“It can be very exhausting,” Ryan Fox explained to CNN. “I think about some of the low points in my career, you feel like you can’t escape it. [Agora]if I’m a little angry or frustrated, I can sit and relax in a nice, controlled space. That is great! I think it will be something that a lot of tournaments will probably do, I definitely see it as something very, very good for us.”
Treatment of athletes
In sport, as in life, not everyone will be able to recognize that they are struggling, and even then, admitting it can be difficult. But Dr. Hopley thinks golfers and athletes should be particularly receptive to help and treatment.
“Mental health and performance are opposite sides of the same coin,” he said. “It’s usually when you do [atletas] pay attention. We would like to move towards a situation where people think about this proactively, see it as part of their regular routine, like going to the gym, rather than waiting for things to become a problem.”
Dr. Hopley anticipates that society is now moving in a direction where mental health is becoming much less taboo.
Dr. Hopley explained that if a player needed his help during a tournament, he would listen attentively without saying much initially. He would help them analyze what was really causing their distress.
“Think long and hard about things that are in your control,” he explained. “The more time we spend paying attention to the things within our control, the more progress we can make. The less time we spend thinking about things outside of our control, the less anxious and stressed we feel.”
As for Scott, he noted how golf is “unfair at the best of times” and noted that the results can be difficult to accept.
“Great shots often go unrewarded, and you may be playing better than some people who get results,” he said.
“Golf, more than other sports I’ve seen, is a lot like life. He has these ups and downs that are somehow inexplicable, sometimes through no fault of his own. I’m certainly guilty of internalizing a lot of things, I think I’ve slowly gotten better at finding support. Sometimes we just need to let off some steam,” he concluded.
