The Mental and Physical Demands of Golf

This research paper deals with a topic that I enjoy very much, golf. I wanted to research and see how people feel about the game of golf. For example what are their attitudes toward the game of golf and just basically find out their backgrounds and opinions on the game of golf. I found all this out by using some primary research methods that we discussed in class to gain valuable feedback for my final paper. First of all I broke down my thesis into a simple question and that question was is golf more of a challenge to people mentally or physically. Golf is a relaxing hobby but I also feel that it is the most difficult sport to master and perform at a high level every time you golf. You have to have both the mental and physical parts of your game intact each time out and many do not have that. Both the mental and physical parts of your body are very difficult to control each time you play golf. Also more times that not golf is tougher on a person either mentally or physically. My hypothesis was basically that the people that I would gather my research findings from in the form of surveys, interviews, and case studies would answer in a way that I expected them too. I expected avid golfers such as myself to classify golf more as a mental challenge than a physical challenge. On the other hand I expected older people or people that hardly ever golf to classify golf as more of a physical challenge to them. While I was not able to do any research directly on professional golfers I did some indirect research by watching pro golf on TV. You can still tell by body language if the golfer is struggling mentally or physically on a given day, which is kind of neat to me. My hypothesis was basically proved to be t...

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... physically. Now my answer to this in an overall sense is that golf is more of a challenge mentally to most people. One bad shot can get in your head and affect you the entire round. As evident by the case study on the pros you have to have a good mental state of mind to succeed in golf. Golf does not involve running up a court or a field and making a play on the fly. Golf involves a well planned out strategic plan on how to attack the golf course and each shot throughout the round. It is like a well played game of chess you have to have all your pieces in place to perform at a high level and this pieces involve both the physical and more so the mental parts of the body. I thoroughly enjoyed the research that I conducted to construct this paper on the game of golf that I love and now feel relieved that I can answer my thesis question with sharp affirmation.