is another aspect of the mental game. How do you intimidate someone in a game where there is no physical contact? In football, if you have some guy 6-foot-5, 250 bearing down on you and you're 180 pounds soaking wet, that can be intimidating. But in golf, intimidation is purely a state of mind, not a fear of bodily harm.

If you buy into the fact that you control your destiny, you'll never let another player impose his will on you or intimidate you. I learned that very early in my career. I was an 11-year-old hotshot playing in the Junior World at Torrey Pines in San Diego. I had plenty of experience competing against guys much older, and I didn't scare easily. My first-round opponent, however, was huge, about 6 feet, 180. Although he was only a year older, he could have been a defensive lineman on the varsity football team. To make matters worse, he was strong as a bull. His first drive took off like a rocket, eventually landing in the middle of the green of the par 4. I nearly freaked out. In fact, I was so intimidated I could barely breathe.

I was not the same the rest of the week, barely speaking to my dad. On the way home, Pop asked me why I had been so quiet, and I confessed to being afraid. "Afraid of whom?" he asked. "The big kid," I said through a hard swallow. "Look, son," Pop said, "golf is played not by size, but by skill, intelligence and guts." That's all he said, leaving me to chew on the words for a while. Great players like Gary Player and Teddy Rhodes surely learned that lesson, too. I didn't know if I would ever grow big and strong, but I did know one thing: I'd never be intimidated by anyone or anything again.

Woods: How to overcome your mental blocks

A player can become mentally tougher by learning from his experiences. The mind is like a computer with thousands of megabytes of memory. Store your experiences for when you will need them again, because the game is a constant learning process. You should learn from your failures as well as successes. Ask yourself what you did or didn't do right in a situation. A lot of times you'll find it's the same thing over and over again.

* Learn from your experiences, both positive and negative. Rallying to win three consecutive U.S. Juniors and three straight U.S. Amateurs taught me the value of a never-give-up attitude. Having lost a few leads, too, reinforced that attitude.

* Take ownership of your mistakes. Every shot is your responsibility. When I drive it into the junk like I did on the last hole at Dubai in 2001, I can't blame anyone but myself. I hit the shot and I had to accept the consequences. It's not always easy, but it's fair.

* Never make the same mistake twice. It took two visits to the tributary at Augusta National's 12th hole (in the 1999 and 2000 Masters) to convince me never to be short of that green again. Both times the wind got me, but that's no excuse. The wind is always a factor there.

* Don't be afraid to turn a negative into a positive. Someone once accused me of hitting into trouble so I could make a heroic recovery. They thought I got a rush out of it. They were only partly right. I would never intentionally hit into trouble, but I must admit to seeing opportunity where others might not. It's fun being able to hit a flop shot off a downhill lie within birdie range like I did on the eighth hole in the final round of the 2001 Masters. Again, I had hit it there, and it was up to me to make the most of a dicey situation.

·         Never beat yourself up, because there are plenty of people who will do it for you. I am my own worst critic, but I will never do anything to undermine my confidence. Nor will I be influenced by anyone's criticism or scrutiny of me. I was supposedly mired in a slump because I had gone six straight tournaments without a win at the start of the 2001 season. Well, we all know how that turned out. You have to be tough enough mentally to handle all distractions.