Brett P. Shirreffs

Paul M. Sommers

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
 
 
Tee Tests: Playing with Tiger 
 
by 
 
 
 
 
Brett P. Shirreffs 
Paul M. Sommers 
 
 
 
September  2007 
 
 
 
 
 
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 07-14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS 
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753 
 
http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ 
 
 
 
                                                                                                                                              2 
 
 
TEE TESTS: PLAYING WITH TIGER 
 
 
 
 
 
 
by 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Brett P. Shirreffs 
Paul M. Sommers 
 
 
 
Department of Economics 
Middlebury College 
Middlebury, Vermont 05753 
psommers@middlebury.edu                                                                                                                                              3 
 
 
TEE TESTS: PLAYING WITH TIGER 
 
 
 
  Tiger Woods is arguably the best golfer ever on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) 
Tour.  In 2006, he was first among money leaders.  In that year, he also ranked 1
st in scoring 
average, 1
st in birdie average, 1
st in greens in regulation, and 1
st among par breakers. 
  In May 2007, Rory Sabbatini publicly challenged Tiger saying that he wanted Woods in 
the final pairing of the 2007 Wachovia Championship.  Woods shot a 69 and won the tournament, 
while Sabbatini posted a disappointing 74 to tie for third.  How daunting is it to be paired with 
Tiger?  Or, unlike Sabbatini, do individuals perform better in the face of tougher in-group 
competition?  Using data from the 2006 men’s PGA Tour, we find that playing in a group with 
Tiger Woods (which usually attracts enormous crowds and intense media attention) can adversely 
affect a golfer’s concentration level and hence lead to higher scores. 
  The typical tournament on the PGA Tour involves four rounds.  Roughly half of the field 
is cut at the end of the second round.  In 2006, Tiger participated in twelve PGA Tournaments in 
which he made the cut (missing the cut in only the U.S. Open).  He won eight of them, including 
two majors, the British Open and the PGA Championship.  He finished tied for third or better at 
two others and earned $9.941 million, about 38 percent more than his closest rival (Jim Furyk) 
[see www.pgatour.com/r/stats/2006/109.html ].  A complete list of the tournaments and the players 
with whom he was grouped in the third and fourth rounds are presented in Table 1 [see 
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golf/pga/2006/schedules/ ] .  The table also provides detailed round-
by-round results for each of these golfers, when they played with and without Tiger.  Our reliance 
on a subset of elite golfers in each tournament is intended to mitigate the effects of the “marginal 
golfer” who fails to make the cut.  Tiger was paired with the same two golfers in rounds 1 and 2 
of each of these twelve tournaments.  Six of his twenty-four playing partners failed to make the 
cut.                                                                                                                                              4 
 
 
  For each of Tiger’s playing partners in the third or fourth round, the score for a round 
played with Tiger was paired with the same player’s score for a (post-cut) round played without 
Tiger.  In no case did any of the thirty-one players in our sample who made the cut have to play 
with Tiger in both rounds 3 and 4.  Two players (Sergio Garcia in the Buick Invitational and 
Aaron Baddeley in the Deutsche Bank Championship) were paired with Tiger in rounds 1 and 2, 
and then again in one of the remaining two rounds after the cut.  After the cut, the paired 
difference between the average score with Tiger (72.71) and the average score without Tiger 
(69.52) was statistically discernible from zero (p < .001).  Golfers who made the cut had scores 
that were, on average, over three strokes higher per round when they were grouped with Tiger 
than when they were not.  The differences are even greater when one compares the averages for 
all rounds (including the first two rounds) without Tiger and those with Tiger (68.91 and 72.53, 
respectively, p < .001). 
  Which is worse: pairing with Tiger in round 3 or joining Woods in the final pairing?  
Table 2 shows Tiger’s playing partners’ final position and their position after three rounds (that is, 
at the start of the fourth and final round).  [The leaderboard positions at the start of the final round 
were obtained from http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard?tournamentId=253 .]  If Tiger’s 
presence inflates a playing partner’s score, then the golfers who played with him in the third 
round (but not the fourth) would be expected to finish higher up the leaderboard than they would 
have had the tournament ended after three rounds; those golfers who played with him in the 
fourth round (but not the third) would be expected to finish lower down the leaderboard than they 
would have had the tournament ended after three rounds.  The improvement without Tiger for 
each group of playing partners (those who played with him in round 3 and those who played with 
him in round 4) is recorded in the last column of Table 2.  (Note that a “T” denotes a tie.)  A 1-
sample Wilcoxon signed rank test for players grouped with Tiger in round 3 showed that the                                                                                                                                              5 
 
median improvement (without Tiger) was not discernible from zero (p = .932); the median 
improvement (without Tiger) for players grouped with Woods in round 4 was, however, 
discernible from zero (p = .005).  In other words, playing with Tiger is more likely to hurt your 
final position (that is, add strokes to your final score) if you are paired with him in round 4 than if 
you are paired with him in round 3.   
 
