R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
Highly ranked professional golfers who play global men’s tours continue to join LIV Golf.
As players transition to a new stage, they navigate relationships with sponsors, tour memberships, and their connection with golf fans.
This report will investigate the latter.
Compared to men who play professionally on the PGA and DP World tours, how much respect do golf fans have for players who join the men’s LIV Golf Series?
(Currently, there is not a women’s LIV Golf Series. Therefore, findings in the report only refer to the men’s professional golf tours.)
OUR SAMPLE
Gather surveyed four hundred and nineteen golf fans across the USA and UK. Sixty-six percent of the sample were men, and thirty-four percent were women.
All golf fans in the sample were familiar with LIV Golf.
OUR QUESTION
We asked golf fans in our sample to indicate their level of respect for both LIV Golf and traditional professional golf tour players.
THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND…
Golf fans respect LIV Golf players less than traditional tour players.
Golf fans’ levels of respect differed for LIV Golf and traditional tour players. Regardless of whether we looked at all fans, or whether we segmented out men and women, players on the traditional tours were respected significantly more (statistically speaking) than LIV Golf players.
Women golf fans are generally less impressed than men.
We found a large gender difference when it came to respect for professional golfers. As the bar chart below indicates, women golf fans tend to have significantly less respect for professional golfers – regardless of the tour they play – than men. It is noteworthy that although women golf fans generally have a low level of respect for golf professionals, they reported an even bigger differential than men when it came to respect for LIV Golf verses traditional tour players.
What predicts respect (or lack of it) for LIV Golf players?
We dug further into the data to understand characteristics of golf fans that predicted their levels of respect for LIV Golf players.
Two statistically significant factors emerged. Unsurprisingly, the first one was gender. Women golf fans were likely to respect LIV Golf players less than men. The other factor was age. As golf fans’ age increased, their level of respect for LIV Golf players decreased.
What do these findings mean for the golf industry?
In Gather’s LIV Golf Report #1 we concluded that older golf fans were less likely than younger golf fans to think sponsors should drop LIV Golf players.
Despite this, Report #2 shows that older golf fans have less respect than younger golf fans for LIV Golf players. This demonstrates that respect for LIV Golf players and allegiance to contracts are seen differently by different generations of golf fans. Specifically, we found that respect for LIV Golf players does not necessarily align with beliefs about sponsors’ contracts.Other sports have targeted women as fans of men’s sport (the NFL, for example). This report found that women have the potential to become greater fans of all professional men’s golf. If the PGA or LIV Tours want to increase their fanbase of women, further research is needed to understand why women’s respect for professional men’s golf is significantly lower than men’s.
GenZ and Millennials are thought to care less about tradition than older generations. This report echoed this hypothesis. Our data did not tell us why younger generations of fans retain more respect for LIV Golf players than older generations of fans. However, we suggest that younger golf fans value individual expression more than older generations. It could be perceived that LIV Golf players are expressing themselves as individuals by joining a non-establishment break-away tour. This choice may resonate with younger golf fans.
Golf fans are not a homogenous group.
They should not be perceived as such.
As golf businesses consider where LIV Golf fits into their future strategy, it is worthwhile considering which segment of the golf fan market is being targeted.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ACCESS OUR FULL REPORT ON GOLF FANS AND THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIV GOLF, CLICK HERE.
