Psychological pressure and performance in competitive environments: The first-hole effect in youth golf

Minbo Xu and Oliver Wang

Economics Letters, 2023, vol. 224, issue C

Abstract: A growing literature in behavioral economics has studied the negative impact of psychological pressure on professional athletes’ performance in sport settings with extreme pressures. This paper expands the literature to a more common sport setting in which both psychological pressure and players’ skills are not extreme. We use a large dataset from the U.S. Kids Golf tournaments to document a first-hole effect in youth golf: golfers’ performance at a hole is significantly worse if they play the hole as the starting hole. The first-hole effect is consistent with the widely held notion of first-tee jitters and inconsistent with alternative explanations.

Keywords: Psychological pressure; Tournament; Golf (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 L83 Z20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:224:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523000320

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111007

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