Concluding Remarks 
 
  The presence of a superstar might force some professional golfers to concentrate more 
and elevate their game.  But, among golf’s elite on the 2006 PGA Tour, the evidence presented 
here suggests that few players can handle the duress of playing with Tiger Woods (after the cut).  
And, the deleterious impact Tiger has on his playing partners’ game is more pronounced in the 
fourth and final round than it is in the round immediately following the cut. 
                                                                                                                                              6 
 
 
 
Table 1.   2006 PGA Tour Tournament Results, 
                               Golfers Who Played with Tiger Woods in Rounds 3 or 4
* 
 
 
  Event  Player  Round 1  Round 2  Round 3  Round 4 
 
 
 Buick  Invitational Zach  Johnson  71  68  77 73 
   John  Rollins  69  70  71  69 
   Sergio  Garcia  69 68 68  75 
    Rod  Pampling  70 67 68 76 
  Ford Championship  Phil Mickelson  65  66  72  73  
         at Doral  Daniel  Chopra  66 67 68 77 
  Bay Hill Invitational  Bernhard Langer  70  71  73 73 
   Scott  Verplank  72  69  70 70 
    Retief  Goosen  69 73 70 76 
    Kevin  Stadler  70 72 70 80 
  The Players  Kirk Triplett  70  71  76 81 
  Championship  Steve  Flesch  69 70 75 84 
  The Masters Retief  Goosen  70  73  72 69 
    Tim  Clark  70 72 72 69 
  Cialis Western Open  Rich Beem  72  67  70 71 
    Jim  Furyk  69 67 69 70 
  British Open Ernie  Els  68 65 71  71 
    Sergio  Garcia  68 71 65 73 
  Buick Open Brett  Quigley  65  66  71  68 
   Jeff  Sluman  66  67  72  72 
    Lucas  Glover  67 67 66 72 
  PGA Championship  Chris Riley  66  72  73 77 
    Luke  Donald  68 68 66 74 
  WGC - Bridgestone  Davis Love III  67  65  70 71 
  Invitational  Paul  Casey  69 69 64 71 
   Stewart  Cink  70 67 64 69 
 Deutsche  Bank  Aaron Baddeley  67 71 71 70 
 Championship  Vijay  Singh  70 71 61 68 
  WGC – American   Jim Furyk  67  65  69  69 
  Express  Brett  Quigley  70 64 67 73 
  Championship  Adam  Scott  67 68 65 69 
 
*Numbers in italicized boldface are rounds played with Tiger Woods                                                                                                                                              7 
 
 
Table 2.    2006 PGA Tour Tournament Results, 
                                                          Golfers Playing with Tiger Woods, 
                                                   Final Position and Position After 3 Rounds 
 
 
Played with Tiger Woods in Round 3 
     (1)  (2)  Improvement  (+) 
     Final  Position  without  Tiger 
  Event  Player  Position  after Round 3  [col. (2) – col. (1)] 
 
Buick Invitational  Zach Johnson  T49  T61  +12 
   John  Rollins  T4  T12  +8 
Ford Championship  Phil Mickelson  T12  T6  -6 
Bay Hill Invitational  Bernhard Langer  T43  T40  -3 
   Scott  Verplank  T10  T16  +6 
The Players Champ.  Kirk Triplett  T63  T56  -7 
The Masters  Retief Goosens  T3  T10  +7 
Cialis Western Open  Rich Beem  T21  T28  +7 
British Open  Ernie Els  3  T2  -1 
Buick Open  Jeff Sluman  T33  T20  -13 
PGA Championship  Chris Riley  T41  T21  -20 
WGC-Bridgestone Inv.  Davis Love III  T4  T2  -2 
Deutsche Bank Champ.  Aaron Baddeley  T7  T6  -1 
WGC-Amer. Express  Jim Furyk  4  T3  -1 
 
 
Played with Tiger Woods in Round 4 
     (1)  (2)  Improvement  (+) 
     Final  Position  without  Tiger 
  Event  Player  Position  after Round 3  [col. (1) – col. (2)] 
 
Buick Invitational  Sergio Garcia  T8  T1  +7 
   Rod  Pampling  T10  T1  +9 
Ford Championship  Daniel Chopra  T20  T2  +18 
Bay Hill Invitational  Retief Goosen  T48  T30  +18 
   Kevin  Stadler  67  T30  +37 
The Players Champ.  Steve Flesch  T63  T31  +32 
The Masters  Tim Clark  2  T4  -2 
Cialis Western  Open  Jim Furyk  T4  T7  -3 
British Open  Sergio Garcia  T5  T2  +3 
Buick Open  Lucas Glover  T15  T2  +13 
PGA Championship  Luke Donald  T3  T1  +2 
WGC-Bridgestone Inv.  Paul Casey  T4  T2  +2 
   Stewart  Cink  2  1  +1 
Deutsche Bank Champ.  Vijay Singh  2  1  +1 
WGC-Amer. Express  Brett Quigley  T9  T3  +6 
   Adam  Scott  T2  2  0 
 
       
 
  

Tee Tests: Playing with Tiger

http://www.middlebury.edu/services/econ/repec/mdl/ancoec/0714.pdf

Tee Tests: Playing with Tiger

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