Pebble Beach, Golfers' Favorite Course, Set to Host U.S. Open

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- One hundred fifty-six of the world's greatest golfers will compete this weekend in the U.S. Open Championship, the second of golf's four grand slam events. This year's tournament takes on added significance as it is the 100^th playing of the U.S. Open and is being held at one of the world's most famous golf courses, Pebble Beach in California. In fact, a Gallup poll conducted March 30-April 3, 2000, showed that -- by a wide margin -- golfers in this country would most want to play Pebble Beach over any other course in the world. Thirty-seven percent of those who play golf mention Pebble Beach as the course they would most like to play, followed at a considerable distance by Augusta National (home of the Masters Tournament) at 11% and St. Andrews in Scotland (the world's oldest golf course) at 8%.

Golf is Not Favorite Sport to Watch, but Many are Fans
This year's special anniversary U.S. Open has received increased attention from the media and is expected to receive higher television ratings than usual. Even so, very few Americans mention golf as their favorite sport to watch. The Gallup poll found only 5% of Americans citing golf as their favorite sport to watch, similar to the levels of ice hockey and auto racing but trailing far behind football (33%), basketball (16%) and baseball (13%). Despite a perceived rise in popularity in golf, coincident with the rise to fame of Tiger Woods, the percentage of Americans mentioning golf as their favorite spectator sport has changed very little in the last several years, holding steady between 3% and 5% since 1994.

Even if golf is not Americans' favorite spectator sport, 34% of those polled describe themselves as fans of golf. The profile of those most likely to describe themselves as golf fans follows conventional wisdom:

• Forty-four percent of men are golf fans, compared to 25% of women.
• Golf fans are more likely to come from higher income groups -- 43% of those with household incomes over $50,000 are fans, compared to 30% of those with incomes $50,000 and below.
• Golf enthusiasts tend to be older, with 44% of those aged 65 and over calling themselves "fans," compared to 31% of those under 50.

One-third of Americans also say they participate in the sport (33%), with most saying they play golf either "occasionally" or "rarely." Only 7% of Americans say they are "regular" golfers. Men are much more likely to participate in golf than are women (32% of men are "regular" or "occasional" golfers, compared to only 9% of women). While golf fans tend to be older, those who participate in the sport tend to be younger. Twenty-three percent of Americans aged 50 and under play golf "regularly" or "occasionally", compared to 16% aged 50 and over.

Tournament Favorite Tiger Woods is Consensus Choice as Best Active Golfer
Most golf experts consider Tiger Woods to be the favorite to win this year's U.S. Open. Woods won an earlier tournament this year at Pebble Beach – the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am -- with a furious comeback to make up a 7-shot deficit over the last nine holes. Because of feats like this, it is no surprise that Woods is widely considered the greatest golfer in the world today. In fact, when asked, unaided, to name the greatest professional golfer active today, 81% of golf fans and 69% of all U.S. adults named Woods.

This year's Open also takes on added meaning, as it is likely to be Jack Nicklaus' last appearance in this tournament. Nicklaus is considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time. When asked to compare the two, roughly equal percentages of Americans consider Nicklaus in his prime to be as good as Woods today (41% name Nicklaus and 40% say Woods). Golf fans, however, give the edge to Woods by a 53% to 41% margin. Nicklaus previously won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1972.

Survey Methods
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 998 adults, 18 years and older, conducted March 30-April 2, 2000. For results based on this sample, 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.

If you could play any golf course in the world, which one would you choose?

BASED ON -- 205 -- WHO PLAY GOLF REGULARLY OR OCCASIONALLY; +/- 8 PCT PTS

How often, if ever, do you golf – regularly, occasionally, rarely or never?

What is your favorite sport to watch?

* Less than 0.5%

** Question wording:What is your favorite sport to watch?

LONG TERM TREND

** Question wording:What is your favorite sport to follow?

For each of the following, please say whether you are a fan of that sport or not. First, …

Professional golf

Who would you, yourself, say is the greatest professional golf player active in golf today?

Who do you think is the better golfer – Tiger Woods today or Jack Nicklaus in his prime?

(vol.) = volunteered opinion