Matter over mind becoming the path to winning ways

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After months and months of swing-searching, can Tiger Woods "let it happen" this week in Akron?

Padraig Harrington knows the story. It hasn't changed.

He just has to believe in it. Trust in it.

And, therein lies the problem.

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How many times have you heard a player win a tournament and explain that he finally got out of his own way and let it happen? That he just let go.

That he just flat played the game.

He didn't get stuck worrying about this angle or that arc. He didn't obsess about tweaking this or that. He's put in the work and -- to paraphrase legendary football coach Darrell Royal -- he danced with what brung him.

Darren Clarke went unconscious. That was the term brain coach Bob Rotella used with him. And what happened? He won the British Open.

Young Rory McIlroy set aside that back nine at Augusta and played Congressional. Charl Schwartzel put his head down and played -- just played -- Augusta National.

Harrison Frazar surrendered. He had one foot out the door and on the way to a corporate life. Nothing to lose. Clear eyes. Full heart. A life-changing first win -- after 13 years and 355 PGA TOUR starts.

It sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? But no matter how often a player hears it, no matter how much he thinks he's believing it ... it just doesn't always sink in.

How many times have you watched a player seemingly grind so hard on every shot you swear you hear the gears moving? You know he's not just thinking. He's over-thinking. He's swinging as if he's connecting the dots.

And we're not taking about on the range. That's where you're supposed to grind it out. Smooth out the rough spots. Make the changes and hit so many buckets that muscle memory kicks in. That you finally don't think. You just do.

Again. Not so easy.

Listen to Tiger Woods Tuesday morning talking start lines and refining. Great for the range. Not so great when you're fighting to make the cut or struggling down the stretch. Or making a comeback.

Think back to 2000 when his mind was on playing the game and winning. On beating everyone, every week. Not his swing. He was pretty darn good, right?

Yes, he's coming back from an injury and we still don't know how -- and won't -- how steady that left knee and Achilles are 100 percent, but he has been practicing. Just on his own until last week when he and Sean Foley got off text messages/email/phone calls and took a look.

Over the last year, he's been searching, working through another change and he's seemed so much more mechanical. Palpable at times.

There are players who will always feel that way; players who won't. Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson played the game. They worked on the range, then played.

Even Harrington. Yes, he's on the mechanical end of the spectrum along with Nick Faldo and always will be, but when he was winning three majors, he just rolled. A blip here or there, but just a blip.

But now? He's stuck. He's done what every player does -- changed something. Harrington has taken a break from long-time coach Bob Torrance because he can't concentrate with Torrance there and he can't concentrate when he's not there. Can you say a serious brain kerfuffle?

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Padraig Harrington appears stuck with "paralysis by analysis."

Like we said, Harrington is just the latest -- and most high profile -- case of paralysis by analysis. Most figure it out. Some, like Ian Baker Finch, never do.

Sometimes it takes a brain coach; sometimes the entire traveling village, er, entourage. Sometimes, like Frazar, a decision.

Just when that time comes? Different with every player. Sometimes they start holing every putt. Sometimes they simply leave the technical stuff on the range. Sometimes they just simply find a peace -- détente, if you will, between pressing too hard and letting things happen.

We see it every week. Someone steps up and does something they weren't quite sure they could do. They believed, but they couldn't relax and let their games do the rest.

The key? Just think back to McIlroy or Frazar or Graeme McDowell. And definitely back to Clarke.

As Rotella said afterward, Clarke needed to get the technical stuff out of his head. And once he did? A major.

Harrington has been a Rotella guy for years. He knows the drill. He just has to believe it.

So do all those other guys who take the technical range stuff with them every day when they head to the course.

Our suggestion to Harrington and anyone else who's stuck? We're not hanging out any shingles and we won't steal Rotella's line -- every brain coach has a similar one.

We'll just say chill. You've done the work, you know what to do.

Don't think. Just do it.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. Follow her on Twitter @melaniehauser.