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Freakonomics Radio

341. Why We Choke Under Pressure (and How Not To)

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.632K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2018

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It happens to just about everyone, whether you’re going for Olympic gold or giving a wedding toast. We hear from psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the greatest choke of all time.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you're a big golf fan and statistically speaking, you're almost certainly not, but

0:06.8

if you are, you know this is the week of the Open Championship for what Americans call

0:11.9

the British Open.

0:13.4

It is the oldest and arguably most important major tournament in golf.

0:17.8

This year it's being held at the Scottish Course Carnusti, which is so difficult, it's

0:21.8

often called Carnasty.

0:24.4

Carnusti also hosted the Open back in 1999.

0:28.1

The golf course was so hard that it inevitably was going to give us some bizarre conclusion.

0:34.6

That's Brandyl Schambley.

0:35.9

He played on the PGA Tour for 15 years.

0:38.8

Now he's an analyst for the golf channel.

0:41.2

There was going to be a train wreck at some point.

0:43.8

And yet on the tournament's final day, on the final hole, stood a man who had tamed the

0:48.7

Savage Course.

0:49.9

The golfing gods are with the young man at this moment and it'll be interesting to see

0:53.1

what he does now.

0:54.4

This man, with one hole to play, held a three stroke lead.

0:58.1

So obvious was his impending victory that his name had already been engraved on the

1:03.0

Open's iconic trophy, the Claret jug.

1:05.8

It read John Van Develd.

1:07.6

He was a very handsome, debonair Frenchman, you know, and he had a gorgeous golf swing.

1:14.6

Van Develd was ranked just 150 second in the world.

...

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