Do professional golfers "choke"?
A study involving results of the PGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour, and the LPGA Tour investigated whether "choking under pressure" occurs among professional golfers. Players were individuals who either were leading going into the final round or within five strokes of the lead. It was hypothesized that players who were one stroke from the lead and to a lesser extent players who were leading should have higher final round scores than those players who were two or more strokes from the lead ("choking"). However, the results did not support the choking hypothesis. Players who were leading going into the final round won the majority of the time.
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton 76203-1280, USA. rdclark@unt.edu
Russell D
RD
Clark
D000124:Achievement; D001143:Arousal; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D006055:Golf / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*