In golf, a range of shot types are necessary for successful performance, with driving and iron-play constituting the long-game. It is possible to vary long-game shots through altered trajectory, for example, by utilising right-to-left or left-to-right ball flight curvature, providing course management advantages. However, how golfers vary their biomechanics to achieve different trajectories is not scientifically understood. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to biomechanically investigate different trajectories hit with the same club. To investigate shot trajectories, accurate measures of performance were necessary. Launch monitors (TrackMan Pro IIIe and Foresight GC2+HMT) are bespoke technologies capable of tracking the clubhead and ball through impact. However, their accuracy for scientific research has not been independently validated. Therefore, a novel purpose-designed tracking method was developed using a three-dimensional optical tracking system (GOM). The accuracy of this method was validated and the system used as the benchmark to which the two launch monitors were compared through limits of agreement. The results showed, in general, the launch monitors were in closer agreement to the benchmark for ball parameters than clubhead. High levels of agreement were found for ball velocity, ball path, total spin rate and backspin. However, poorer agreement was shown for ball sidespin and spin axis as well as clubhead velocity, clubhead path and clubhead orientation. Consequently, the launch monitors were deemed unsuitable for inclusion in scientific research across a range of impact parameters. Draw and fade trajectories with a driver and draw, fade and low trajectories with a 5-iron were investigated biomechanically. The clubhead and ball were tracked using the optical method developed in this thesis. Key biomechanical variables (address position and whole-swing) were defined based on coaching theory. Statistically, analysis of variance (address) and principal components analysis (whole-swing), were used to compare draw against fade and low against natural trajectories. Multivariate correlation was used to identify swing pattern similarities between golfers. The group-level comparison showed draw-fade address differences whereby for draw trajectories, the ball was positioned further away from the target, the lead hand further towards the target and the pelvis, thorax and stance openness closed relative to the target line. Over the whole-swing, the draw when compared to the fade demonstrated a pelvis rotation, more rotated away from the target with later rotation; lumbar forward flexion, with slower extending in the downswing; lumbar lateral flexion, with more flexion towards the trail throughout and prolonged trail flexing through ball contact; thorax lateral flexion, with greater, slower lead flexing in the backswing and greater, more prolonged trail flexing in the downswing; pelvis translation further towards the target throughout, with earlier forward translation and centre of pressure, with an earlier, quicker, greater forward shift. Cluster differences were evident, with both Clusters I (57% of golfers with the driver) and II (71% of golfers with the 5-iron) showing greater, earlier thorax rotation towards the target and a tendency for greater lumbar forward flexion over the whole-swing (Cluster II) and backswing (Cluster I). For the group-level low-natural comparison, golfers positioned the ball further away from the target and their lead hand further towards the target for low trajectories. Further, Cluster IV (45% of golfers), narrowed their stance width and laterally flexed their thorax towards the lead, for the same trajectories. Over the whole-swing, the low when compared to the natural showed the pelvis translated towards the target throughout, with later, lesser forward shift for the low trajectories. Furthermore, centre of pressure displayed a greater forward shift for the same shots. Finally, both clusters (Cluster III 36% of golfers and Cluster IV) differed in lumbar forward flexion when playing low trajectories; over the backswing, Cluster III extended, whereas Cluster IV flexed. Cluster IV also showed greater extending in the downswing. Finally, Cluster IV showed more lumbar lateral flexion towards the lead throughout. The results of this study have implications for scientific researchers as well as golf coaches, club-fitters and professionals. Commercially available launch monitors appear accurate enough for coaching applications, however caution is needed for scientific research when tracking a range of clubhead and ball parameters. Furthermore, changes in biomechanics when playing different trajectories has implications for future research and interpretation of published work, as well as for coaching theory. Future work following this thesis could utilise the optical tracking method to validate further commercial systems and for more detailed experimental investigation of clubhead-ball impacts. Furthermore, additional biomechanical investigation into a wider range of shot trajectories across more variables could be conducted, with a more in-depth understanding gained from principal components analysis and golfer clustering.

The purpose of my study is to explore the early history of the Colwood Golf and Country Club as a way of understanding one aspect of settler colonialism – that is to study how certain tracts of Indigenous land were transformed into a rigidly controlled space where the natural environment was manipulated to exclude certain undesirable plants and non-human creatures, just as the social environment restricted access to a self-defined elite with prescribed cultural norms including behaviour, language, and protocols. Established in 1913, the Colwood Club became an important sporting space for upper-class individuals, and through its organisation, rules, by-laws, and entry process, the Colwood Club was fashioned as an exclusive space in Victoria’s sporting culture and remained so into the 1930s. Through formal and informal measures, the Club’s leadership and membership erected and strengthened various barriers that kept various individuals from joining based on their class, character, gender, race, and religion, among other criteria. Because of these measures, the Club’s property, which included a golf course and a clubhouse, became a restricted and controlled space in which a select number of individuals could enjoy the privileges that the Club offered. By doing a microhistory of the early years of the Colwood Golf and Country Club, I explore both the restrictive measures put in place by the Club and certain cultural concepts that influenced the decisions to make the Club an exclusive space, and demonstrate how this reflected larger trends in Victoria’s upper-class society. / Graduate

The theme of this diploma thesis was effect building a golf course on the environment - EIA Czech Krumlov. On location Kvítkův Dvůr in Czech Krumlov was suggested build an 18-hole golf course. Construction of a golf course in this area may significantly distort the historical landscape. On the given locality conducted a biological exploration. Research has proved that there are no rare or endangered plant and animal species, therefore, the realization was possible. However Kvítkův Dvůr is an important cultural monument, which falls into the protection zone urban conservation.

