Australia’s Stephen Bowditch revealed his Valero Texas Open winning secret and it is the wife to fellow ‘Down Under’ golfer Rod Pampling.
Bowditch was invited to a pre-Shell Houston Open press conference today (Wed) and just three days after claiming a maiden PGA Tour success last Sunday in San Antonio.
It was the Queensland golfer’s first taste of success on the PGA Tour in 110 tournaments and with victory earning the 30-year old a cool $US 1.116m first prize cheque and an invitation into next week’s Masters, and in what will be only Bowditch’s second appearance in a Major.
However after speaking of the delight in winning in San Antonio, the Dallas-based Bowditch revealed he had turned to a sports psychologist on the very eve of the event.
“I wasn’t surprised I won last week in San Antonio because I felt ready to win,” he said.
Steven Bowditch holds aloft the Texas Open trophy and all thanks to Rod Pamling’s wife, Angela. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
“I just started seeing a sports psychologist last Wednesday, and so I was just going in there with a few different ideas, a few different movements in what I was doing.
“Call it coincidence but all of a sudden I’m there in contention to win. I was sort of going in there more on a learning curve of how am I going to implement this new process I was going through and bring that into my game.”
What then followed was somewhat bizarre with local Houston journalists curious to know the name of the psychologist.
There was the inevitable follow-up question: “Where is the sports psychologist based?”
Bowditch replied: “She’s actually based in Dallas”. That then led to Bowditch being quizzed: “Do you mind sharing her name?”
Bowditch replied: “No. We’ll keep that out of the conversation.”
A Houston reporter tried another angle asking: “She will be a millionaire. You like helping others, it may help her. Can’t you give up her name? So why did you go see her?”
Bowditch replied: “I’ve been playing really well all year like how I felt on the golf course but I haven’t got anything out of it. I’ve always seem to struggle with one different thing every well, you know, sort of work on something, and something else pops up.
“And I just thought maybe there’s just something else out there that I’m missing to make the wheel turn a little easier. I just love the game so much and love studying and watching golf swings and I will sit up all night watching golf on TV.
“So I thought if there was anything out there that could help me I would give it a go.”
The interview ended with two or three local journalists still seeking the name of the psychologist.
And no sooner had Bowditch left the Media Center and the same journalists were onto the internet checking the name of female sports psychologists based in Dallas, and they thought they had worked out who it might be.
However they were all incorrect!
Doug Milne is a Press Officer with the PGA Tour and he approached me some hours later saying Stephen Bowditch wanted to speak with me.
My first reaction was now I haven’t written anything untoward about Bowditch and if anything, it’s been nothing but praise given I was the only Australian-born golf journalist present at the Valero Texas Open.
Doug indicated: “Steven’s coming back into the Media Center as an Australian radio station wants to interview him, and he’s asked to see you.”
Bowditch found me out, and the pleasing thing was he wasn’t carrying a golf club so I felt relieved.
No, Bowditch wanted to reveal to me his secret and the name of the Dallas-based sports psychologist – Angela Pampling.
She’s no stranger to working with players and in fact, worked some years back with Michael Sim.
But when I mentioned to ‘Bowdo’ the lengths my Houston-based colleagues had gone to find out the name of the sports psychologist he and I just laughed our heads off.
