Investigation of persistence in golf professionals through application of the CANE model of motivation

The factors associated with “motivation to engage in” as well as “motivation to maintain” an athletic program appear to be a source of considerable debate. An existing instrument, used to measure academic motivation, was altered to address the specific field of golf performance. The instrument was used to determine if motivational factors in the athletic arena were similar to factors suggested in previous research with academic motivation. From the 60 questions contained in the original instrument, 45 were retained. The revised instrument was administered to 227 students enrolled in a school training golf professionals. Of the 227 surveys returned, there were 216 returned complete and were deemed “viable”. A raw alpha of ∼0.91 was obtained from the instrument prior to further refinement or revision. Despite the preliminary, prototypical form, the instrument appeared to be reliable. Analysis revealed 4 components accounting for ∼47% of the variance. The results suggested “Emotion” and “Task Value” were the most useful in predicting “persistence” in golf. However, “Self Efficacy” was the only factor shown to be significant in predicting golf performance. The analysis also suggested that “persistence”, while statistically significant, was a poor predictor of golf performance.