Jacob Linzenbold
Marlen Harrison
English 202
How is Golf a Way to Reveal Personality?
Golf is a game that requires extreme patience and concentration. When playing a game of golf, some players maintain their composure and forget bad shots and circumstances, others become very angry and let it affect their performance. Due to this, the question being asked is “How is golf a way to reveal personality?” Golf is a sport that has a strong correlation to the mind and personality.
The term personality, in this paper, refers to how a person acts in any situation, it could also be known as a person’s character. This is interesting due to the fact that golf has many forms of stress associated with it, if coped with well, the golfer can reduce scores. “When events are appraised as challenging, threatening, harmful, or even beneficial, coping responses are required.” AR. Nicholls and RC. Polman stated they then went on to say, “In order to manage stress, athletes must deploy coping strategies” (284). These quotes, though not specifically dealing with golf, are very relevant to the game. If athletes do not overcome stress, their performance suffers.
The human mind is a powerful tool, in the sense of putting what is in the mind into reality. When asked to imagine writing, individuals had an increase in Regional cerebral blood flow, when monitoring brain activity, both imagining and completing an action both resulted in similar activity (Beilock and Gonzo 921). This shows that imagining a shot or dwelling on a previous shot is similar to actually performing the action. Since the game is so mental, it needs to be discussed and researched to show how it can reveal the golfers personality, on and off of the golf course.
When looking at a sport like golf it is important to know, “At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there are 30,000 golf courses and some 55 million people who play golf throughout the world.” (Farrally et al. 758). To show the rapid growth of the sport, Farrally also found that, “Over the period 1990–2000, 4000 new golf courses were opened in North America, 2000 in Europe and 1000 in Asia.”(758) The fact is that golf is increasing in popularity, this brings more players to the game and sets up potential for more business to be handled on the course, also it means that there is a better ability to test the hypothesis: Can golf reveal personality?
This subject has proven to be somewhat difficult in finding some sources that were relevant. When it comes to a subject that is not typically addressed, such as the question that is being asked, “How does golf reveal character?” So to find information, a broader question needed to be asked, both on the psychological side and the golf side. To start, there is a quote that seems to bring together the mind and the game of golf, “when individuals skilled in writing Kanji characters retrieve these characters from memory, they show neural activation in brain areas associated with actually writing the characters” (Beilock and Gonso 921). This shows that the brain is working on an action before the person has any intention of performing a task. In the case of the Kanji characters, something is being written, but this is also an important quote that shows the relationship to a complex game like golf with the mind.
To further illustrate this point, another quote that shows that others have come to the same assumptions as this paper will is “Eighteen holes of match play will tell you more about your foe than 19 years of dealing with him as the desk” (Schmidt 10). This is a very relevant quote; it ties together a leisure sport and brings the world of business into play, at the same time it backs up the original question that was asked. Though some may view golf as being an unneeded expense in the business world, it is shown to reveal character and is also a way to relax, while meeting with business partners. Arnold Palmer put it best by saying, “From the beginning, it was drilled into me that a golf course was a place where character fully reveals itself–both its strengths and its flaws” (Schmidt 10). This quotes give the paper a lot of optimism, since arguably one of, if not the best, player to have ever lived agrees with the assumptions and question.
The game of golf does even more than this for the business world, it is a good way to thank a customer or even sway a potential customer into investing in a business. Other important factors for the mind game of golf that was stated by the great golf instructor Harvey Penick, who stated, “much of the success of a great golf swing can be attributed to what happens before the player swings the club” (Schmidt 11). This quote presents another respected man in the game, who believes in the assumptions made for this paper. It shows what is already revealing itself; golf is a game where the mental aspect is the most important. If the player is on a hot streak, it is important to note how he reacts in comparison to when the player is facing less than favorable conditions. These readings of a player very well transitions into the everyday life of that person, it can be useful in the business world or in everyday life.
The most important thing to remember when playing golf is to keep the mental game in check. This means controlling excitement when doing very well, forgetting previous poor performances and focusing on the task at hand. Any athlete must control things this way also, without some sort of coping strategy; the pressures of anything will get to a person. (Nichols and Remco 284).This also applies in every other aspect of life, police officers and college professors experience pressure. The strategies used on the golf course transition into everyday life, and with the help of these sources, this paper will be able to illustrate how prevalent golf is to a person’s character.
Looking for a research method proves to be a challenging task at first, thinking that the researcher has to collect new data would be enough to worry anyone. Upon reading more on methodology, the best choice for the paper would be to conduct my research on the golf course with golfers of different abilities.
