A Study of the Performance and the Determinants of Winning for Professional Female Golfers

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the performance and the determinants of winning in golfers of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 2010. This study used a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach: the first stage of this study involved measuring the efficiency scores of female golfers, and the second stage of the study used Tobit regression analysis to explain the variations in these efficiencies. Eight of the examined golfers achieved an efficient approach, whereas 103 golfers were inefficient. There were significantly positive effects on efficiency scores from the following items: “driving distance”, “driving accuracy percentage”, “putts per round”, and “money leaders”. Thus, both driving and putting were determinants of success in LPGA tournaments in 2010. This study marked the first attempted application of either a censored data model or a limited dependent variables model to the context of Taiwanese athletes, and the results of the Tobit regression analysis explained how golfers improve with respect to efficiency and competitiveness