We all choke on our dreams, especially when they are within sight. Choking causes stagnation, shame, disappointment and depression. Choking is common in everyday life, but it occurs quietly without anyone knowing much about it. All you must do is procrastinate and avoid opportunities and your dreams and your success slowly slide by on the conveyor belt of lost opportunities.

The reason sports are so much fun is that they offer opportunities for success that must be dealt with. Golfers must hit the next shot and if you happen to be playing in the US Open at The Country Club at Brookline this week, golf shots take on an overwhelming feel. The moment is big and there is a lot to swallow when you are about to hit a shot that’s worth $2,250,000.

This year’s US Open at The Country Club was unusual because nobody choked! At least not the three youngsters who were atop the leaderboard. Matt Fitzpatrick (age 27), Will Zalotoris (age 25), and Scottie Scheffler (age 25), all relative newcomers to the world of big-time golf, strode down each fairway on the back nine with swagger and grace and in the end Matt Fitzpatrick of Sheffield, England, won the US Open by one shot. But Zalatoris and Scheffler did not hand it to him as what happens in most major tournaments. No one in this trio choked.

How was it possible for these lesser beings to withstand the ego withering heat of a US Open and not spit out the bit in the end? The true gods of golf, guys like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, John Rahm, Dustin Johnson or Brooks Koepka, will usually have the courage, mental fortitude, and self-belief to look pressure in the eye and not blink. But rarely do we get to see those who are new to fame and fortune stare at $2,250,000 and not look away.

This is a question that transcends talent, coaching, and hard work. Mental strength is not something that is easily trained. The only golfer who was trained to be mentally impenetrable was Tiger Woods and that was largely because his father was a Green Beret who taught Tiger to be a warrior from the time he was 5 years old.

But to my knowledge, there are no Green Berets in the Fitzpatrick, Zalatoris or Scheffler families, although Will Zalatoris’ dad was a military pilot.

I think the basic reason people choke is because their minds are not as strong as their bodies and as their skill level takes them to places their mind simply cannot cope with, they choke on the moment. My guess is that these young players have been exposed to pressure from such an early age that their minds have been strengthened along with their bodies. They look like newcomers, but they have been playing serious competitive golf since about age 5. That means that they have been exposed to national and international level pressure for 20 years or more.

And that may be why when the press asked Matt Ftizpatrick how he felt about the grind of winning the US Open, he laughed and said, “I hated every minute of it.” And as Freud once said there is much truth behind every joke.

We are in a new world in golf. The players are younger and tougher than ever before. And as for the older gods of golf, Dustin Johnson is now 37, Justin Thomas is 29 and Rory McIlroy is 33 and they are fast becoming the aged of the game. The average length of an NFL career is something like 3 ½ years, thanks to injury. Who would have guessed that the half life of a golfer would be about 7 years or so?

In golf however, the injuries are usually not of the physical kind but rather are psychological injuries to self-esteem. Those who have reached the ripe old age of 30 and who have been in the spotlight for a few years are the recipients of numerous psychic scars. They are the ones who are worried and cautious as they look over their shoulders and see a tsunami of confident fearless youth heading their way and not one will be choking.

Not yet anyway. Let’s give them a few years to shoulder fame, fortune and public scrutiny and see how free their minds and swings remain. Time will tell.