WHEN WINNERS DON’T WIN

If we're paying attention, there’s a lot we can learn from winners. Wherever we're working to win ourselves, we can use the clues and apply the lessons that peak performers leave behind. There is perhaps no performer who’s spent more time at his peak in this generation than Tiger Woods, and perhaps no place that symbolizes his success more than Augusta National Golf Club, home of golf's biggest tournament – the Masters. Last week Tiger descended on Augusta in an attempt to win there again.

He has five green jackets representing his previous victories in the tournament, including one he won there last year – his first major tournament win in 11 years – that seemed to return golf to his glory days. Though his body’s broken down over the course of the last decade, Tiger’s relentless will to win and his competitive spirit had many golf fans hoping he could once again muster up some magic at this year's Masters. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

Over the course of the four-day tournament, Tiger’s game and his body gradually faltered, and by Sunday’s final round he found himself far from the place we've all gotten accustomed to him being – in contention. With seven holes to play, he stood on the 12th tee, a 155-yard par 3 well off the lead. His tee shot on #12 uncharacteristically found the water. After a penalty stroke, his third shot found that same water…again. After another shot over the green, Tiger put yet another ball in the creek. After an additional chip and two more putts, Tiger had recorded his worst score on any single hole in his long and storied Masters career – a 10. It was painful for fans to watch and I bet even more painful for a competitor like Tiger to experience. He walked to the 12th tee with a score of -3, and walked off the 12th green sitting at +4. With six holes to play in a now meaningless and embarrassing final round, he appeared to be limping home to the clubhouse.

But even on his worst day, Tiger Woods isn’t built for limping home. Instead, he did what you'd expect a winner like him to do. He promptly turned around and birdied the next hole, #13. After a par at #14, he birdied again at #15. Then he finished with birdies at #16, 17, and 18. He played the last six holes in -5, something he’d never done in any Masters round before. Of course his closing stretch of brilliance didn’t get much fanfare. After all, he was nearly 20 shots off the lead by then. But I do want to give his performance on those last six holes some attention today, because there in the home stretch of the 2020 Masters – a tournament that will never make his highlight reel – there are valuable clues and important lessons about the champion's mindset that Tiger left behind. It’s a lesson on how champions handle failure. On the standard they set for themselves regardless of the circumstances. It’s a lesson on what winners do, even when they don’t win.

In the home stretch of the 2020 Masters – a tournament that will never make his highlight reel – there are valuable clues and important lessons about the champion's mindset that Tiger left behind.

The easy thing for Tiger to have done – and the thing that most of us would probably do in a similar situation, to be honest – would be to limp home, to check out mentally and bail on competing the rest of the way. But despite his disappointment, his frustration, and even his embarrassment, Tiger’s pride wouldn’t allow him to pack it in. Those six holes validate that there’s a standard he’s committed to holding himself to, in both good times and bad, and nothing – not even his worst hole in the most important tournament that he knew he couldn’t win – was gonna keep him from competing to that standard. Compared to the highlights from all those tournaments he’s won, his performance on the back nine of the 2020 Masters barely registers. And yet, hidden in that mediocre final round, you find maybe the most authentic evidence as to what makes Tiger Wood the golfer he is, and a clue as to what really makes a champion a champion.

So it’s worth asking ourselves today, if we really want to become worthy of winning in our own life, what his example can teach us. Many people might argue that it’s because Tiger's done all that winning that he had that mindset to finish strong in the closing holes of Sunday’s final round. I’d argue that actually, just the opposite is true. I believe that Tiger developed that winner’s mindset first – that long ago he decided he’d take pride in refusing to ever pack it in, that he’d create a standard he’d hold himself to no matter what, and that he’d commit to competing all the time and in any circumstances, even when he knew he wasn’t going to win. That mindset isn’t a by-product of his success. It’s in fact the reason for his success all these years.

There are plenty of things Tiger Woods can do that you and I will never be able to do. But I want to challenge and encourage you today to see that some of the most important things Tiger Woods does to make himself a champion, you and I can do, too. Just like he did Sunday at Augusta, we can take more pride in refusing to pack it in. We can work to create a higher standard and hold ourselves to it, no matter what. We can commit to competing all the time and in any circumstances. We can do what winners do, even when we don’t win. Ironically, that’s the best formula for finding success.