Epitome of Mental Toughness By Wade Pearse

How a 16 Year old girl matches the mental toughness of Tiger Woods

What is mental toughness? Is it being able to grind out a good score when things aren't going well on the course? Is it the ability to stay strong and committed in spite of distractions and on-course circumstances?

Of course it includes these scenarios and more. Yet mental toughness isn't something you simply acquire on the spur of the moment or when you "think you need it." No, it's more of an overall mindset—a perspective that allows you to tap another level within your mental game.

Mental toughness is developed and built over time. Once you establish a mindset based on mental toughness, access to it when it matters becomes easier and easier.

MacKinzie Kline symbolizes mental toughness. Is your golfing mindset solid and committed in the many scenarios that unfold in your game? Do you have as strong a mind as the 16-year-old golfing phenom MacKinzie Kline?

“Mac”, as she likes to be called, was born with only three valves in her heart, no spleen, and her liver was on the wrong side of her body. Having endured numerous operations in her life she has built up a reserve of mental toughness that she now draws on to elevate her game.

In 2006 Mac was forced to take an oxygen tank with her as she played the US Girls' Junior Golf Championship in Charlotte, NC. Nothing would stop her from competing. Imagine lugging an oxygen tank around the course with you and remaining focused on each shot. Now that’s tough.

Shortly after that championship doctors discovered that Mac had a hole in her heart which they had missed some time before. She had to undergo yet another operation.

Mental Toughness is a Mindset

Mac has a mental toughness that keeps her in her game and completely centered in each moment, regardless of the circumstances. She has decided to play with a mindset that says, "I determine how I feel and how I'll perform, not other players or what might be happening around me." The way young Mackinzie Kline manages her inner resources is the epitome of what mental toughness is all about.

It's almost routine to watch frustrated whiners on the golf course toss their clubs 20 yards down the fairway after a bad shot, or complain about all the bad breaks they get, or how the bunker wasn't raked properly, or how the cup wasn't cut right, and on and on. When faced with some adversity most players will fold like a cheap suit and succumb to their own inner weakness.

And then there's this 16 year-old girl with only three valves in her heart with more character and heart than any of us could hope to have.

Mental toughness is a state of mind that keeps your attention on each task, each shot, each moment. MacKinzie Kline is committed to her mental game. She is committed to herself.

She accepts complete responsibility for her results and places no blame outside of herself for her circumstances. Most everyone would agree she has a right to feel self-pity. But that doesn't happen with her, not even for a moment. Her diminutive stature disguises a towering mental game giant.

Your decision. Mac chooses how she'll experience herself on the golf course. She knows mental toughness is a decision, a commitment to an inner ideal that is bigger than the outcome of any one shot or game. She chose to accept ownership of her internal state and how she'll perform. A great model for every golfer, wouldn’t you agree?

Tiger is unquestionably the dominant force in the game and is so mainly because of his mental toughness. Yet, without hesitation, I would place young MacKinzie Kline alongside Tiger Woods if I were forced to choose the mental game giants in golf today.