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Guiding the swing in golf putting

Nature volume 405, pages 295–296 (2000)Cite this article

Golfers control the pace of a putt by comparing sensory data with an internal guide.

Abstract

Actions that involve making contact with surfaces often demand perceptual regulation of the impact — for example, of feet with ground when walking or of bat with ball when hitting. Here we investigate how this control of impact is achieved in golf putting, where control of the clubhead motion at ball impact is paramount in ensuring that the ball will travel the required distance. Our results from ten professional golfers indicate that the clubhead motion is spatially scaled and perceptually regulated by coupling it onto an intrinsic guide generated in the nervous system.

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Figure 1: τ-guiding the forward swing.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR Mouvement and Perception, 163 Avenue de Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseilles, 13288, France

    C. M. Craig

  2. UFRAPS, Université de Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, 38041, France

    D. Delay

  3. Department of Psychology, Strathclyde University, Graham Hills Building, Glasgow, G1 1XQ, UK

    M. A. Grealy

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK

    D. N. Lee

Authors
  1. C. M. Craig
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  2. D. Delay
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  3. M. A. Grealy
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  4. D. N. Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. M. Craig.

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Craig, C., Delay, D., Grealy, M. et al. Guiding the swing in golf putting. Nature 405, 295–296 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35012690

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