Your most high-profile moment was at the 1999 Open Championship when you suffered under enormous pressure. When you look back, does this reflect on your true character?
Many individuals say I would have done this, I would have done that – fine, but I didn’t do that. I’m only accountable to myself. I kept true to myself. I wasn’t going to make a deal with the devil. Why? Simply because it’s against the way I am, who I am, the way I think. I’m not going to hit an iron off the tee. That’s the way I am. If I feel like I have a high percentage chance of hitting the shot, I will go for it. That’s me.
At the end of the day, I totally assumed my choices. I didn’t go out there and hide. I’m going to live with my choices. Would I like to have my name on the trophy? Yes, of course, that’s why you play golf, but it’s always a little more than that. You know what you’ve done, what you can do, who you’re accountable to, and I wake up in the morning and I’m happy with who I am.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s why we play sports. We like the adrenalin, the challenge, the emotion. We’re emotion junkies. We like to push ourselves, put ourselves in uncomfortable positions to get the best out of ourselves.
Can this ‘true character’ also be revealed off the course?
There are exceptions, but what you see out there is a great reflection of the man. A lot of people in the business world love playing golf because they can see what they’re dealing with. You spend four and a half hours with someone and you can get a great reflection of what you can anticipate off the course.
The way in which you conduct yourself and react to situations in golf seems to be almost as important as the score you shoot. Why do you think that is?
You’re going to have a mixture of good performances and bad performances through your career. Golf is also a sport in which you lose more than you win. No one in golf is ever going to be as consistent or as successful as the top tennis players like [Roger] Federer or [Rafael] Nadal and win a third or half of the big tournaments you compete in. In golf, you’re not going to reach the top four for 20 or 30 majors in a row, like they do. Of course, you’re going to be remembered for your performances, but it’s more important to conduct yourself well. To me, that’s the biggest message.
