ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews recent studies that have used golf performance data to gain insight into the game of golf. Although not reviewed in this chapter, performance data have also been used to study broader issues related to labour and behavioural economics, risk-taking, and the economics of tournament design. These include studies by the following authors: Brown (2011), who shows that during his prime, Tiger Woods’s presence in a Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) TOUR event may have caused other tournament participants to give less effort and perform at a substandard level; Pope and Schweitzer (2011), who show that when putting, PGA Tour players are influenced by the par assigned to the hole; Hickman and Metz (2015), who find that the putting performance of players on the last hole of a PGA Tour event deteriorates as a function of the amount of money that is on the line; Ehrenberg and Bognanno (1990), who find strong support for the proposition that the level and structure of prizes in PGA Tour events influence player performance; and Guryan et al. (2009), who find no evidence that the ability or skill level of a professional golfer’s playing partner(s) affects his performance.
