Personal Narrative: Torrey Pines

As the fog lifts and the sun begins to rise over Torrey Pines golf course cliffside, I can’t stop myself from staring into the vast Pacific Ocean that forms the perfect early morning backdrop. The salty ocean breeze briskly flashes across my face as I approach my shot from the tee box of the third hole. A dramatically set two-hundred-yard downhill par three, encased by ocean cliffs, safeguarded by a colony of trees to the right and an enormous sand trap that spans the entire front of the green. An intimidating setting for even the most seasoned golfer, or worse, an opportunity for the average golfer like myself to succumb to the pressure. Just like the person I’ve been paired with for the day, I’ve never played this course before. As I
Open, that I’ve never played before? Pure luck some would say! I say mental preparation and visual training. I knew that my tee time was a few weeks away and instead of joyfully waiting for that day to come, I decided to play the Torrey Pines course on EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2014 video game every day until then. I probably played that hole over twenty times in that timeframe. You see, with the dramatic increase in technology, video games have morphed into digital replicas of real-world environments, creating modern virtual reality simulators. With features only previously dreamt about in golf folklore, like real-time course weather and lighting or topographical mapping of the putting green surface. I arrived on the day of my tee time knowing every detail about that course, every hole, every green. If playing the video game for only two weeks gave me that much of a competitive and mental advantage, imagine the possibilities for a professional athlete. This paper will show that even though nothing compensates for real-world experience, professional athletes should incorporate video games or virtual reality simulators into their training programs to gain a competitive