You've made it to the green in 2 and you're 5 feet from par. You focus in on hole, swinging the putter gently on either side of the ball as you line up your shot. But, you think, even at a distance of 5 feet, that hole is so small that I have to hit this shot perfectly to even have a chance.

Sound familiar? Hopefully not. Preliminary research from Perdue has determined the worse golfer you are, the smaller the hole looks, lending more credence to the long-held notion that golf is more a game of the mind than one of skill and strength. The findings are also in line with similar studies on the correlation of a softball player's batting average and her perception of the softball's size -- bigger ball, higher average.

Being an extremely amateur golfer myself (marginally better than a mini-golf groupie), it gives me hope to think perhaps my problem isn't in my mechanics (though it probably still is) but in my attitude. It makes me want to sling my pretty pink golf bag -- I call her Sharpay -- over my shoulder and head out to my local driving range and give it another go.

Labels: golf, psychology, research, science