Generational differences in the ranking pathways of top 100 ranked golfers.

The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) offers a rich data source that may be used by golf National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) to inform the allocation of human and financial capital. Golf has undergone many changes over the past few decades, thus before rankings data can be used for benchmarking purposes it is crucial to appraise its temporal stability. This study aimed to determine whether the ranking pathways of top 100 golfers have changed over time. Data were collected on 470 golfers who entered the top 100 between January 1990 and December 2018. Golfers were assigned to birth-year defined cohorts: Cohort 1 (1989-1999) (n = 79); Cohort 2 (1979-1988) (n = 153); Cohort 3 (1969-1978) (n = 174); and Cohort 4 (1959-1986) (n = 64). Descriptive statistics were reported for ranking milestones and one-way ANOVAs used to investigate temporal trends. Golfers from younger age cohorts reached milestones at significantly earlier ages and in less time than their older peers. For instance, the time taken to reach the OWGR top 100 for Cohort 1, 2, 3, and 4 was 3.55, 5.99, 7.72, and 10.23 years, respectively. Together, these findings highlight the temporal instability of golf rankings data and provide scientific data to inform athlete selection and investment decisions.

The development of a tournament preparation framework for competitive golf: A Delphi study.

Tournament preparation in golf is used by players to increase course knowledge, develop strategy, optimise playing conditions and facilitate self-regulation. It is not known whether specific behaviours in tournament preparation should be given priority in education and practice at different stages of competition. This study aimed to achieve consensus on the importance of specific tournament preparation behaviours or "items" to players of five competitive levels. A two-round Delphi study was used, including an expert panel of 36 coaches, high-performance staff, players and academics. Participants were asked to score the relative importance of 48 items to players using a 5-point Likert-type scale. For an item to achieve consensus, 67% agreement was required in two adjacent score categories. Consensus was reached for 46 items and these were used to develop a ranked framework for each competitive level. The developed framework provides consensus-based guidelines of the behaviours that are perceived as important in tournament preparation. This framework could be used by national sport organisations to guide the development of more comprehensive learning environments for players and coaches. It could also direct future studies examining the critical behaviours for golfers across different competitive levels.