Mind is what matters to Weir's 'mental coach'
By ROB LONGLEY -- Toronto Sun
HOUSTON -- It hasn't been the best week to follow Mike Weir as he struggles on and around the testy greens of the Champions Golf Club. But even as the Masters winner essentially shot himself out of the Tour Championship yesterday with a two-over-par 73, his gallery has included the usual loyalists.
Like every Tour stop, Canadians seek him out. There was the goofy looking pair in bright red maple leaf tuques and others in Team Canada jerseys.
His father, Rich, has been walking with him as has Steve Bennett, his childhood teacher from Bright's Grove.
None, however, may have been more interested (and interesting) than Rich Gordin, Weir's self-described "mental coach".
A professor at Utah State University, Gordin has worked with Weir since 1997 and has seen the golfer's resolve grow to match his success.
Gordin is making the season-ending event one of eight housecalls he makes during the season, a final mental tuneup before Weir leaves for the Presidents Cup next week.
The patient has provided the head doctor with some material this week as Weir has, at times, misfired the two key weapons on any course -- his putter and his driver.
Weir hit just five of 14 fairways yesterday, most of his drives sharply pushed to the left. With four three-putts in two days, he has all but excused himself from the Tour player of the year race, barring going low in round three today.
"I've got to play better to do that," Weir said when asked if he could eat measurably into the 11-strokes separating his three-over standing and leader Charles Howell III. "My marginal shots seem to be going to bad spots and my good shots aren't that close."
Leave it to Gordin, then, to find the good from the gloom.
When he follows Weir, as he did from start to finish the past two days, Gordin isn't tracking the ball and swing as much as Weir's expressions, a window into his state of mind.
"I'm looking for reactions," Gordin said. "It doesn't matter if he is playing well or not so well. I trust my eyes. I do that with all of the athletes I work with.
"He's holding his composure well even though he's not hitting it well. He's still out there battling. That's the thing about Mike, he has so much heart."
Measuring the role of a sports psychiatrist is a dodgy prospect at best. Some would dismiss them as quacks and those who seek their counsel even quackier.
Weir and Gordin have enjoyed a subtle relationship, however, one that began when the golfer sought out the teacher on the advice of his college coach, Karl Tucker.
Gordin said they hit it off right away and his job merely became the fine-tuning of Weir's focus.
"At the time we met, Mike had been working hard to get on Tour," Gordin said. "What struck me was he was a great young man with a great attitude but that perhaps he was working a little too hard mentally.
"He has a great attitude about life and that has made him easy to work with."
Besides advising golfers, Gordin also is well-known for his years of work with the U.S. track and field team. Of the many elite performances he has witnessed around the world, Gordin counts Weir's Masters triumph as one of the strongest displays of mental fortitude.
"It was in the top percentage that I've seen," Gordin said. "I mean, he was making eight-footers all week."
It is in weeks like the current one that Gordin also sees strength that the rest of the gallery might not. There's no session in a patient's chair, nothing heavy duty, but they will accomplish something when they meet.
"We'll talk about what he was feeling and work on some things," Gordin said. "It's part of the game plan."
Whether Weir shoots 73 or 63, it seems.
