Despite your argument’s intuitive appeal, I don’t think that’s the case. Yeah, one would think that if a player believed in clutch performance and saw himself as either clutch or shaky, then that would affect his confidence, which would in turn affect his performance. It’s just that the evidence doesn’t bear that out. Almost every baseball player believes in clutch hitting, but that still doesn’t make some of them better at it than others.
Here’s the Wiki article on clutch hitting. I’d look for a Baseball Prospectus article to link, but those are subscription only and copyright protected. I know of at least one study on streak shooting in basketball that showed, not surprisingly, that it didn’t exist. You can find some references to that and to clutch hitting studies with a google search.
I noticed on Thursday that a large (5 or 6) number of players withdrew after 9 holes or so. A few more did so after 18. I wonder if the thought of finishing behind the girl played into that decision? Paul Azinger was one. Shoots +4 on the first 9 and walks off the course.
Its possible she only gets the lucrative endorsement contracts if she plays on men’s tour events. Since LPGA events don’t get a lot of TV time. If I were Nike or Sony, I’d only be giving her the contract if she did men’s tour events.
And, if someone were going to pay me $10 million a year, under the condition that a few stick in the muds thought I was a laughingstock (and thousands of other golf fans through I was much easier on the eyes than Tim Herron), I’d do it. So it may be harmful to my game to play under so much pressure or not learn to win. She could throw her back tomorrow on the range and never make it on the LPGA tour - much less the PGA. Might as well make money while the opportunity exists.
I am not sure that “clutch” performances in golf relate to “clutch” performances in sports such as baseball and basketball. For one thing, threre is no defense in golf. It’s you against the course. Similarly, every shot is your responsibility and yours alone. There are no team mates to bail you out. In a sense, every shot is a clutch shot, since tournaments are often won or lost by one shot.
The actual time spent putting the ball in play (swinging) in a round of golf where someone shoots a 72 is something less than a minute and a half, while the round can take hours. There is way more time to think about what you are doing, so consequently the mental aspect is significantly greater.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. It’s not so much a “clutch” phenomenon, as the fact that playing in the last group on Sunday is an entirely different experience-- i’ts not just making that one key shot.
Bottom line, though, MW is 16 year old kid who is being manipulated by her parents, her sponsors, and the media. Instead of being a player like Tiger or Annika who just loves the game, she’s becoming a stunt player; a gimick or a sideshow attraction. She’d be better advized to listen to what Tiger and Annika tell her-- they’re not out there just to make money, they’re out there because they love golf and they love to compete and they love to win.
As stated at least thrice in the thread, her endorsement contract has incentives for playing in men’s tournaments.
If she continues to lose, she will no longer have the contract.
She has stated many times that her goal is to compete with the men on an equal footing. I applaud her in this endeavor, and sincerely hope she succeeds. I am a big fan of women’s sports. Many of my closest friends are female athletes, past and present, or somehow in the sports field. Nothing would make me happier than if she were to win the Masters, for example. Shake up the good old boys right nicely.
Playing against men at this stage in her career is a big mistake, and probably counter productive to her stated goal.
I agree that basketball isn’t a great comparison because it’s so fluid, but baseball is very similar. At the plate, regardless of what has come before or what follows, you’re on your own. Some pitchers and defenses will be more challenging than others, just as some courses will be tougher than others for a golfer. Likewise, baseball players spend very little time actually hitting and fielding. The vast majority of their day at the park is spent loitering in the dugout, in the on deck circle, in the batter’s box, or on the field. They’ve got more than enough time to psych themselves out.
True, but I was comparing golf to clutch hitting opportunites in baseball, which are by definition those that have a chance to win or lose the game.
Well, she is 16. I see no good reason to believe any of these other assertions, though.
Ok, but it is different in a way that postseason baseball is not? Because you can find studies on postseason performance vs. regular season performance that show the same things as the clutch hitting studies.
