Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the reasons why female spectators attend professional golf events. A random sample of 1,368 female spectators rated the relative importance of 27 reasons to attend on a 5-point Likert scale. The instrument used had an internal consistency of 0.914 as measured by Cronbach Alpha. The sample was made up of 302 spectators attending two LPGA events, 798 spectators attending six PGA events, and 268 spectators attending two Senior PGA events. The analysis of variance and Tukey test were used to determine reasons that were significantly different among the three tours, the four age categories, and the four categories of golfing frequency. The results indicated that golf tournament organizers should concentrate on attracting older spectators (> 65) and infrequent golfers (< 25 rounds per year). The results also show that female spectators are attending professional golf events because it is an excellent opportunity for them to learn from the professional golfers in order to improve their own performance. At the Senior PGA events, more emphasis should be put on the personality of golfers and the inclusion of top performers in the event. Finally, all reasons related to promotional aspects of the events did not attract female spectators.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barkow

(1989). The history of the P.G.A. Tour. New York: Doubleday.

Bird

J.P.

(1982). The demand for league football. Applied Economics, 14, 637–649.

Bush

A. J.

, & Hair

J.F.

Jr. (1985). An assessment of the mall-intercept as a data collection method. Journal of Marketing Research, 22, 158–167.

Cronbach

L.J.

(1951). Coefficient Alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334.

Drever

, & MacDonald

(1981). Attendances at South Australian football games. International Review of Sport Sociology, 16(2), 103–113.

Dupont

T.D.

(1987). Do frequent mall-shoppers distort mall-intercept survey results. Journal of Advertising Research, 27(4) 45–51.

Gates

, & Soloman

P.J.

(1982). Research using the mall intercept: State of the art. Journal of Advertising Research, 22(4) 43–49.

Greenstein

T.N.

, & Marcum

J.P.

(1981). Factors affecting attendance at major league baseball: Team performance. Review of Sport and Leisure, 6(2) 21–34.

Guest

R.H.

(1990). Golf organization: Challenges of growth and change - a preliminary social science perspective. In Cochran

A.J.

(Ed.), Proceedings of the First World Scientific Congress of Golf (pp. 295–302). University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland.

10.

Hansen

, & Gauthier

(1989). Factors affecting attendance at professional sport events. Journal of Sport Management, 3(1), 15–32.

11.

Hansen

, & Gauthier

(1992). Marketing objectives of professional and university sport organizations. Journal of Sport Management, 6(1), 27–37.

12.

Hansen

, & Gauthier

(1992, June). Symposium on spectator research related to professional golf. Paper presented at the 7th Annual Ameri-can Society for Sport Management Conference, Knoxville, Tenn.

13.

Hansen

, & Gauthier

(1993). Spectators' view of LPGA golf events. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2(1), 17–25.

14.

Hill

J.R.

, Madura

, & Zuber

R.A.

(1982). The short run demand for major league baseball. Atlantic Economic Journal, 10(2) 31–35.

15.

Howard

D.R.

(1992). Participation rates in selected sport and fitness activities. Journal of Sport Management, 6(3), 191–205.

16.

Jones

J.C.H.

(1984). Winners, losers and hosers: Demand and survival in the National Hockey League. Atlantic Economic Journal, 12(3), 54–63.

17.

Mawson

M.L.

, & Coan

E.E.

(1990, June). Marketing techniques used by National Basketball Association Franchises with high attendance and with low attendance. Paper presented at the 5th Annual American Society for Sport Management Conference, Louisville, KY.

18.

Noll

R.G.

(1974). Government and the sports business (Chap. 4, pp. 115–157). Washington: The Brookings Institute.

19.

Nowell

, & Stanley

L.R.

(1991). Length-biased sampling in mall-intercept survey. Journal of Marketing Research, 28, 475–479.

20.

Rooney

J.F.

Jr. , & White

(1990). The utilization of the US golf data base for the optimal location of new golf facilities. In Cochran

A.J.

(Ed.), Proceedings of the First World Scientific Congress of Golf (pp. 309–314). University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland.

21.

Schofield

J.A.

(1983). Performance and attendance at professional team sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 6(4), 196–206.

22.

Stoddart

(1990). The social context of golf: A preliminary framework. In Cochran

A.J.

(Ed.), Proceedings of the First World Scientific Congress of Golf (pp. 303–308). University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland.

23.

Sudman

Seymour

(1980). Improving the quality of shopping center sampling. Journal of Marketing Research, 17, 423–431.

24.

Zak

T.H.

, Huang

C.F.

, & Siegfried

J.J.

(1979). Production efficiency: The case of professional basketball. Journal of Business, 52(3), 379–392.

Female Spectators: Marketing Implications for Professional Golf Events

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References