PURPOSE This study investigated the relations among professional golfers’ evaluative concerns over perfectionism, psychache, psychological flexibility, and retirement intention. METHODS A total of 216 professional golfers answered questionnaires on perfectionism, psychache, psychological flexibility, and retirement intention. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and path analysis via SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 22.0. RESULTS First, “doubts about action” perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism positively affect psychache, but “concerns over mistakes” perfectionism has no significant effect on psychache. Second, “concerns over mistakes” perfectionism and “doubts about action” perfectionism negatively influence psychological flexibility, but socially prescribed perfectionism has no significant impact on psychological flexibility. Third, psychache positively influences retirement intention, and psychological flexibility negatively affects retirement intention. CONCLUSIONS Psychache and psychological flexibility depend on professional golfers’ evaluative concerns over perfectionism, and retirement intention is shaped by psychache and psychological flexibility. In addition, this study discussed its implications and provided suggestions for future research.
