'On the Comfort of Repetition'

This report examines the golfer’s reliance on repetition as a coping mechanism and its role in sustaining long-term participation despite chronic dissatisfaction.

Dr. Alistair P. Mulligan, PhD

Resident Behavioral Analyst, GSTPA

 

There is a widely held belief that golfers play in search of improvement. This belief is incorrect.

What golfers actually seek is familiar disappointment.

Improvement implies change, and change introduces risk. Disappointment, on the other hand, is dependable. It arrives on time, behaves as expected, and asks very little emotionally beyond mild self-loathing and a post-round beverage.

The golfer knows what’s coming. The first tee optimism. The early warning signs. The quiet unraveling. The back-nine rationalizations. This sequence is not accidental — it is comforting. Ritualized. Almost therapeutic.

When a round goes exactly as poorly as anticipated, golfers report feeling strangely validated. When it goes better, they grow suspicious. When it goes worse, they feel relieved to have been right.

This explains why so many golfers return to the same courses, the same swing thoughts, and the same equipment setups year after year. Not out of loyalty — but out of trust.

Golf does not promise joy. It promises consistency.

And for many, that is enough.

 

Dr. Wexler’s work focuses on the human preference for predictable failure over uncertain success. His research examines how golfers maintain emotional stability by returning to outcomes they already understand.