Get in the Virtual Hole! Examination of Gaze and Performance of Experts, Athletes, and Novices While Putting in Virtual Reality and in the Real-World

Virtual reality (VR) offers opportunities to train and assess visuomotor skills and sports performance in controlled, reproducible contexts, supporting innovation in research and training. However, VR imposes unique sensory demands that may disrupt movement coordination, task performance, and potential skill learning. This study used putting performance assessment and eye-tracking to examine visuomotor coordination and performance in VR versus the real world, and whether effects varied by task expertise and athlete skill. Novice undergraduates (n = 44), national/international athletes in sports other than golf (n = 14), and expert golfers (n = 5) completed 30 putts in both settings while eye-gaze and putting outcomes were measured. Novices were divided into low performing (LPN) and high performing (HPN) based on real-world performance, while athletes and experts were not. More putts were holed in the real-world than VR across expertise groups, while experts holed many more putts in the real-world than athletes, HPN, and LPN, while athletes and HPN holed more putts than LPN. There were no differences between groups in VR holed putts. Putting radial error (RE) was much lower for experts, and moderately lower for athletes and HPN than LPN in the real-world. Experts had moderately lower RE than HPN in VR. Quiet Eye (QE), the final fixation prior to movement execution, predicted reduced RE for experts in the real-world but not in VR. Visuomotor co-ordination in VR may be disrupted. VR training environments may need adjustment to address visuomotor differences and should be designed to deliver feedback consistent with real-world performance expectations.