Laterality and performance in elite male golfers

Peter M Allen; Oliver Runswick; Richard Hughes; Colm Hughes; Brendan T Barrett; Peter Lawrie; Andrew Murray

doi:10.1080/02640414.2025.2459005

Laterality and performance in elite male golfers

Peter M Allen, Oliver Runswick, Richard Hughes, Colm Hughes, Brendan T Barrett, Peter Lawrie, Andrew Murray

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Human beings display laterilised behaviour. In sport, including golf, players adopt a right- or left-handed stance. There may be advantages in going against convention in the position of the dominant hand relative to golf stance. However, no work has investigated this in an elite sample of golfers or considered how various combinations of hand, eye, and foot dominance may be associated with elite golfing ability. This study aimed to establish the lateralised preferences of elite golfers, and how the combination of lateralised behaviours may associate with high-level performance. We elicited hand preference, eye dominance, foot dominance, and full swing stance in 71 male golfers all currently playing professionally on tour and ranked in the top 500 in the world. Performance was measured using rankings and 'strokes gained' statistics. There was an underrepresentation of left-hand dominance and left-hand stance in the sample, with a large proportion of players having 'crossed' eye dominance. There was limited association between performance and hand dominance, eye dominance and stance. However, higher ranking position was associated with right foot dominance and uncrossed combinations between hand, eye, and foot dominance. This study provides an enhanced understanding of lateralised behaviour in an elite golfing sample.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of Sports Sciences
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2025.2459005
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 29 Jan 2025

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title = "Laterality and performance in elite male golfers",

abstract = "Human beings display laterilised behaviour. In sport, including golf, players adopt a right- or left-handed stance. There may be advantages in going against convention in the position of the dominant hand relative to golf stance. However, no work has investigated this in an elite sample of golfers or considered how various combinations of hand, eye, and foot dominance may be associated with elite golfing ability. This study aimed to establish the lateralised preferences of elite golfers, and how the combination of lateralised behaviours may associate with high-level performance. We elicited hand preference, eye dominance, foot dominance, and full swing stance in 71 male golfers all currently playing professionally on tour and ranked in the top 500 in the world. Performance was measured using rankings and 'strokes gained' statistics. There was an underrepresentation of left-hand dominance and left-hand stance in the sample, with a large proportion of players having 'crossed' eye dominance. There was limited association between performance and hand dominance, eye dominance and stance. However, higher ranking position was associated with right foot dominance and uncrossed combinations between hand, eye, and foot dominance. This study provides an enhanced understanding of lateralised behaviour in an elite golfing sample.",

author = "Allen, {Peter M} and Oliver Runswick and Richard Hughes and Colm Hughes and Barrett, {Brendan T} and Peter Lawrie and Andrew Murray",

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doi = "10.1080/02640414.2025.2459005",

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AU - Runswick, Oliver

AU - Hughes, Richard

AU - Hughes, Colm

AU - Barrett, Brendan T

AU - Lawrie, Peter

AU - Murray, Andrew

PY - 2025/1/29

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N2 - Human beings display laterilised behaviour. In sport, including golf, players adopt a right- or left-handed stance. There may be advantages in going against convention in the position of the dominant hand relative to golf stance. However, no work has investigated this in an elite sample of golfers or considered how various combinations of hand, eye, and foot dominance may be associated with elite golfing ability. This study aimed to establish the lateralised preferences of elite golfers, and how the combination of lateralised behaviours may associate with high-level performance. We elicited hand preference, eye dominance, foot dominance, and full swing stance in 71 male golfers all currently playing professionally on tour and ranked in the top 500 in the world. Performance was measured using rankings and 'strokes gained' statistics. There was an underrepresentation of left-hand dominance and left-hand stance in the sample, with a large proportion of players having 'crossed' eye dominance. There was limited association between performance and hand dominance, eye dominance and stance. However, higher ranking position was associated with right foot dominance and uncrossed combinations between hand, eye, and foot dominance. This study provides an enhanced understanding of lateralised behaviour in an elite golfing sample.

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Laterality and performance in elite male golfers

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