The Relationship of Skill Level and Age to the Use of Imagery by Golfers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship of an objective measure of skill level, golf handicap, and age to the use of imagery. Five different functions of imagery were assessed through the Sport Imagery Questionnaire: cognitive specific, cognitive general, motivational specific, motivational general-arousal, and motivational general-mastery. Pearson correlations indicated handicap was significantly related to all five functions of imagery, while age was significantly related to the cognitive specific, cognitive general, and motivational general-mastery functions. As handicap decreased there was a corresponding increase in imagery use. As age increased there was a corresponding decrease in imagery use. Five hierarchical regressions were performed and handicap predicted the use of all five functions of imagery. The addition of age to the regression equations significantly added to the prediction of the cognitive functions of imagery use. Also, the interaction between handicap and age had a significant effect on the use of motivational general-mastery imagery.