This experiment was conducted at a public golf course in central Texas. Four individuals that did not know that much about golf were taken to the course to participate in the experiment. Individuals that knew a lot about golf were not used because they would have had too much knowledge about the putting stroke, and may already be using some of the techniques that the participants were going to learn. Each participant was randomly numbered and their names were put in a hat. The name pulled out first was sample number 1, and so on until each individual was given a number. Each individual without any instructions was given the task to make as many putts as possible out of ten tries from five feet. They all putted from the same place, to make sure no one had a more difficult putt. Once they all had finished their first ten attempts, each individual was given a different thing to think about for their second set. Individual #1 was the control group; the only instruction given to sample 1 was to try again. Individual #2 was taught the proper technique of the putting stroke. Individual #3 was given a few mental imagery or visualization techniques, these techniques where “see yourself making the putt before stepping up to the ball” and “shut your eyes and watch it fall in the hole before attempting the putt”. This builds confidence since they feel they have already made it once, and it makes it easier to do it again. Another visualization technique was to not focus on aiming at the hole, but to focus on a blade of glass in front of the hole and rolling the ball over that blade of grass. This makes the target more precise so if they miss the mark they may still hit the hole. Individual #4 was taught the proper putting technique and given the visualization techniques as well. For the second set of putts, they were given the same putt from five feet so that the difficulty of the putt would not change and not be a factor.
Results
On the first set individual #1 made 3 out of 10, this was the control. On the second set 4 out of 10 was made. Not much difference from the first set. Individual #2 on the first set was 3 out of 10, but on the second set after learning the proper technique 7 out of 10 were made. This was a very good improvement from before. Individual #3 was 5 out of 10 on the first set. Then after given some mental imagery techniques 6 out of 10 were made. Not much improvement, but was 1 better than before. Individual #4 made 4 out of 10 on the first set, and after being taught proper technique and some mental imagery skills 7 out of 10 were made. These scores suggest that proper technique is very important in order to be successful at putting. However mental imagery could have been a factor in #3’s improvement but only improved 1 which was the same as the control, but 5 was a harder score to improve on then 3. With individual #4 it is hard to tell which contributed most to the improvement, it could have been the mental imagery or the proper technique. These results show that it is more likely proper technique that contributed to the improvement of #4, since #2 improved by 4 from only learning the proper technique.
Discussion
It is clear that proper technique improves putting, even with this small sample group. However, in order to find out how much mental imagery contributes to the success of putting a much bigger sample would be needed. More improvement was expected with #3, however that individual did the best out of the four individuals on the first set, which did make it harder to improve on the second set. It is clear that good mental imagery can improve putting, but in order to maximize results it is important to learn the proper putting technique as well.