Development of a Mobile Application for Testing the Effect of Vibration Feedback on Putting Performance

Abstract

Many golfers have trouble with short putts. This could be either due to poor putting form, or they suffer psychologically from the yips. To reduce or potentially alleviate these issues, an application (app) was developed to provide vibration feedback for putter misalignment during the putting stroke. This was tested on three experimental subjects along with a control subject who did not receive vibration feedback. Five trials were conducted over a two-month period, where each trial consisted of 60 putt attempts. All experimental subjects showed an improvement in putting form, with both an increase in putts made, and a decrease in triggered vibration over the course of the trials. The average percentage of putts made for all three subjects improved from 25% to 50.6% over the five trials, while the average amount of vibration activation decreased from 35.1% to 32.2%. Conversely, the control subject showed a slight decline in performance through the five trials. The difference between the experimental group and the control was statistically significant (p<0.05). The results suggest that this app can be used by both novice and expert golfers to improve putting form by helping them maintain a straight putter swing path.