On the Independence of Golf Scores for Professional Golfers

Abstract

This study involved professional golfers who played in 1999 on the Professional Golfers' Association Tour (PGA Tour, N = 2,967), Senior Professional Golfers' Association (SPGA Tour, N = 2,751), and the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association (LPGA Tour, N = 2,638) and investigated whether there is independence between golfers' scores on consecutive rounds within tournaments. The mean correlations between scores on consecutive rounds for players on the PGA Tour (r = −.08, p<.01) and LPGA Tour (r = −.03, p = .05) were negative although negligible and of little practical importance. There was a small, positive correlation (r = .27, p<.01) between scores on consecutive rounds for players on the SPGA Tour. Such evidence suggests the greater dependence of golf scores on the SPGA Tour may be due to the greater range of players' skill on that tour.