I don't know if you had a chance to watch the final round of The Masters yesterday, but the most amazing thing that happened wasn't Dustin Johnson setting the all-time low score record at -20.

Of course, it involved Tiger.

Already completely out of contention, but playing fine golf, Tiger stepped up to the 12th hole - a very short, by challenging Par 3.

He hit his 1st shot in the water.

He dropped, and hit the next shot in the water.

He dropped again, and hit that shot into the back bunker.

He then hit THAT shot out of the bunker and BACK into the water again.

Finally, after doing his best impression of us mere mortal golfers, Tiger took a TEN on the hole.

TEN!

Now over par for the entire tournament after playing the worst hole in the history of his Augusta career, how did he respond?

Did he mentally check out?

Did he get angry, overswing, and spray his next drive leading to another big score?

Did he withdraw from the tournament in shame?

Nope.

All he did was birdie FIVE of the next SIX holes.

I don't think I've ever made 5 birdies in a round in my life - and that includes Putt Putt - so I'm not saying that his final 6 holes are something that the general golf population can set as an even semi-reasonable post-blowup goal buuuuuut, there is still an incredible lesson here young athletes...

HAVE A SHORT MEMORY.

In baseball especially this is an invaluable mental skill to have, because unlike making a 10 on a Par 3 which happens to pro golfers maybe once in their entire lives, baseball is a game of constant and frequent disappointment.

Big League hitters swing and miss ALL THE TIME.

Big League pitchers give up Homeruns ALL THE TIME.

Big league hitters go 0-5 ALL THE TIME.

Big League pitchers give up big innings ALL THE TIME.

If ballplayers allow themselves to get emotionally down on themselves every single time something doesn't go their way in a baseball game, not only will they be miserable almost every minute of their careers, but they are simply digging a deeper and deeper emotional hole to get out of, making success on the diamond even more difficult than it already is!

I've seen it a million times:

A young hitter walks up to the plate.  He swings and misses at the first pitch and gets upset.  Then the second pitch bounces, but the umpire calls it a strike and he gets more upset.  With the at-bat still going on, he's already so upset that his chance of competing to the best of his ability on the next pitch is practically zero, so he swings and misses badly at that pitch.  Strikeout.

Now that he struck out he starts to get REALLY upset. Maybe there are some tears. Maybe a helmet gets slammed. Maybe there's some sulking on the end of the bench.

The inning ends and he goes to play Shortstop, still upset about his strikeout.  The lead-off hitter on the other team immediately hits a groundball to him, but because he's still still steaming over the strikeout, the ball goes between his legs.

Add the error to the strikeout and...well, you can see the mental snowball rolling towards Negative Town getting bigger and bigger.

What's a better response for a young player when faced with adversity (and this is just as important for coaches and parents to understand and practice as well)? 

Learn to have a short memory. Learn to "flush" the last play as quickly as possible.

By constantly encouraging athletes to think only about the NEXT play, rather than the LAST play, they will always be in a more positive and focused mental state, which in turn gives them a much better chance of success.

Learning to focus on the next play by no means guarantees success, but it absolutely increases the chances of success - understanding that consistently putting themselves in a position to be successful will lead to better results in the long run is an essential mental tool to have for all athletes.

We can't all make a 10 and then immediately fire off 5 birdies over the next 6 holes, but we can absolutely learn from the work that Tiger has obviously put in on his mental game that allowed him to do that, and then apply it to our development as young athletes.

Keep Playing Hard and Having Fun out there!