A Case Study of Recreational Golfers' Interest in the 2008 Ryder Cup

• Published in: Event management Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 25 - 36
• Main Authors: Harris, John, Lee, Sangkwon, Lyberger, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Putnam Valley Cognizant Communication Corporation 01.03.2012
• Subjects: Case studies; Golfers; Interest; Media rights; Professional golf; Ryder Cup; Sporting Events
• ISSN: 1525-9951
• DOI: 10.3727/152599512X13264729827550

The ryder Cup is the premier team competition in golf and is often described as the third biggest sports event in the world. Despite this, the match has received scant attention from scholars in event management and other associated disciplines. This case study examines recreational golfers' interest in the ryder Cup and attempts to discover what they perceive to be the defining characteristics of the match, in order to develop a better understanding of the positioning of the event. while there has been an increase in research focusing on major sporting events, little work has explored the ryder Cup and less still has looked at the views of recreational participants in a sport. The research identified that respondents generally identified positive characteristics with the match but also found that the ryder Cup was of less interest to them than a range of other major golf and sport events. The limitations of the case study and an outline of further research in this area is also discussed.