You don’t think she’s being manipulated by those forces??? It would be a rare 16-year-old indeed who wouldn’t be. She may have many fans who are not golf fans, but people who take the sport seriously generally think of her as a joke (when she’s playing on the PGA tour). I know a lot of serious golfers, and I can’t think of any who don’t. The same would be true if she were a 16 year old boy who hadn’t qulaified for a tournament on his own. It has nothing to do with her gender, it’s her skill level at this point. If she can eventually make it onto the PGA tour, then more power to her. Even then, it’s unlikely she’ll be anything more than a footnote in that tour’s stat book, though.
It could be that her parents are pushing her to act in a certain way that it is not to her benefit, but we have no way of knowing that. As for being manipulated by her sponsors and the media, it depends. Does your employer manipulate you into coming into work every day? She’s been given a monetary incentive to play in men’s tournaments, and she’s responding to it. In order for that incentive to rise to the level of manipulation, I think, you’d have to show that playing the men’s tour is not in her best interests, and I’m far from convinced that such is the case. It’s keeping her from winning tournaments on the LPGA and it’s causing many golf fans to think ill of her, but that’s not the end of the world. She doesn’t need the money or the trophies, and if her career takes an upswing (on whatever tour) later on, her early failures will be forgotten.
Did you guys ever stop to think that she does not care about winning? From what you all have said, she is almost making the same as, or more, than the leading LPGA player. Thus, she is winning, in the only game that matters: Money. All this talk of pressure, competition etc…, why do these pro’s play? To make money. She is doing this BETTER than most men. WTG Girl!
Personally, I don’t see what the fuss is about. Golf’s a chick sport. I mean what could possibly be more effeminate than driving a little electric cart around acres and acres of immaculately landscaped lawn, for the purpose of chasing, finding then striking a small white ball into an uncomfortably large hole? The implications are at least Freudian. Thankfully the pros walk the course.
Am I the only one who thinks this whole thing is a bit odd?
So why does anybody care if this girl can or can not win a trophy? She’s a professional golfer; somebody’s paying her good money to play golf. I say “Cheers.”
At least she doesn’t think she’s an air traffic controller. I can still sleep when I fly.
Perhaps my point was not clear. For the analogy to hold, each batter would have to have the outcome riding on every at bat, with the potential payoff c. $1,000,000.00. While it is true that baseball players spend a lot of time loitering around, when batters have to produce they do it in a split second, and a 35% success rate is phenomenal. If a pro golfer were successful on 35% of his shots he would be off the Tour immediately.
I really do believe that every shot a golfer makes is a cluch shot, as long as he has a chance to finish in the money. That’s about 70 or so clutch shots a round. More than a batter will see in five years. If that often.
She has stated that her goal is to compete on an equal footing with the men, and to play in the majors, as well as the Ryder Cup.
Of course not. You’re just the only one who thinks that golf is stupid who bothers to post in a golf thread.
As for your implication that it is ridiculously easy, what’s your handicap?
I had to quit playng years ago, but I only used a cart when the course demanded it. Usually on weekends public courses require the use of carts in order to speed up the game. I think that walking the course is an essential part of the game.
True, you did not say it was stupid. You were considerably derisive of it, however. It seems like a bit of a quibble to me.
I don’t think that’s an accurate comparison. Both golfers and baseball players will have low leverage and high leverage situations – that is, situations where their performance in a given at bat (or stroke) will have a very small effect on their chances of winning, and situations in which a given at bat has a very large effect on their chances. Sure, a golfer’s chip-in on the 18th hole on Thursday could wind up being the difference between winning and losing (just like a single in the 2nd inning), but from an expectation standpoint the effect is very small. It might increase a player’s chance of winning the tournament from 2% to 2.5%, say. That same chip-in on the 18th hole on Sunday might, given the right circumstances, be the difference between a 20% chance of winning and a 100% chance. The difference between gaining a 0.5% share of a victory and an 80% share of a victory is huge, and to say that “every shot a golfer makes is a clutch shot” is not to give an accurate representation of the situation.
Anyway, my point is that baseball has similar swings in “clutch” and “non-clutch” situations, and no matter how vital or trivial the situation, players tend to perform the same. I still don’t see any reason that it would be any different for golfers.
Nitpick Alert:
Actually, you should take into account that a walk is a successful plate appearance, and a .350 OBP is about average. You could say that 40% success rate is phenomenal, instead.