Why Oosthuizen would make a good slip catcher

Louis Oosthuizen’s runaway victory at St Andrews had similar connections to a successful cricket approach. Oosthuizen was advised by his ‘mind coach’ to wear a red spot on his glove to trigger a certain thought pattern when striking all golf shots. His reasoning for this was that he felt it impossible to concentrate 100%, for four and half hours, whilst on the golf course.

Bobby Simpson, the former Australian, regarded as possibly the best slip catcher ever, worked on the same principle. He deliberately switched off as soon as the ball had passed the bat or was played to a fielder. He would then switch on again as the bowler started his run. He realised that he could not hold total concentration for over six hours and trained himself to adopt this method – it certainly worked!!