The Margin of Victory Revisited
By Bob Moore, CMC, The Effectiveness Coach®

Word Count: 368 Words
Reading Time:  Less than 3 minutes

Since most of the world is talking about it and the golfing world is still in shock, I am certainly not going to ignore what happened last Sunday at the PGA Championship at Chaska, MN.  Boston Globe reporter Ron Borges had this to say on Monday morning, “Y.E. Yang reminded us all yesterday afternoon that the only things that are inevitable are death and taxes. Tiger Woods winning a major golf championship is not.

Another commentator posed the question, “Which was more unlikely, Y.E. Yang winning a major championship or Tiger Woods losing one when he had a two-stroke lead entering the final round?” Another asked: “Did Yang win this PGA Championship or did Woods lose it?” Both, actually! Yang appeared to have more belief in himself. Woods, on the other hand, seemed unusually cautious. "I hit the ball so much better than my score indicates," a gracious, but disappointed Woods said afterward.

What lessons can we glean here? What was the margin of victory here? The Margin of Victory was first used to describe the narrow margin of victory achieved by Al Unser in the 1992 Indy 500. His margin of victory was a mere six feet ahead of the number two car. What is Yang’s margin of victory? How long had he really been in this race? What was his vision of victory? How did he go about achieving it?

At age 33, with many vigorous years ahead of him, Tiger may have experienced only a momentary setback to achieving his vision and will not likely be deterred from the disciplined path he is on. Clearly, he intends to become the all-time great in the game of golf. It will, no doubt, take more than losing one championship or one season to blur his vision or to allow it to become a serious obstacle.

What is in the path of your vision? Hopefully, the setbacks most of us have faced during this economy will not blur your vision or cause you to slack off from the discipline required. History tells us many great achievements occurred during the most challenging times.

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