Ariya Jutanugarn - © USGA / Darren Carroll

In 2003, McDonald's launched its advertising slogan “Put a Smile On”. In one of the advertisements, a group of children are bored in a museum. Ronald McDonald, then mascot of the fast food company, appears. With his positive energy, he makes children smile.

Children interact with the museum with great enthusiasm, enjoying their visit far more than they would have without the energy of the mascot.

The campaign has also shown incredible foresight, as it embodies the philosophy of one of the best female LPGA players, 16 years after her debut.

Ariya Jutanugarn finds her joy

Ariya Jutanugarn made her debut on the LPGA Tour in 2015. After a jagged season as a rookie, including 10 consecutive missed cuts, the Thai took a step back. She reflected on her emotions at the end of the season with her sister Moriya.

“We thought we needed someone to help us because I knew it wasn't about my swing. I hated this situation, I couldn't do it anymore because I was so scared, I was so worried. I cried on the course every day. "

Knowing that this was not a sustainable way to play on the LPGA Tour, Ariya Jutanugarn realized that she liked the way Ai Miyazato approached golf. The nine-time LPGA Tour winner has always been happy and rarely got upset on the golf course.

This led her to find Vision54 shortly before the Founders Cup in early March 2016, with whom Miyazato was working at the time.

Vision54 is a golf school founded by Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson in Scottsdale, Arizona. Marriott and Nilsson are both former professionals turned teachers, who focus not only on technique, but also on the overall approach and people skills required to play the best golf of a player on the golf course. Their basic philosophy is that eventually, in competition, a player could score 54, as technical skills multiplied by human skills translate into performance on the course.

Marriott and Nilsson have worked with four former world number one players and nine grand champions at Vision54.

When Ariya Jutanugarn came to see them, Marriott was shocked: “When we saw her hit a golf ball I was like, 'How didn't you win on the LPGA Tour yet? ""

Ariya Jutanugarn participated in three days of Vision54 Golf School, where Vision54 presents her concepts to potential new students. Nilsson explained that any player who comes to golf school has a big picture of the situation.

“If you play golf, it's a big puzzle. We help players understand the pieces of the puzzle. Most of them know a few things about their technique, but they don't know the other skills they need to play golf well on the course. We really help them understand what they lack about being successful. "

Vision54 brings new human values ​​to their students, who do not recognize why he or she did not hit a ball correctly. They identify whether the misses are technical fouls or not.

Example: When a player is undecided between a 6 iron and a 7 iron, the error and technical fault correlate with the indecision, rather than the swing itself.

Instead of asking Ariya Jutanugarn to go win an event, or looking for x number of birdies in a tournament, they give her the process goals. A process goal from Nilsson and Marriott focuses on something one of their students may have been missing recently. They range from using strong body language after a follow-up to devoting 10 minutes of stretching that the student should practice each day.

Vision54's human skills lessons helped crack the code for Ariya Jutanugarn. In just three days, it had changed his life.

“My caddy was so surprised. He was like, what's wrong with you? Something is wrong ? I came out as a totally different person. "

Although the lessons did not pay off immediately in Phoenix, they paid off five trials later. Ariya Jutanugarn has won three consecutive victories.

She won her first event by a single stroke ahead of the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic in May, posting a career-best 63 score in the third round. Two weeks later, Ariya Jutanugarn won the Kingsmill Championship by a stroke of lead. A third victory came the following week as they edged Jessica Korda and Christina Kim, who were both one stroke behind her on the eve of the final, to win by five strokes in the LPGA Volvik Championship.

Finding joy has paid off.

To find out more about Vision54: https://www.vision54.com/