Golf Events / Editor / 08 March 2007 /

They say that winning is the hardest thing to do in golf and there are plenty of golfers across the world who would agree.

While there are many players who can get themselves into a winning position at a tournament, the number becomes considerably less who can consistently carry their challenge through until the final hole and walk off with the trophy at the end of the week.

Whether you put it down to a loss of concentration, a lack of mental strength, a couple of poor swings or momentary aberrations on the putting green, some players simply struggle to hold it together when crunch time arrives.

Winning is a habit. As world number one Tiger Woods recently said: "The more I win, the better I get at it and I know what to do when I'm in that position again."

Woods is fortunate that he is very good at winning. So, too, are the likes of Henrik Stenson, Ernie Els, David Toms, Vijay Singh and Paul Casey, who rarely relinquish control at an event when they are top of the leader board. Others, however, are not so fortunate.

Just look at the example of Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 Open Championship.

Standing on the 18th tee at Carnoustie, he needed only a double bogey to become the first Frenchman to win the tournament since 1907, but ended up with a triple-bogey seven then lost the play-off to earn his place in history for all the wrong reasons.

And few can forget the heart-breaking sight of Nick Faldo consoling Greg Norman after he had blown a six-shot lead in the final round of the 1996 US Masters to eventually lose by three strokes.

The standards in the professional game are now so high that the slightest margins in a golfer's play or mental attitude are crucial in separating the great players from those that are very good.

This time last year, Phil Mickelson would have been high on the list of players who know how to win.

Having finally claimed his first major at the 2004 US Masters, the left-hander proceeded to impress at a series of tournaments, not least of which his crushing victory by 13 strokes at the 2006 BellSouth Classic.

But Mickelson's spectacular collapse at the US Open last summer shocked the golfing world and the mental scars left from his demise at Winged Foot have not yet healed, judging by last month's Nissan Open.

Having won by five shots the previous week at Pebble Beach, Mickelson looked to poised to record back-to-back wins and show he had left his US Open defeat behind him - only to blow a two-shot lead over the final eight holes.

Mickelson made every error you can make on the back nine, and even failed to take advantage of two slices of luck, on his way to eventually losing a play-off to Charles Howell III.

Retief Goosen and Luke Donald are two other golfers in the current world top 10 who have not won as much as they might have, judging by the huge talent they possess.

Goosen, number eight in the rankings, has already won two US Open titles and there are few more consistent golfers in the world.

But despite his unflappable persona on the surface, the South African does not appear to have been the same since he blowing a three-shot advantage in the final round of the 2005 US Open to eventually finish well down the field.

While he has claimed any number of top-10 finishes since then, his only victory of note has come at the Qatar Masters this year and he has been in contention to claim at least two majors since then, only to fall at the final hurdle.

Much was expected of Donald when he burst on to the scene and, while he has reached the world's top 10, the one thing he has struggled to deliver is titles.

The Englishman has finished in the top ten 24 times in 132 starts on the PGA Tour, but converted just two of them into wins.

He wasted a great chance to win at the 2005 Players' Championship when the event was there for the taking on the last day, only to lose it over the final nine holes, while he came up short again at last year's US PGA Championship.

Padraig Harrington has worked hard at shedding his tag of being a 'nearly man' which he earned in the late 1990s - including coming second in four times in five tournaments in 1999 - but still finds it hard at times to close tournaments out.

Despite 37 worldwide victories, Colin Montgomerie looks destined to never win in America and backers should be wary of the likes of Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, who are yet to fulfil their immense talent in the game.

Garcia still remains susceptible to mistakes on the green when put under pressure while Rose has led three times after 54-holes on the PGA Tour but is still yet to win - the latest of these coming at the Bob Hope Classic in January.

The Englishman will be desperate to end that run as soon as possible, as will Australian Robert Allenby who has not won on the PGA Tour since 2001.

Allenby is currently 12th in the FedEx Cup standings and has five top-ten finishes to his name in six starts this year, but has found the pressure of leading too much in America in recent years.

This was shown only last weekend when, having moved into the lead late on the third day of the Honda Classic he dropped four shots to drop back.

Allenby still had a chance of victory in the final round after hauling himself back into contention, but was again found wanting to miss out on a play-off by a single shot.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>