Do Expert Golfers Keep Their Heads Still While Putting?

Abstract

The putting patterns of five expert and 11 less-skilled golfers were examined to understand the nature of head movement that occurred during the putting stroke. As expected, the less-skilled golfers moved their heads in the direction of the backswing, then reversed and moved it in the direction of the downstroke during the putt. In contrast, and contrary to expectations, the experts did the reverse – they moved their head in a direction that was opposite to the direction of the putter. The strokes of both the experts and less-skilled golfers revealed closely matched timing constraints, indicating a strong preference to organize these actions as a single coordination pattern