Golfers often report a curious phenomenon. They remember specific shots or moments but struggle to recall the exact score from a round. And that’s because some emotions leave a deep cognitive trace that stays longer than the numbers on the scorecard. Neuroscience now explains the reason behind it. 

A key neuroscience finding is that memories tied to strong emotions are encoded better than neutral or routine information. Dr Jessica Jiminez, a professor at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, made a statement. “It’s the synchrony that is critical to establish the fear memory, and the greater the synchrony, the stronger the memory. These are the types of mechanisms that explain why you remember salient events.” 

In another experiment, Robert Reinhart, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at BU College of Arts & Sciences, linked emotional salience with both proactive experiences (events that happen before learning) and retroactive effects (how later events influence memory recall). He found that proactive events had a stronger emotional impact. And memories associated with these activities could be recalled faster and better. 

Applied to golf, this explains why the feeling of sinking an important putt, hitting a perfect drive, or enduring a dramatic moment on the course involves a level of emotional intensity that makes the memory itself more vivid. This makes these memories more enduring than a scorecard. 

A study conducted by researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands; Victoria University, Australia; and Middle East Technical University, Turkey, sought to understand how the sport affects one's recall of golf items as well as regular items. The result that was presented was that golf-related information, in ways that match golfers’ experience and expertise, improves memory accuracy.

The researchers concluded, “Enactment had such a strong effect on recall that all participants benefited from this modality when processing golf items as well as everyday items.”

What this means is that when golfers are emotionally and experientially connected with sport-specific instances, the encoding environment is a richer one and a better match for the memory structures in the golfers’ brains. Such instances are therefore easier to remember than abstract information, such as round scores.

The brain retains emotional experiences, which explains why golf experiences are remembered for a longer period than numerical facts. And the next time you get behind the wheel for a drive with friends and family, you’ll know exactly what you’ll remember.

Written by

Krushna Pattnaik

Edited by

Joyita Das