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Chapter 4 - Factors Supporting Success in Professional Golf The Hooters/Jordan Golf Tour was founded in 1988 in order to provide talented professionals with an opportunity to prepare themselves for the PGA Tour, while hopefully earning enough tournament money to remain in full-time pursuit of their ultimate dreams. In the last few years, with larger purses, substantial increases in bonus monies and expanded national television coverage, that has become a reality for more and more players. Current PGA Tour winners such as Lee Janzen, John Daly and Tom Lehman testify to the value of the competitive experience they gained while playing on the Hooters/Jordan Tour. The second author gained permission from the tour staff to make the CSP available to all interested players at two tournament sites during the 1995-96 season. The players were informed about the profiles, the feedback sessions and the nature of the research. A total of 81 players participated in the study. Each of them completed the CSP and consensually validated their individual profile results. Statistical analyses, presented in Chapter Three, demonstrated that the CSP is composed of the factors of Determination, Concentration, Orientation, Poise and Mental Toughness. In this validation study, these factors are correlated with the amount of money earned per tournament by each player. The results are displayed in Table 4.1. The three CSP factors found to a have a significant relationship to money earned were Concentration, Poise and Mental Toughness, with each correlation significant at the p<.05 or p<.01 level. The correlations of CSP factors Determination and Orientation with money earned failed to reach statistical significance. We will now briefly examine each of these correlations. Interpretation of the Factor of Determination This factor is composed of Intrinsic Motivation, Sport Commitment, Competitive Orientation, Ability to Activate and Will to Win. These attributes bear upon personal motivation, athletes' investment in their sport, how competitive they perceive themselves to be, their ability to get up for competition and their attitude towards winning. The finding in this study (r=.21) suggests a trend towards a significant result, but does fail at the p<.05 level. This failure does not seem to coincide with the researchers' intuition. However, it may indicate that players who are making more money are not as driven as we might expect. Another possible inference would be that attributes such as Will to Win and Competitive Orientation remain high or low, independent of one's current financial status on tour. Interpretation of the Factor of Concentration This factor is composed of External Distractability, Internal Distractability, Ability to Focus, Presence of Focus and Duration of Focus. These attributes are concerned with a skill fundamental to playing golf at optimal levels. It is not surprising to see a significant relationship between Concentration and the amount of money earned per tournament. It is difficult to conceive of an athlete sustaining a career in professional golf without developing and refining focusing skills. That these performance characteristics were found to have a significant relationship to financial success is certainly consistent with the authors' actual experiences working with professional athletes. Interpretation of the Factor of Orientation This factor is composed of Situational Focus, Extrinsic Motivation and Optimal Activation. These categories are less concerned with prescribed skills for athletes (such as determination and concentration) and have more to do with individual and stylistic approaches to tournament play. That these variables demonstrated no relationship to money earned per tournament is understandable. It could be argued that the most successful players have very different approaches to their own optimal performance, especially in these specific categories, and thus may exhibit a wide range of scores. For example, their Optimal Activation may be either low, average or high; different golfers play their best at different energy levels. Interpretation of the Factor of Poise This factor is composed of Pre-Performance Activation, Ability to Deactivate, Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Performance Under Pressure. These categories are concerned with an athlete's response to extreme stress, from affected to optimal, and with mental skills and qualities necessary for optimal performance. Associated with high scores for this factor are a calm and courageous approach to competition and the ability to perform well under high stress. It is not a revelation that the tour players who scored high on this important factor correlated positively with higher per tournament earnings and players who scored low correlated significantly with less money. Interpretation of the Factor of Mental Toughness This factor is composed of Outlook, Self-Talk, Self-Confidence, Self-Concept, Victim/Fighter and Ability to Recover. These attributes measure an athlete's approach towards competition and adverse circumstances, from responding negatively as a victim to the pro-active, resilient response of a fighter. Considering the difficulties inevitable in 18 holes of tournament golf, it makes sense that players who scored high on this factor, who are optimistic, confident and self-secure, and who can recover from tough situations correlate positively with shooting the lowest scores and earning the most in tournament winnings. CONTENTS
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is not often that an opportunity is presented to have access to a subject
population that can provide an unequivocal test for establishing validity
criteria. One of the most important questions with respect to sport specific
assessment instruments will always be the relationship of the variable
under study to actual performance. More simply stated, "can an individual
athlete's score for any specific attribute or combination of attributes
demonstrate a predictable relationship to actual results?" This study
presents the relationship of the CSP factors to money earned on a professional
golf tour.
