Are You a 14 Hole Player?
by Dr. T. J. Tomasi, Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
Golf is usually contested over five hours or so, and therefore a high level of persistence is difficult to maintain. And since golf is a series of tasks (shots) to be accomplished one after another, a golfer, without knowing it, can set a limit to the number of sequential tasks they can handle before persistence is lost, becoming what I call a “14 hole player” who can never quite finish the round. They play all 18 holes, but only 14 well. Basically, the persistence tank runs dry, and they crash and burn. Conventional wisdom says that persistence is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets. And, like a muscle, persistence fatigues as you pursue one task after another. What limits persistence? It’s two-fold: (1) blood sugar and (2) habit.
Physical: Brain Food
Your entire body runs on sugar, and that includes a brain that can’t go even a few minutes without blood sugar. Since your brain cannot store sugar, it must be delivered via the bloodstream from outside sources. This is why you see golfers in the know, like Tiger Woods, munching on bananas and energy bars, especially over the last few holes when there is a good chance that their blood sugar levels are dropping. Basically, persistence trends with blood sugar levels.
Psychological: Habit
While it may be common for humans to lose their task completion capabilities as the number of tasks in the sequence grows, it is not inevitable — you can train yourself to regulate your store of persistence in order to handle long chains of tasks. First, you learn to focus on the point-A to point-B task chain for three holes, then nine, and then 18. One of the skills a tournament player must learn is how to play tournaments of varying lengths – 36, 54, 72 holes while maintaining their persistence task chain performance for each day.
Takeaway: Persistence management is a learned skill, just like chipping or bunker play.
Tiger has already counted his clubs and is now checking on his snack supply to make sure everything he likes is on board.
