Attitude is really important—but not always in the way people think. For example, I prefer confidence to politeness. I prefer occasional anger to always happy even after bad shots. There are two parts of attitude to consider for me: 1) How does his attitude help/hurt him and his golf game, and 2) What kind of representative of our program and person will he be?
I see plenty of guys who have very poor competitive attitudes (1), but are really nice guys who are easy to talk to and don’t do anything wrong. Obviously, you would love to have someone with a great attitude for competition that is also just a good all-around guy.
Some parts of “attitude” are really easy to correct with some simple coaching and understanding. The type of attitude that leads to playing great golf and winning is much harder to coach. So if someone really has a winning and confident attitude, but needs a little polish in his politeness and presentation we can work with that.
Our society places a very high value on certain behavioral norms. Sometimes those values are inconsistent with real character and good attitude. Just because someone smiles and says hello doesn’t mean he/she will be a great teammate behind the scenes and a great person. On the other hand, just because someone gets a little upset after a bad shot doesn’t mean they won’t be a loyal teammate and great competitor and a kind person. We don’t want people who are phony and just act right because someone is watching.
As you can see, you asked a very complicated question.
would you rather have a great golfer with a bad attitude or a guy who is a positve influence that can play? basically my question is how important is having a good attitude to coaches?
