Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/189280

Title

Home continent advantage on the American and European professional golf tours

Author(s)

Bailey, Michael;  Clarke, Stephen;  Forbes, Donald

Abstract

Using all regular tournament rounds of golf played on both the American and European golf tours between 2000 and 2009, 860 golfers were identified as having played on both tours. By assigning the continent in which each player played the most rounds as being the 'home' continent, a mixed linear model was used to determine the effects of a 'home tour' advantage. Over 255,000 rounds of golf were examined. Overall scoring on the US tour was marginally lower than in Europe (71.58 vs 71.74 p=0.001). There was a significant difference between rounds (p<0.0001), with third round scores lowest (71.43) followed by second (71.63), first (71.78) and then final round (71.79). Golfers that played more often on the US tour were consistently over half a stroke better than golfers that played more regularly on the European tour (71.39 vs 71.93 p<0.0001). There was a significant interaction between continent and home tour (p<0.0001) with US tour golfers averaging 71.21 the US tour and 71.58 on the European tour, while European tour golfers averaged 71.91 on the European tour and 71.95 on the US tour. Average scores appeared to have increased by about a stroke over the past 10 years, while experience and familiarity are worth about half a stroke per thousand rounds for experience and about half a stroke per sixty rounds that is played at each specific tournament. Significant differences exist between both the European and US golf tours and the players that play on these tours. There is also statistical evidence to support the theory that experience and familiarity are predictive of golf score.

Publication type

Conference paper

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology

Source

Proceedings of the Tenth Australasian Conference on Mathematics and Computers in Sport (10M&CS), Darwin, North Territory, Australia, 05-07 July 2010 / Anthony Bedford and Matthew Ovens (eds.), pp. 173-179

Publication year

2010

FOR Code(s)

010401 Applied Statistics;  010406 Stochastic Analysis and Modelling

Keyword(s)

Golf;  Home advantage;  Sports

Publisher

MathSport (ANZIAM)

ISBN

9780957862357, 0957862350

Publisher URL

http://www.anziam.org.au/MathSport+Proceedings

Copyright

Copyright © 2010.

Peer reviewed