The thesis deals with the issue of post-project analysis within the EIA process. Post-project analysis is one of the most important stages of the EIA process, which allows us to consider the process for good and closed. Evaluates the status of the project and whether its effects correspond to the effects of the expected range and have been complied with measures to mitigate the adverse impacts of the project on the environment. This paper aims to describe the EIA process, including poprojektového evaluating impacts on the golf course Beroun and evaluate to what extent it affects the environment. In the practical part post-project analysis Beroun golf course through the analysis of EIA documentation with evaluation of the effectiveness of implemented measures. To achieve the objective of this work was important to select appropriate indicators for determining post-implementation controls predictions with the actual situation and on the basis of the experience gained and the collected data to develop recommendations for handling post-project analysis similar plans.

Tennis, like any other practice, undergoes challenges and revisions to its nature. A number of technical and technological innovations have recently been implemented and/or suggested by a variety of interested parties including the introduction of shorter sets and tie-breaker sets, and a revised tennis seeding structure. These innovations, if adopted, will represent a new instantiation of the game. Thus, determining how decisions concerning the future development of the game ought to be made and who ought to make those decisions is of great importance in terms of how fair the decision-making process is and whether the decisions are good for the game itself. In response to these problems we develop a normative account of "fair play" from Macintyre's (1985) nee-Aristotelian position, emphasising the importance of the internal goods, practices, and traditions of tennis, and that decisions ought to be made by those who have relevant experience or knowledge of the practice of elite male tennis. This account, however, fails to provide a decision-making method and is vulnerable to the criticism that it is inherently conservative. We consider three theses that might fill this lacunae and from which a rational decision-making method to evaluate technical and technological innovations in elite male tennis could be developed. First, we consider Rawls's (1971) method of "reflective equilibrium" which allows us to clarify issues, and is both systematic and democratic, but it is too far removed from actual sporting practices, their ethos, histories and traditions to have any normative force. Secondly, we consider Rawls's (1987) "overlapping consensus" model which is conscious of the political situatedness of decision-making but it is inadequate since the consensuses which it reaches might be based on criteria external to the norms of sporting practices. In order to ensure that the consensus reached is based on a critical consensus of the internal norms of sporting practices, we consider Walzer's (1983) thesis that cultural spheres have internal norms which must be respected and which are the basis for normative judgements about justice or goodness within that practice. This thesis is sympathetic to, yet critical of, the internal goods, practice, and traditions of elite male tennis, and that decisions ought to be made by those who have experience or knowledge of the practice of elite male tennis. We conclude the thesis by presenting a tradition-practice bound decision-making model that can be used to evaluate technical and technological innovations in elite male tennis which is transparent, democratic, and respectful of the traditions and internal norms of tennis.

The quiet eye (QE) - the final fixation or tracking gaze on a specific location that has an onset prior to the start of a final, critical movement (Vickers, 2007) - has emerged as a key predictor of proficient performance in targeting and interceptive tasks over the last 20 years. Since Vickers’ seminal study in golf putting, the QE has been examined in over 28 different motor tasks, with a longer QE duration often referred to as a characteristic of superior performance and a measure of optimal visuo-motor control. However, the underpinnings of QE are not fully understood, with many researchers advocating the need to better identify and understand the mechanisms that underlie the QE (Williams, 2016; Gonzalez et al., 2015). Consequently, the overriding goal of this thesis was to examine the function of the QE duration, what it represents and how it exerts an influence, by exploring the attentional underpinnings of the QE and the prominent cognitive mechanism of response programming. In study 1 (chapter 4), the manipulation of different parameters of golf putting and the examination of different response programming functions (pre-programming vs online control) during the QE enabled me to build on previous explorations of the response programming function by investigating QE’s response to specific iterations of increased task demands. Experienced golfers revealed that longer QE durations were found for more complex iterations of the task and more sensitive analyses of the QE proportions suggest that the early QE (prior to movement initiation) is closely related to force production and impact quality. While the increases in QE were not functional in terms of supporting improved performance, the longer QE durations may have had a positive, insulating effect. In study 2 (chapter 5), a re-examination of Vickers’ seminal work in golf putting was performed, taking into account an error recovery perspective. This 3 explored the influence of trial-to-trial dependence on the functionality of the QE duration and the possible compensatory mechanism that assists in the re-parameterisation of putting mechanics following an unsuccessful trial. The results reveal that experienced golfers had consistently longer QE durations than novices but there was no difference in QE between randomly chosen hits and misses. However, QE durations were significantly longer on hits following a miss, reflecting a potential error recovery mechanism. Importantly, QE durations were significantly lower on misses following a miss, suggesting that motivation moderates the adoption of a compensatory longer QE strategy. These findings indicate that the QE is influenced by the allocation of attentional effort. To explore this notion further, in study 3 (chapter 6), two experiments were undertaken. Experiment 1 examined the QE’s response to attentional effort that is activated via goal motivation and experiment 2 examined the effect of disrupting the allocation of attentional effort on the QE using a dual-task paradigm. The early proportion of the QE was sensitive to motivation, indicating that the QE is not purely determined by the demands of the task and golfers have the ability to apply attentional effort, and therefore QE, strategically (exp. 1). The results also support the assumption that QE reflects overt attentional control but question the sensitivity of QE to detect movements in the locus of attentional effort that does not activate shifts in gaze (covert attention) (exp. 2). The results in this thesis conclude that, while significant contributions to understanding what the QE represents and how it may exert its influence are made, there still remains unanswered questions and tensions that require exploration.

