Broken Clubs and Expletives: The Sources of Stress and Coping Responses of Skilled and Moderately Skilled Golfers

Abstract

There has been a large growth of sport psychology stress/coping research in the last decade. However, skilled and moderately skilled golfers have not received much research attention. Therefore, the purposes of this qualitative, descriptive study were to assess the sources of stress and coping responses of skilled and moderately skilled golfers with regard to performance related stress. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 golfers who played a minimum of 10 rounds of golf during the current golf season. Using the analytic strategies described by Côté, Salmela, Baria, and Russell (1993) and Lincoln and Guba (1985), a research team performed an inductive analysis that resulted in the emergence of the following coping strategies: cognitive strategies, relaxation techniques, off course efforts, golf course strategies, avoidance coping, and emotion-focused coping. The results are discussed in terms of current coping research in sport and applied implications are offered.