Meanwhile the young Nicole Castrale, who was two strokes behind Ochoa, assessed her birdie putt, which was outside of Ochoa's upcoming par putt, committed to her routine and poured the putt in the center. Now she trailed by only one stroke.
You can guess how small the hole looked to Ochoa now! And indeed it did. Ochoa missed her par putt and the tournament was tied.
Routines are wonderful things. They're not mere mechanical processes. They're launchpads for personal excellence under pressure. They are filled with visual cues (or should be) and kinesthetic keys that allow the unconscious to feel what you want. Yet this should be consistent. Kristie Kerr's wasn't. Instead of committing to the routine that got her that far in the tournament, she allowed the pressure to take her out of her optimal performance rhythm.
One of the commentators of the tournament commented, after I had made my own assessment, that Kristie had slowed down her routine starting on the 16th hole. This didn't surprise me. It was clear she was way outside her routine on the 17th.
What's interesting is how things unfolded in the playoff as well. Castrale, without a single win in her short career, stared down Lorena Ochoa, clearly the dominant player right now. Castrale played like the tournament was hers. And it was.
Ochoa repeated what she has done three times now in playoffs: hit a hard hook off the tee which has cost her victory. Interesting how patterns repeat under pressure.
To produce your best in ALL circumstances and be able to "pull the trigger when under the gun", develop and stick to a solid pre-shot routine. There's nothing boring about a good routine.
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