The Economics of an Aging Superstar’s Popularity: The Case of Tiger Woods

This paper explores how a sports superstar’s popularity aged by utilizing 28 years of Nielsen television viewer data for the Professional Golf Association’s major events (i.e., the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and the British Open; 1995–2022). Tiger Woods’ major career has spanned this precise time frame, as his first major event was the 1995 Masters and his last major in which he made the cut was the 2022 Masters (at the time of this writing). Thus, we are able to specifically examine how this singular superstar has aged in terms of popularity over an extended time frame. Given that golf is an individual sport in which there are no externality effects from teammates that might confound the analysis, our current setting provides an ideal natural experiment where we can simultaneously account for superstar effects relating to participation, performance, and longevity. Our results suggest that Woods was most popular at the beginning of his career, and that, after controlling for productivity and other relevant factors, his popularity has subsequently waned. Even though Tiger Woods remains the most popular golfer in the world, his impact on viewership has continued to lessen as his career has progressed.