The Persistence of Hope Over Experience

One of the things that fascinates me is the persistence of effort people show in the face of extreme disappointment. This was brought home to me while I was preparing some data sets for my course in sports economics for the spring semester.

Over the past three decades, a number of professional golfers have entered 15 or more tournaments in a year, with little to show for it in the way of results. I'm omitting player names, because that's not the point, but here are the results--year, number of tournaments, and winnings. Some of these, in context, are semi-understandable--players trying to come back from injuries, very good players who just lost it. But consider the guy in 1980, who entered 17 tournaments and won $138, total. An average of $9.50 per tournament. Or the 20-and-over tournaments champ, in 1988--21 tournaments, $661 in earnings. $31.50 per tournament.

The desire these men had, and probably still have, to play tournament golf, to compete at the highest level, must be, and have been, amazing. And far beyond anything I would willingly suffer.

Year......Tournaments.......Winnings
2009...............17..................$13,671
2008...............16..................$34,303
2007...............21..................$53,673
2006...............22..................$11,160
2005...............20..................$7,630
2004...............25..................$21,250
2003...............15..................$10,091
2002...............18..................$16,854
2001...............16..................$21,904
2000...............15..................$16,925
1999...............22..................$9,550
1998...............26..................$3,173
1998...............25..................$2,850
1996...............23..................$2,544
1995...............22..................$2,748
1994...............21..................$4,250
1993...............19..................$2,343
1992...............17..................$6,075
1991...............16..................$3,195
1990...............17..................$2,367
1989...............19..................$3,052
1988...............21..................$661
1987...............16..................$680
1986...............20.................$4,399
1985...............17..................$1,463
1984...............16..................$400
1983...............16..................$402
1982...............15..................$1,161
1981...............16..................$320
1980...............17..................$138