sophomore slump: fact or fiction?
Sean O'Hair has gotten off to a rotten start -- effectively missing 5 of 7 cuts (if you count this week's WD after an opening round 76). (Stats) I haven't been able to seen O'Hair play yet this year, because he's usually not around during the weekend.
Meanwhile, Paula Creamer is showing some signs of life. Two Top 10s in her past two starts, after a less than spectacular start of the season. (Stats) Paula must be working out, because she's increased her distance off the tee (probably by 5-10 yards). She also appears to be sporting a visor instead of a cap, which makes her look a little different with her flock of hair visible.
1 Comments:
Determining if the sophmore slump exists requires a careful analysis of the records of a large number of pro golfers. Pro golf is a world where dropping one shot in stroke average sends your performance plummeting.
There are obviously examples that can be found where a player does not perform up to the standard they did in their first year, giving the appearance of a sophmore slump. However, there are also many cases where a player who has been around a while sees their performance drop after a good year. It is distinguishing these two cases that would be the key to proving one way or another whether the second year is a special case and the 'sophmore slump' really exists.
I haven't done this analysis but my gut level feeling is that the sophmore slump is not a significant factor i.e. there are a similar number of cases of established players 'losing it' after a good year as cases where the second year slump appears to exist...that's just my guess.
I do know that the existence of the sophmore slump cannot be proven by holding up anecdotal examples of individual players who slumped in their second year.
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