This study examines the different skills necessary for PGA tour players to succeed at specific annual tournaments, in order to create a predictive model for DraftKings PGA contests. The model takes into account data from the PGA Tour ShotLink Intelligence Program. The predictive model is created each week based on past results from the specific tournament in question, with the hope of predicting a group of twenty-five players who should be successful based on their statistical profile. The results of the model are detailed in this paper, which covers the first nine weeks of the 2017 PGA Tour season, with a net profit of $45,070. Despite a positive profit there is not enough information to prove significance, so the model would need to be carried out for many more weeks to be conclusive. Ultimately, the study shows that each PGA Tour course is slightly different, which means certain players should be more successful at certain courses, which is valuable information for predicting future outcomes.

No description available.

Problem: Allmänt känt är att golf är en aktivitet som folk tenderar att ha åsikter om. Det kan vara alltifrån ytförbrukning till upplevelser i form av störningsmoment av landskapets estetiska utformning. I takt med ett större medvetande gällande hållbarhet är även förbrukandet av naturresurser, då främst vatten, en av av utgångspunkterna i denna studie. Andra aspekter som berörs är den i golfsverige åldrande medelåldern, samt de ekonomiska förutsättningarna för golfanläggningar i Sverige.   Syfte: Studien har som syfte att undersöka hur den svenska golfen står idag rent hållbarhetsmässigt och hur man arbetar förebyggande inför framtiden. Resultatet av denna undersökning kvalitetsbedöms av författarna och bildar ett form av scenario över hur framtidens golfbana i Sverige kan komma att se ut. Fokus ligger på att applicera hållbarhet inom golfen som fält. Resultatet kommer därför presenteras i en form av förutsägelse för att bidra med kunskap åt vilken framtidsriktning svenska golfanläggningar tenderar att gå emot.   Metod: För att uppnå studiens syfte och besvara dess frågeställning har vi författare valt en induktiv ansats där fältets aktörer intervjuats. Även enkätundersökningar har använts, både över telefon såväl som via digitala intervjuinstrument.   Som forskningsstrategi har tre producenter utvalts till en fallstudie där metodologisk triangulering tillämpats. För att studien skall tillföra ett värde har en kategorisering utformats. Dessa kategorier representerar utmaningar som identifierats av fallstudiens informanter.   Slutats: Det går tydligt i denna studie att se hur väl golfsverige är insatt i sin befintliga situation gällande hållbarhet. Studien presenterar stora utmaningar gällande dimensionerna ekonomi och social hållbarhet inför framtiden. Dock är den miljömässiga den dimension som vi författare anser som mest hållbar inför framtiden.

The impacts of golf courses and golf estate developments are great and definite. Proof of this can be seen in several Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), that have been submitted to the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Conservation (GDACE) in terms of the Environmental Conservation Act (ECA) (1989) and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) (1998). The question is how to limit these impacts on the environment. Guidelines on how to manage and mitigate these impacts are of fundamental importance, to ensure the conservation of the environment. These guidelines should set principles for the management of the environment from cradle to grave, for future golf course and golf estate developments. The main objective of this study was to develop guidelines for Environmental Management Plans (EMP) specifically focused on golf course developments in the Gauteng Province. To achieve this, a comprehensive study was conducted on the factors pertaining to the environmental process by evaluating previous EIA reports and the associated EMP’s as well as the supporting documentation. The EMP’s were evaluated and several shortfalls were identified. The EIA scoping reports were then appraised and ranked accordingly. The scoping reports assess the impacts on the environment. These impacts must be mitigated in the development process. These impacts and mitigation measures must be documented in an EMP. Hence, the connection between the EIA scoping reports and the EMP’s. Several inadequacies were recognized with respect to the inclusion of all the mitigatory measures for all the impacts as identified in the EIA scoping reports. The conclusions drawn in the evaluations were used to develop the guidelines for EMP’s. The guidelines given here will assist in future compilations of EMP’s for golf courses. It is highly recommended that GDACE and environmental consultants adopt this standard in preparing and evaluating applications. / Prof. J.T. Harmse