'Mental' Michael Campbell needs hypnosis
Bernie McGuire
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
The following article is courtesy of www.stuff.co.nz.
A leading golf psychologist suggests hypnosis could cure Michael Campbell of his self-confessed "mental" problems after the 2005 US Open champion had another embarrassing Masters tournament at Augusta.
Campbell shot rounds of 83 and 81 to be 20-over par and equal last in the elite field and completed a perfectly sad record of 10 missed cuts from 10 appearances at the cathedral of golf. Campbell later said he would take a break from golf to sort himself out.
David Niethe, a golf psychologist who works with the Auckland-based Institute of Golf, told the Sunday Star-Times: "I'd do some hypnosis with him to identify the key issue that triggered this dysfunctional behaviour."
Niethe said hypnosis "is not a cure-all, there are a number of different techniques we use and there could also be some external factors we're not aware of.
"But I'd love to get him in my office, to be honest. I'm very competitive and if I could turn him around it would be awesome."
No wonder, because Campbell sounds like mind guru's dream at the moment.
"I just need to get myself sorted out mentally because it's just not working and Michael Campbell should not be shooting these scores, simple as that," Campbell told NZPA before traipsing down Magnolia Lane.
He will withdraw from the Spanish Open starting on April 29 and the Italian Open the following week, and hinted he might also sit out the US Open commencing on June 17 at Pebble Beach.
Campbell has now posted scores in the 80s six times in a dozen rounds this season.
"It's been a pretty miserable start of the year for me and once again mentally it's just not there and I need get away from the game a little bit or maybe for a month or even six months," he said.
Campbell said the week of the Masters was always a little different.
"It can really get to you and if you're not on you're A-game it makes you look like an idiot," he said.
"A course like Augusta National, there is nowhere to hide and it just magnifies all your bad things and for two days I've been pretty bad."
He had come to Augusta hoping to turn his fortunes around but he was left feeling "pretty much the worst I've felt about my performances since I turned professional".
"That's why it's time to do something about it because this is ridiculous, as I shouldn't be hitting the shots I'm hitting," he said. "I need to confront it and just rectify it. Enough is enough."
Niethe suggested Campbell is possibly suffering from having exceeded his own expectations of himself by winning the US Open at Pinehurst No2 in 2005 when he held off Tiger Woods.
"The public are quick to bag him about his performances but if you said to every golfer in New Zealand: `if you won the US Open and did nothing thereafter would you be satisfied?' then 99.9% would say `absolutely, it's beyond my wildest dreams'."
At the time, Campbell said he was so stunned by his victory and what it meant, he confessed to Woods: "I don't know how you do this [ie win majors]."
Niethe said Campbell, after the winning the US Open, could have been thinking `how did I do this and now that I've done it I don't know if I can do it again'.
"One of things we talk about is your self-image. If you're a 10-handicapper and you shoot 81 or 82 you say `yes, that's me' but one day if you play really well and shoot 33 on the front nine you think `oh my god, this is not like me', and your self-image kicks in and and you make a couple of double bogeys to get you back to where you're comfortable."
Niethe said his techniques had worked with other struggling golfers and he named Michael Hendry, one of the hottest New Zealanders in the game, as someone who prospered from psychological work.
"He's similar to Cambo in that he was really struggling and he had adjusted his dreams and aspirations to looking for another job outside golf.
"But within a year we turned him around into what I think is our best chance to get another pro on the US PGA Tour. He's playing exceptionally at the moment. He wins almost every second week."