In May 2021, on the age of fifty, Phil Mickelson became the oldest golfer to win a significant professional tournament. He also made history as the primary golfer to win a significant professional tournament through the use of a rangefinder to estimate shot distance.
The 2021 PGA Championship was the primary major tournament on the PGA Tour to permit the usage of rangefinders in competition, and their use was controversial.
Rangefinders will let you measure the space of the golf ball from the pin or other goal area on the golf course. The goal was to extend the pace of the sport, but this was achieved mixed emotions amongst players, caddies and commentators.
Distance information from a rangefinder is very important when choosing a club and deciding on the suitable shot type. However, some professional golfers were hesitant before the tournament to make use of rangefinders in competition because most of this work is generally done by the player’s caddie.
Off the golf course, lots of work has been done to grasp how people and technology can work together. This work was mainly in areas akin to aircraft, transport AND defense and security.
This technology is meant to enhance human performance and mustn’t be relied upon to the purpose that human skills and confidence decline. This concept also applies to sports and golf.
Our research team studies human interaction with automation in a wide range of contexts, from maritime warfare to sports. Our previous research with recreational golfers have shown that psychological aspects play a crucial role in the usage of technology.
Why should a golfer use technology?
Like many other relationships, trust plays a crucial role in the human relationship with technology.
Trust begins to develop based on people’s beliefs about technology, people are more willing to make use of technology in the event that they trust it. For example, a golfer may even see a friend using a rangefinder and turn out to be convinced that the technology will likely be useful.
Trust also develops through experience with technology. Our research has this showed after we gave rangefinders to golfers who hadn’t used them before, their trust in technology increased after only one round of golf. Professional golfers, although typically not allowed to make use of rangefinders in competition, still use these devices during practice rounds and out of doors of competition.
We found it amongst individuals who usually use rangefinders, trust in the technology is stableeven when they cannot use the devices, so probably professionals feel the identical way.
An individual’s confidence in performing skills independently also influences whether or not they use technology. If someone is confident in their abilities, they could be less more likely to use technology. So it comes all the way down to a balance between trust in the technology and confidence in getting the job done itself.
External aspects, akin to the issue of the duty or situation, can also play a task. Although professional golfers probably have more confidence than your co-worker hitting the links, most golfers – or their caddies – on the PGA Championship have chosen to make use of a rangefinder. This typically occurred when golfers were out of the golf green or confirming their very own distance estimates.
Professional golfer Webb Simpson talked about using rangefinders after the tournament: :
“I used to be definitely against its introduction, but we have seen there are lots of situations where it helps… I had ten yesterday, so you recognize, it is a weird angle to the left rear pin and my rangefinder broke about six yards different from what we got here up with “.
So if players and caddies who typically measure distance to targets without technology start using rangefinders consistently during this tournament, what does that mean about their confidence or that of their caddy?
The use of rangefinders in training against the background of competitions
While professional golfers are still not allowed to make use of rangefinders in most competitions, they do use them in practice. To obtain the perfect results during competition, training sessions must be closely related to one another in order that athletes get the perfect transfer from training.
The only concern is that folks will turn out to be overly reliant on technology in training and won’t have the ability to perform in competitions without it. If a golfer determines distance using technology during training, it changes the necessity for distance estimation in competition, counting on distance books and distances covered. The indisputable fact that an athlete doesn’t should retrieve information to make an accurate shot in competition, using the identical cognitive processing as in training may hinder performance.
While the present generation of professional golfers appear to have adapted to not using technology in competition, we may even see future improvements in performance because the competitive context becomes more just like the training context.
Technology will proceed to vary the way in which sports are played. When there was a golf rangefinder first introduced in 1995Mickelson played professionally for 3 years. Since then, he has successfully estimated shot distances without rangefinders on the PGA Tour for years. However, he and his caddy used the device often through the 2021 PGA Championship.
The use of rangefinders at this 12 months’s PGA Championship provides a glimpse into the long run of professional golf. Tracking the impact not only on pace of play, but additionally on performance will likely be fascinating at future events as golfers and caddies consider the professionals and cons of using a rangefinder in competition.
