为什么科学家喜欢研究高尔夫

　　　　Among the things I learned at the World Scientific Congress of Golf last week in Phoenix: A golf swing becomes automatic only once it"s safely lodged in the brain's basal ganglia. The Official World Golf Rankings are significantly biased against members of the PGA Tour. And researchers are divided on the relative contribution to club-head speed of wrist flexion/extension and ulnar/radial deviation. (If you don't quite grasp that last one, don't worry. I won't be coming back to it.)
　　　　在上月凤凰城举行的世界高尔夫科学大会（World Scientific Congress of Golf）上我了解到的几点是：只有把动作要领根植在大脑基底神经节里，挥杆才会变得自如；高尔夫世界排名（Official World Golf Rankings）对美国职业高尔夫巡回赛（PGA Tour，简称美巡赛）成员持有严重偏见；还有，对于腕关节屈伸和尺骨/桡骨偏位对杆头速度的相对影响，研究人员的看法存在分歧。（如果你不怎么理解最后这点也别担心，下文我不会再提到。）
　　　　The WSCG is something like the Olympics of golf research. It's been held every four years since 1990 (with one delay), starting out in the Athens of golf, St. Andrews, Scotland. This was its second time in Phoenix. Roughly two-thirds of the presenters were full-time academics (the rest were golf professionals). This might lead some to suspicions about how faculty members are spending their research hours, but for several reasons golf proves to be an excellent subject for study.
　　　　世界高尔夫科学大会就像是高尔夫研究领域的奥运会。大会始于苏格兰圣安德鲁斯（St. Andrews），这个地方的地位就相当于雅典之于奥运会，大会从1990年开始每四年举办一次（期间只有一届被推迟）。此次是第二次在凤凰城举办。演讲者中约三分之二都是全职学者（其他是高尔夫专业人士），这可能会令有些人质疑学校教员如何研究高尔夫呢，但有几个原因证明，高尔夫确实是研究的好课题。
　　　　One is that golfers stand in one place when they do their thing, and initiate the action on cue rather than react to an object or person coming at them, as in most other sports. Thus they can be wired to the hilt and every little motion and brain wave pondered.
　　　　其中一个原因是，高尔夫球手打球时总是站在一个位置，动作从球杆开始，而不是像其他运动一样对过来的某个物体或人进行反应。因此他们可以被完全固定住，每个细微的动作和脑波都能得到仔细研究。
　　　　Among the most interesting studies presented in Phoenix, by a Canadian professor of kinesiology named Joan Vickers, explained why the 'quiet eye' technique, which she first reported 15 years ago, works so effectively. Using a helmet fitted out with an external camera and other peripherals, she was able to precisely track the eye movements of golfers as they putted. In the seconds before a stroke, duffers' eyes tend to dart around without purpose or function while elite players control their gaze. Vickers's research revealed how the neural processes associated with the quiet eye help the brain organize itself to make a good stroke while simultaneously overriding competing neural processes responsible for distractions and anxiety.
　　　　在凤凰城展示的最有趣的研究之一来自加拿大一位名叫琼 威克斯（Joan Vickers）的人体运动学教授。她解释了她在15年前首次提出的“静眼”技巧（"quiet eye" technique）为何如此有效。利用一个装有外部摄像头及其他辅助设备的头盔，她就能精确地追踪高尔夫球手打球时眼球的运动。在击球前的几秒钟，菜鸟球手的眼睛往往会漫无目的地四处张望，而优秀球手则会控制自己集中注意力。威克斯的研究揭示了与“静眼”相关的神经突如何在帮助大脑进行组织从而击出好球的同时还能征服与其较量的负责分心和焦虑的神经突。
　　　　Not all of the studies at the conference point to immediately practical benefits, but this one did. Vickers's advice is that when you've adopted your stance and are ready to putt, gaze calmly and steadily at the hole (or target spot) for about three counts, bring your eyes back to the ball in one count and fix your eyes on the back (or top) of the ball for two counts. Then make the stroke and continue to gaze at the ground, where the ball was, for at least one more count.
　　　　大会上并非所有的研究都能给出直接的有实际好处的建议，但这项研究给出来了。威克斯建议，当你调整好姿势准备击球时，冷静地凝视球洞（或目标点）大约三秒，第四秒视线回到球上，然后视线固定在球的后面（或上面）两秒。接着击球，继续注视地面球所在的位置，持续至少一秒。
　　　　If there's a frontier in golf research, it's neuroscience. With the increasing availability of machines that can peer into brains as they function, there has been rapid progress in understanding the biological mechanisms by which people transform information, such as from a golf lesson, first into actions and ultimately into automatic motor skills that don't require conscious thought to enact.
