Editor’s note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health issues.
If you are in the United States: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis lifeline.
Global: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact details for crisis centers around the world.
CNN
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Imagine the scene: one of the best in the world golfers just finished a dreadful round on the Dubai Desert Classic course and moments later he swapped his putter for a pencil, busy working on a coloring book.
It may seem strange, but such a scenario is now likely during this pioneering event, which paves the way for protecting the mental health and well-being of players.
Just behind the putting green, a number of dimly lit suites offer a portal to tranquility, sleep pods, mindfulness exercises, a virtual reality escape into another world through a headset and psychologists qualified personnel who can resolve potential problems.
Dr Phil Hopley is a leading expert in the field of mental health and performance, a former professional rugby player who has more recently helped the McLaren Formula 1 team in the Manufacturers’ Championship. He said CNN Sports that golfers may be particularly vulnerable to mental health problems.
“Ultimately, your performance is what you deliver on your own,” Hopley explained. “And it can be a very lonely place on the course. Those of us who aren’t professional golfers know what it’s like to be in trouble, but when you’re under the scrutiny of the media and large crowds watching you, it really gets heightened in a big way. significant.
Dr Hopley says the Dubai facilities are a “brilliant development” and he expects many other tournaments to follow suit. Following the death by suicide of American player Grayson Murray last year, such help can’t come soon enough.
Murray, 30, appeared to be having a successful year after winning the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii in January. But at the Charles Schwaab Challenge in Texas in May, he withdrew from the tournament in the second round, leaving the course and citing illness. The next day, he was found dead at his home in Florida. The golfing community was stunned.
New Zealand player Ryan Fox told CNN that he had played with Murray in a tournament the previous week and would never have known anything was wrong. “He was always known for being a little hotheaded sometimes,” Fox recalled. “But I really enjoyed talking to him, he was in a good mood. Having been in a fairly dark place, he seemed to be in a reasonable space.
“There are certain things that make you take a step back, and it was a shock,” Australian Adam Scott told CNN. “No matter how you felt, it didn’t mean much to know that one of our brothers was really struggling and couldn’t figure it out. Hopefully this isn’t directed at anyone else in our field.
When Jeff Maness received the call announcing Murray’s death, he said it brought him to his knees. He was a longtime family friend who had seen Murray grow from a talented youngster at the Raleigh Country Club to a winner of six professional tournaments.
“Golf was his happy place,” Maness told CNN. “Grayson felt very comfortable playing golf. He loved the game and he loved the PGA Tour Also.”
Murray was diagnosed with social anxiety as a teenager and battled his demons for the rest of his life. Now, Maness and Murray’s parents have launched a foundation in the late golfer’s namein hopes of raising awareness and support for those facing mental health and substance abuse issues. THE foundation has just launched, but its goal is to collaborate with the PGA Tour and other professional tours to improve the lives of other professional athletes.
Maness said he has heard from many golfers who have shared their love for Grayson and have also shared their experiences with anxiety or other associated afflictions. “Grayson’s life has always been a beacon for others to feel more comfortable,” he said.
At the Dubai Desert Classic, players can truly escape. This writer donned the VR headset and was transported to a lush mountain forest under an aurora borealis. Delicate snowflakes drifted down from the night sky while a calming female voice encouraged me to declutter my mind. As I focused on my breathing, I witnessed a stream of orange particles dancing away from my lips.
Fox told CNN it was a much preferable experience to returning to the hotel to ruminate on a bad day at the office.
“It can be very absorbing,” he explained. “I think about some of the bad times in my career, it feels like you can’t escape it. (Now) if I get a little angry or frustrated, I can sit down and relax in a controlled, pleasant space. It’s huge! I think it will probably be something that a lot of tournaments address, I definitely see it as a very, very good thing for us.
In sport as in life, not everyone will be able to recognize that they are struggling, and even then, admitting it might be difficult. But Dr. Hopley thinks golfers and athletes should be especially receptive to help and treatment.
“Mental health and performance are opposite sides of the same coin,” he said. “That’s usually when (athletes) pay attention. We would like to move towards a situation where people think about this proactively, consider it part of their regular routine, like going to the gym, rather than waiting for things to become a problem.
Dr. Hopley predicts that society is now moving in a direction where mental health becomes much less taboo. “The younger generation has gone through education systems where this was almost on the curriculum,” he said.
Dr. Hopley explained that if a player needed his help during a tournament, he would listen very carefully, without saying much at first. It would help them analyze what was really causing their distress, because it might not even be their game.
“Think long and hard about the things that are within your control,” he explained. “The more time we spend paying attention to the things within our control, the more we can progress. The less time we spend thinking about things beyond our control, the less anxiety and stress we feel.
As for Scott, he observed how golf is “unfair at the best of times” and noted that the results can be difficult to accept.
“A lot of times good shots aren’t rewarded, and you can play better than some people who get results,” he said. “Golf, more than other sports I’ve seen, is a lot like life. There are ups and downs that are somehow unexplainable, sometimes through no fault of your own.
“I’m definitely guilty of internalizing a lot of things, I think I’ve slowly gotten better at finding support. Sometimes we just need to let off some steam.