This article shows a tendency among many of today's economists to make the mistake of thinking they know it all. For all they know, there is some hidden benefit to avoiding bogeys and settling for pars. Maybe even one bogey would hurt your morale far more than a birdie would help it, especially if you're a great player. Maybe there isn't an easy way to avoid that effect, and it affects how well you play. Who knows? That could easily serve as a rational justification for this behavior. But most economists have bought in to the idea that they know exactly what is rational and what isn't.
Are you getting this from economists, or news article about economists? The entire foundation of economics is variable preferences, after all. (Well, the sensible, measurable bits, anyhow.)
It's still an observed difference between what the human claims to value and what their actions say they actually value, and that's still a worthy topic of study.
