The X Factor
IN: News | by Grant Dodd | 07 Jun 2007
There is an ad floating around on the internet at the moment featuring US Ryder Cup star Chad Campbell. In it, he says, “When I was growing up, my dad said to me, ‘If you have to tell people how good you are, then you probably aren’t’ – perhaps that’s why I don’t say much”.
His father’s astute observation inadvertently cuts right to the core of one of the great truisms of professional golf. On tour, every player is aware of the difference between good and great. Such truths stare you in the face every day, passing judgment without saying a word. Often it is only selective memory or blind egotism that can save you from the ignominy of unflattering comparison.
Campbell has good reason to keep his own counsel on this matter. He has a huge game, and is blessed with the type of nerve that allows him to stare success in the eye and not flinch. He won nine times in a year on the pay-to-play Hooters Tour in 2000, followed by three wins the following year on the Buy.Com (now Nationwide) Tour. He has since racked up another $13 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.
Chad Campbell doesn’t need to tell anyone how good he his. Ask his peers and they’ll tell you that he’s one of the first names to come to mind when discussions head towards the hoary chestnut of “Who is the best young player not to have won a major?”. In simple terms, he has a certain “X-factor” about him, an intangible and rare quality that separates contenders from hopefuls and marks them apart.
Some players just have it. Adam Scott is one. Even at 15, you could see that he possessed something unique, a factor that excluded him from other logical comparisons. Athleticism, mental strength, power and self control all combined to create a package that possessed maturity beyond numerical years. He hit the ball and managed his game like a seasoned pro at a time when many of comparable age were still setting their goals at winning the monthly medal. Little wonder then that he made such an immediate mark on world golf.
Some players find it. Nick O’Hern certainly qualifies in this respect. Early in his career he struggled, but somewhere along the journey a key was found that unlocked the talent vault. O’Hern changed things by continually playing to his strengths, the greatest of which may be an absence of ego on the golf course. No one in world golf recognises and accepts their limitations better than him, and the discipline that accompanies the formation of such self-knowledge has been the catalyst for the creation of a small fortune. Try to think of the last time he made an out of control swing and the mind goes blank. His version of the X factor takes a different form than that of Adam Scott’s, but what it lacks in dynamism it makes up for with sheer efficiency.
Others, on the other hand, never quite comprehend that they have been ordained with it. A few acknowledge the gift but choose to fritter it away. The list of culprits is unwritten but extensive, and liberally littered with names of the nearly and almost.
One of the most mystifying cases is that of Wayne Stewart. Stewart was Australian Junior Champion at 18 and possessed a raw, natural ability innate to very few. When he turned pro in 1993 he cruised through Tour School and then finished third in the Canon Challenge in one of his first events. A glittering career and fulfillment of his apparently unlimited potential was all but certain.
What happened after that is a complete mystery. The simplest explanation seems to be that his internal compass lost its bearings. Stewart went to Canada during the Australian winter that year and went missing in action. He came back to Australia and played for a few more years but the burning ambition and drive that was once his greatest asset had left him. In its place remained a mindset seemingly vexed by the inherent injustices of the game, unable to come to terms with the way it disproportionately rewarded results over talent.
The last time I saw him play in a tournament he was simply dropping his ball onto the tee and smashing it off the deck with his driver. It was as though he was challenging the game to beat him, to finally assert its dominance and bring matters to a conclusive showdown.
Sadly, as nearly everyone who plays this game has learnt, irrespective of talent, X factor or raw ability, in that battle there can only be one winner.
