Associations between Risk Assessments of COVID-19, Golf Club’s Risk Management, and Golf Participation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on leisure and sport consumption. While many sports and recreational activities, including sports, were suspended to contain the spread of the virus, golf presented an opportunity for individuals to engage in outdoor activity where social distancing was possible. We investigated the importance of risk perception and safety management practices in relation to repeated leisure activity participation among recreational golfers via online survey (N = 268). The results indicated that recreational golfers’ perceived risk of leisure activity participation and perceived managerial safety climate had a significant effect, while cognitive and affective COVID-19 risk perceptions did not have a significant influence on recreational golfer’ revisit intention. The findings provide empirical evidence on how recreational golfer perceived the domain-specific risks associated with COVID-19 and managerial safety climate influence their sports and recreational activity consumption decision making.