Primary motives of golf volunteers

The purpose of this study was to examine the primary motives of golf volunteers at the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Championship and Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Solheim Cup event. The current study consisted of eight hundred and seventy seven participants (N=877) which included 470 volunteers from the PGA Championship and 407 volunteers from the Solheim Cup. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the Sport Volunteer Motivation Scale prior to serving as a volunteer for the respective golf event. Descriptive statistics revealed purposive motives was the most highly endorsed motive for PGA Championship and Solheim Cup volunteers. External motives proved to be endorsed the least among the participants. The demographic makeup of the volunteer population consisted of 56.3% males and 43.7% females. Respondents ages ranged from 18 to 84 years old, with a mean age of 55.5 years old. In regards to ethnicity, the volunteers were predominantly Caucasian (96.2%) and the majority (75.1%) reported a household income over $75,000. A series of 2 X 2 MANOVA's revealed significant differences by gender, women scored significantly higher than men on purposive, egoistic, external, and leisure motives. Significant differences were found for household income as those with an income of less than $75,000 had higher motives for material, external, leisure, and egoistic factors. Significant differences were also found for age as those younger than 56 years old had higher motives for material, leisure, and egoistic factors. A 2 X 5 MANOVA revealed a significant effect for highest degree earned, for the egoistic motive, volunteers who received a Bachelor's, Associate's, or High School/GED degrees were significantly greater than those volunteers who received a Doctoral degree. Solheim Cup volunteers had significantly higher motives than PGA Championship volunteers for all five factors. The results of the present study indicated the demographic makeup of the volunteer population needs to be examined in relationship to volunteer motivation as volunteers have different motives which must be considered for giving their time, effort, and energy to a respective sport event. Recommendations for future research examining sport event volunteer motives are also discussed.Department of Educational StudiesThesis (D. Ed.