Generational Differences in Career Transitions Among Top 100 Ranked Golfers

Golf National Sport Organizations (NSOs) invest significant resources to help athletes achieve a top ranking. However, little objective data exists to inform this process. The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) may be a useful resource for benchmarking athlete progression. However, ranking data is retrospective, meaning that past data may not be relevant to inform current/future athletes. It is therefore necessary to appraise the OWGR data to determine whether such data is valid to inform future decision-making. Golfers who first obtained a top 100 OWGR between 1990-2018 were divided into four age-based cohorts. An overall developmental pathway was defined consisting of; career ranking milestones (e.g. first top 1000 ranking) and the time taken to transition between such milestones. Overall, a trend towards younger generations of golfers reaching milestones at significantly earlier ages and in less time was observed. The findings in this thesis will allow NSOs to appropriately apply the OWGR to their decision-making processes.