　　　　如果说在高尔夫研究中有一个前沿领域，那就是神经科学。随着越来越多能观察大脑活动的机器出现，在了解人类转换信息的生物学机制方面取得了迅速进展，比如在学习高尔夫时从最开始的学习动作到最后掌握不需意识思维就能打球的自动运动技巧。
　　　　Another reason golf appeals so deliciously to researchers is the availability of quality statistics, particularly the PGA Tour's ShotLink database. Since 2003 the Tour has recorded detailed information about every shot hit by every player in every PGA Tour round. 'It's harder to tease data out of team sports, because the action is so diffuse,' said Mark Broadie, a finance professor at Columbia Business School. 'In golf it's one golfer, one ball, one shot. It's very clean.' Since pro golfers are single-mindedly motivated toward one goal, winning tournaments by taking as few strokes as possible, studying such topics as their risk-reward strategies and competitive awareness have real-world implications in business and management, he said.
　　　　高尔夫受到研究者如此青睐还有一个原因是有可用的高质量的统计数据，特别是美巡赛的ShotLink数据库。从2003年开始，美巡赛记录了每次巡回赛每个球员所有击球的详细信息。哥伦比亚大学商学院（Columbia Business School）金融学教授马克 布罗迪（Mark Broadie）说，获取团队运动的数据相对就要难一些，因为动作太分散；而高尔夫的数据是有关一名球手、一个球、一次击球；非常清晰。他说，由于职业高尔夫球手是专心致志地攻击一个目标，尽可能地用最少的击球赢得联赛，因此研究他们的风险回报策略和竞争意识等课题在商业和管理领域有着现实的意义。
　　　　Broadie and his co-researcher, Dick Rendleman of Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, are the ones who determined that the World Golf Rankings favor players who earn points primarily outside the PGA Tour. At their presentation in Phoenix, summarizing research for a paper to be finished soon, they compared the world ranking of the top 200 players to a ranking of those same players' skill levels calculated using a statistical model they also devised, which simultaneously takes into account players' adjusted tournament scores and the difficulty of the courses. In every two-year period going back to 2003, the bias was stark. 'For every given skill ranking, the official world golf ranking for PGA Tour players averaged 36 positions worse than for non-PGA Tour players,' Rendleman said. At one point Pat Perez was ranked 95th in skill, according to their model, but 195th in the world rankings.
　　　　布罗迪和他的合作研究员、达特茅斯大学塔克商学院（Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business）的迪克 伦德曼（Dick Rendleman）认定，高尔夫世界排名榜偏袒积分主要来自非美巡赛比赛的球员。他们在凤凰城所作的演示中概述了一篇即将完成的论文中的研究，他们设计了一个统计模式，综合球员的调整后比赛成绩和场地难度，对高尔夫世界排名200强球员的技术水平进行计算，得出一个排名，然后将其与世界200强排名榜进行对比。从2003年开始的每个两年期偏差都十分明显。伦德曼说，从技术水平排名来看，美巡赛球员的世界排名平均都比非美巡赛球员低36位。根据他们的模式，帕特 佩雷兹（Pat Perez）的技术水平排名为第95位，但其世界排名仅为第195位。
　　　　One of the main flaws in the current system involves strength-of-field ratings used to determine how many points players earn for good performance. Tournaments receive a minimum point value, depending on which of the world's tours is sponsoring it, regardless of how many quality players are in the field. Strength of field ratings based on the participating players' skill levels would be more equitable, they argue. The world rankings are important because being among the top 50 usually qualifies a player to participate in golf's majors. In 2010, for example, American Nick Watney and Yuta Ikeda of Japan had similar world rankings, Nos. 36 and 40, respectively. But Watney rated 11th in skill versus 89th for Ikeda. Ikeda was ranked highly because he had won seven events on the Japan Tour in the two previous years. In the 12 events in that period where he and Watney both played, Watney beat Ikeda 10 times and missed no cuts, to five missed cuts for Ikeda.
　　　　现有系统的主要缺陷之一就是，确定参赛阵容实力分级值（strength-of-field ratings）的方法不够合理。参赛阵容实力分级值是用来确定球员能获得多少积分的。每项赛事都会有一个最低分级值，取决于其属于哪项世界巡回赛，而不管场上有多少优秀的球员。布罗迪和伦德曼认为，基于参赛球员技术水平的参赛阵容实力分级值可能会更公平。世界排名很重要，因为跻身50强通常意味着球员有资格参加高尔夫四大满贯赛。比如2010年，美国球员尼克 沃特尼（Nick Watney）和日本球员池田勇太（Yuta Ikeda）的世界排名不相上下，分别为第36和第40。但如果按技术水平排名，沃特尼排名第11，而池田勇太排名第89。池田勇太排名高是因为他前两年在日本巡回赛中赢了七场比赛。在那两年中他和沃特尼都参加的12场比赛中，沃特尼击败池田勇太10次，全部成功晋级，而池田勇太有五次未晋级。