Sculpting the golf swing: performative aesthetics in sports simulation games

This article contributes to discussion on the aesthetic and affective aspects of sports videogames by adapting thinking from the philosophy of sport into analysis of sporting action in golf games. Specifically, the article is concerned with the concept of performer aesthetics: the qualities that emerge from direct experience of performing a sporting movement. Selecting the golf swing as a case study, this article draws on the philosophy of sport to develop a hermeneutic analysis of performed golf swings across a selection of golf simulation games, from mainstream console titles through motion-controlled games, driving range games, and games controlled by touch. Framed by the author’s own lived experience of golf participation, this article draws attention to the tensions that can arise between theory and intuition, quantification of movement and quality of experience, when sporting actions are adapted into digital play.