In recent years
studies have been carried out on single subjects, for example by Kinugasa et al., 2004. It has been reported that
it is unlikely any two golfers will have an identical swing, and even that an
individual golfer is unlikely to produce two identical swings. The present
study aimed to address performance variability among elite level golfers to
ascertain whether single-subject (SS) analysis is merited for golf studies. Six
elite golfers (0.1 ± 2.2 handicap, 22.1 ± 2.3 yrs) performed eight trials each using
three randomly assigned drivers specifically constructed with matched physical
properties for the current study. Testing was carried out on a purpose-built
outdoor practice hole. A stereoscopic high-speed camera was used to record club
head and ball launch conditions prior to and immediately after impact. Two
laser range finders were positioned approximately 250 yards (229 m) from the tee
providing measures of carry and accuracy. There existed significant differences in overall
performance between subjects. Club head velocity, spin axis tilt, launch angle
and dispersion all exhibited inter-subject differences (p<0.05). In
addition, club head velocity exhibited significant intra-subject variability
(p<0.01) among all subjects. However, whilst statistically significant
variations in carry and dispersion were observed for shots performed with matched
drivers, absolute variation was actually very small (<0.5 %). Results
suggest that golf research merits SS analysis although intra-subject
variability was also noted among even elite level golfers.