The first of the research will be conducted using a few acquaintances of the researcher. It is believed that this can limit the truthful research in a paper, but for this paper, it will be as unbiased as possible. To do this the participants in this study will be left mainly in the dark as to what the whole paper will contain, and what the question is that is being asked. By doing this, it can eliminate some bias, if the participants are not influenced one way or another. The limitations are understood though; friends or family of a researcher will always be looked at as biased, with any luck though this will not be an issue. The research here will be as accurate as possible.
The forms of research will be going to a golf course and collecting actual data on the course. To do this, scores will be compared with mood, body language and obstacles on the golf course. Two different types of players will be used, novice and experienced. This will definitively change the results, since a player with less experience more than likely will not be as connected with the game and also commits mental and physical mistakes, since they have not been playing as long.
Some of the major factors that are to be considered when collecting this data is interpretation. Since the methodology will require taking scores and situations and comparing them against body language and other factors, it will prove to be somewhat difficult to get results that mean anything.
The procedure that will be used in collecting the data will be taking the par for a specific hole and then comparing that with the participant’s score. After that, each participant will be asked of their stress levels, based on a scale of 1-10. There will be room for notes of interest on each hole, such as unusual circumstances or extra difficulty resulting from hazards on the course, such as water, woods, sand, etc.
This data will then be represented in a table that lists every hole in comparison to the participant’s information on the hole. Then the data will be interpreted by looking at how the scores on each hole affect the mood of the golfer, and if the mood affected the score in either way. After interpreting the data, this should either prove or disprove the original question being asked and other assumptions.
The theory that golf can reveal personality has been put to the test on a small scale. Two participants were involved in the study; they were put on the golf course and asked to describe their moods based on a 10 point scale. The scale ranged from 1 being very frustrated, to 10 being happy, they were asked to rate their mood after the completion of each hole. To test the original hypothesis, the scores of mood were compared against the scores the participants shot. The following line chart shows the correlation between the two.
It is easy to see from this chart that there is a somewhat strong relation between the mood of the participant and the score that the participant shot.
Although this study is limited by the number of participants, it can not be denied that (atleast in this case) that mood is an important factor in golf scoring. Mood also was seen on the course by how each golfer conducted themselves, usually a lower mood score meant that the golfer was either mad or depressed. They are both important since when feeling either, it is almost impossible to focus on the task at hand.
Now that the importance of mood is established, character now needs to be addressed. A specific example would be on hole # 5. Participant 1’s previous hole was not good, the score was 4 strokes over par. The participant allowed that to get to the mental game and the hole 5 was just as bad as the previous hole. On the other end of the spectrum participant 2 kept a clear head and a good mood, which resulted in 2 good holes. The most significant thing about this example is that mood before the hole can either make or break the golfer.
Other factors that could be included is skill level, the better golfer can usually contain themselves from getting too excited and focus on the task at hand. This makes it a little more difficult to accuratley judge how a persons character is off of the course. The good thing about this is if someone who doesn’t match up to the better player realizes their ability and gets a good score for themselves. If a golfer is getting upset since they are not keeping up with the rest of the group score wise can show that a person has a need to be just as good or better than everyone else. This may not be a desirable trait on the course, but if a potential employer or business partner sees this come out in a golfer they may be more apt to believe that this person will give one hundred percent and be mad if they do not live up to their expectations.
This shows that trying to get a feel for a persons character is more difficult than it may seem, since a very aggressive person that wants to win or get ahead may play terrible golf, while a laidback person can golf a great game since they do not get upset about past occurances or worry about future challenges.
Disscussion on this subject is somewhat bare, the topic of this paper is not exactly addressed by any other researcher. There is a lot of information on golf and personality so the purpose of this paper is to get some new data that addresses exactly whats being asked and to bring together information that was already present and apply it to this topic.
Another study is needed on this subject, with the proper funding, participants and experts this subject could reach its full potential and really give readers an insight look at how someone’s personality can be present on a golf course or even revealed.
Works Cited
Beilock, SL, Gonso, S. “Putting in the mind versus on the green: expertise, performance time, and the linking of imagery and action.” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology vol. 61 (2008) pp. 920-932
Farrally, MR, Cochran, AJ, Crews, DJ, Hurdzan, MJ, Price, RJ, Snow, JT and Thomas, PR. “Golf science research at the beginning of the twenty-first century.” Journal of Sports Sciences vol. 21 (2003): pp. 753-765
Gucciardi, Daniel F, et al. “Experienced golfers’ perspectives on choking under pressure.”Journal Of Sport & Exercise Psychology” 32.1 (2010): 61-83. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 6 Apr. 2010.
Nicholls, Adam R., and Remco C. J. Polman. “Think Aloud: Acute Stress and Coping Strategies during Golf Performances.” Anxiety, Stress & Coping 21.3 (2008): 283-294. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. EBSCO. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.
Schmidt Jr., Edward. “golf meetings bring stimulus to business.” Successful Meetings (2009): 4- 18. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.
