07 Don't depend to much on video.
OK, maybe she's not a PGA Tour veteran, but my wife, Jaclyn, played college golf at Florida Atlantic and knows a thing or two. In 2003, when we were packing the car for the start of another mini-tour season in New England, she demanded I leave the video camera at home. We had had some rough seasons leading up to that, including one point when we were down to our last 3 grand and eating lots of bean-and-cheese burritos just to save enough money for entry fees. During this stretch I had gotten addicted to analyzing my swing on video. Video has its place, but it's better to know your swing by intuition so you can fix it mid-round. I listened to my wife, left the camera at home, and that year I started to turn the corner.
08 Trust your caddie.
When I first came out on tour, I would go out and chart courses with my caddie. Now I leave that responsibility solely to Paul Tesori, who's been on my bag for two seasons. I'm by nature a somewhat controlling person when it comes to information, but learning to let go has taken a tremendous psychological weight off my shoulders. Tiger Woods plays quick practice rounds because he has so much confidence in Stevie Williams. Tiger told me early on that I needed to find my own formula, not just copy him or any other players, but some things just jump out at you. You don't see many guys in the top 10 who change caddies like shoes.
09 Soak up your favorite player's rhythm.
As a junior I emulated Davis Love III. I was built like him, tall with long arms, and tried hard to copy his swing, especially that wide takeaway. I wore nothing but Polo, played the same equipment as he did, even mimicked his waggle. My dad would tape entire tournaments and edit them down so it was just a montage of DL III's shots. I would sit in my bedroom and watch those videos over and over. Whenever I was playing badly or was nervous the night before a big tournament, a session with those videos would let me soak up Davis' rhythm. You watch something over and over again, you'd be surprised how much it starts to show up in your game.
10 Life can't revolve around golf.
I used to think golf was everything, and so every time I scored badly I would be miserable. When your happiness depends entirely on how you play, that's putting way too much pressure on your game. All the best players have other things in their lives they can turn to when they want to get away. Take Kenny Perry, who restores old cars. Right now I have two young children, Molly Kate and Luke, so they're pretty much my only hobby. But someday I'd like to get into restoring cars, or something like that.
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