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What positive conclusions can you draw from what happened today?Now I know

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"What positive conclusions can you draw from what happened today?""Now I know I can beat these guys," was the reply. At that point, the guru knew his job was done and nothing more need be said.He is in the limelight again having "trained" the last two winners on Tour – Denmark's Soren Hansen in the Irish Open (following a four-man play-off) and Michael Campbell at the European Open.However, the latter suffered an even more glaring loss of concentration than Goosen before claiming his one-shot victory last weekend at the K Club. Five shots clear with four holes to play, the New Zealander started to compose his winner's speech and bogeyed the lot. In the end, he was let off the hook by Padraig Harrington, ironically a former client of Van-stiphout. "It was a classic lesson for Campbell and he admitted he'd made a mental error," said Vanstiphout.Apart from Goosen and Campbell, Vanstiphout's clients include Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia, but it is the veteran Englishman Barry Lane that he regards as perhaps his outstanding success story "When Barry came to me a year ago, he'd won £1,800. Since then, he's won more than £600,000 and is now a very happy man."There is a tinge of regret in Vanstiphout's voice about his recent split with another high-profile client, Darren Clarke, "but he needed more of my attention than I could give him".The service Vanstiphout supplies – he has no written contracts and agrees everything on a handshake – is far from superficial. He spends up to 14 hours a day on the practice ground at tournaments."I'm the first one out there in the morning and the last to leave at night," he said.

"But the quality of my work comes from the quality of the players. They're like thoroughbred racehorses who need to be fed the right food. I give my clients the right mental food and this season they've won nine out of 17 events on Tour."I started by advising managers and sales people. About 10 years ago, I took up golf and I was amazed to find hardly any mental coaching within the game. The mental side is 80 per cent of the reason why one golfer wins and another loses. A round of golf takes up to five hours, yet the time spent in contact with the ball is no more than four minutes. The rest is spent thinking."I get to know my clients well – we're like a family, travelling and eating together.

It's my job to take away the distractions and instil discipline. After all, it's not just a game of golf, it's big business."Vanstiphout is a beneficiary of this big business, though he is reticent about how much he earns for his labours apart from saying: "I agree a basic fee with each player and there's usually a prize-money percentage as well."There is no shortage of players seeking his help. "There are 40 players on Tour who I know I can improve, but I cannot work any more hours."There is one player, though, he doesn't expect to hear from "Mr Woods doesn't need my help," he said. "I know he does a lot of mental training and he's pretty good in that department But you never know.". Bethpage, scene of last month's US Open, may have been the loudest Major championship most people have experienced, but one of the loudest single cheers ever heard in golf remains that in response to Justin Rose at the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale.

Those who were around the 18th green when Rose, then a 17-year-old amateur, chipped in will always remember it. Those in the vicinity watching on television will never forget the shock. Perhaps only the roars produced by Jack Nicklaus during his back-nine charge to win the 1986 Masters can compare. And yet the man at the centre of the drama cannot remember the scale of the sound.

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