Australian Open: The art of delusion keeping golfers sane

Golfers are delusional. The denial keeps them sane.

Jordan Spieth reacts after hitting his second shot on the 16th during the second round of the Australian Open.

Golfers are delusional. The denial keeps them sane.

Everything is rotten luck. Blame the lie. The wind. The spike marks. The dimwit caddie. The halfwit spectator. Blame the faint ding of a mobile telephone. They flinch like they’ve heard a clap of thunder. Victimisation is king.

The golfer cannot admit to weaknesses. The joint will burn to the ground. He must feel infallible. Few sports depend so much on confidence, real or imagined. The putt missed because of an uneven surface, a pockmarked green or an inaccurate reading.

The golfer cannot concede their technique has conked out. Puffs of wind can be gale force. Bunkers are the size of the Sahara.

The high end of denial is the unheralded golfer telling himself that none of it matters anyway. Lincoln Tighe was the first-round leader at the Australian Open.

The world No 1 (thousand and fifty-five) is telling himself that the results of his shots don’t matter. Shank it into the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport. Who cares?! Four-putt the 16th? Whatever! It’s understandable, but it’s a nonsense.

Of course it matters.

It matters so much that he must pretend it doesn’t. If he wins the Stonehaven Cup tomorrow afternoon, we’re guessing he won’t shrug his shoulders with indifference.

Tighe trailed Matt Jones, whose morning round of 68 left him seven-under for the tournament, by two shots when he teed off yesterday afternoon. He ­birdied the 1st. That mattered. He bogeyed the 4th. That mattered.

His pull-hook off the 5th fairway mattered until he scrambled a par. He was still two behind at the turn. He birdied the 10th. And the 11th. He was joint leader.

When he bogeyed the 15th and rolled his eyes and shook his head, clearly it mattered. He bogeyed the next. Double-bogeyed the next.

He finished with a two-over par 73. It was far from a disaster. He was still tied for third with a two-round total that matched the returns of world No 1 Jordan Spieth and Australia’s former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.

His third round will matter a great deal. A top-10 finish will get him into the British Open. As Jones himself said, the British Open matters.

“That’s always been the one major I’ve wanted to win,” Jones said. “The British Open is probably my favourite because it’s similar to playing golf in Australia.

“It’s what we grew up on — windy, fast and hard. That’s why I’m playing the Australian Open. It’s to win the Australian Open and then you get a start in the British Open. It’s a great way to be able to get into a major for myself and for a lot of other guys that wouldn’t otherwise get a lot of opportunity to do it.”

Jones finished 30th at this year’s Open at St Andrews and 21st at the US PGA Championship. He’s won the Houston Open on the PGA Tour and forged a serviceable career.

Accolades in Australia are few.

“It’s not frustrating, not when you have Adam Scott and Jason Day to play behind,” he said.

“Jason had one of the best years of any Australian ever on tour. I’m just happy to be playing on the PGA Tour and to keep doing what I’m doing.

“If my golf gets more accolades back here that would be great but it’s only going to come from victories and doing what they do, week in and week out. As of now I’m not in a major next year.

“But I’m more comfortable in this situation of leading and knowing that if I don’t play well enough, it’s not the end of the world.”

Neither is it the end of the world for Robert Allenby. It just feels like it.

Allenby’s year from hell con­tinued with a horror second round. He shot a five-over-par 76 to miss the cut.

The 2005 Australia Open champion started his day poorly.

After teeing off at the 10th he hit a bogey on 12 and then three successive bogeys on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes.