Tiger Woods a Definite Draw for Golf Fans

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- As the PGA season reaches the mid-point of its second full month of competition, almost a third of Americans (31%) say they are a fan of professional golf. This finding remains on par with the 34% who said the same last spring. The new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted February 9-11, also finds that golf fans are more likely to be male than female, and to have relatively high levels of household income. Currently, 40% of men say they are fans of professional golf, compared to 23% of women. Just 15% of those making $20,000 or less say they are fans of professional golf, and the percentage increases consistently with income before topping out at 40% among those whose households make $75,000 or more per year.

Tiger Woods -- Golf's Top Celebrity
Tiger Woods' success on the golf course has made him one of the most recognizable figures in sports. In fact, last fall, Woods became involved in a somewhat controversial dispute with the PGA over marketing rights. Woods believed he was a driving force behind increased television ratings and golf's increased popularity. Woods has since rescinded some of his statements and come to an agreement with the PGA tour. Nonetheless, the viewing habits of golf fans show his claims have some merit. Among fans of professional golf, just over half (51%) say they are more likely to watch a golf tournament on TV if they know Tiger Woods will be playing. Only 1% of fans say it makes them less likely and 48% say it doesn't matter if Woods is playing.

More generally, the American public thinks of Tiger Woods very favorably. In a Gallup poll from June of last year, 88% of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of Tiger Woods and only 5% said they had an unfavorable opinion of him. To put that finding in some context, Woods' favorable rating was higher then that of tennis' Pete Sampras (41%), baseball's Mark McGwire (72%), and even former NBA great, Michael Jordan (83%).

Survey Methods

The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,016, and 1,021 adults 18 years and older, conducted February 9-11, 2001, and June 22-25, 2000 respectively. For results based on these samples, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Are you a fan of professional golf, or not?

If you know that Tiger Woods is going to be playing in a golf tournament on TV, does that make you more likely to watch that tournament, less likely to watch that tournament, or doesn't it matter?

Next, we'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of this person -- or if you have never heard of him. First,… How about… [RANDOM ORDER]

Tiger Woods

Shaquille O'Neal

John Rocker

Mark McGwire

Michael Jordan

Pete Sampras

Kurt Warner