A market researcher is proposing a survey for the Big Tree Country Club, a private country club that is contemplating several changes in its layout to make the golf course of championship caliber. The researcher is considering three different sample designs as a way to draw a representative sample of the club’s golfers. The three alternative designs are:
Assess representativeness and other issues associated with this sample problem. Be sure to identify the sample method being contemplated in each case. Which sample method do you recommend using and why?
a. Station an interviewer at the tee on the first hole on one day chosen at random, with instructions to ask every 10th golfer to fill out a self-administered questionnaire.
b. Put a stack of questionnaires on the counter where golfers check in and pay for their golf carts. There would be a sign above the questionnaires, and there would be an incentive of a “free dinner in the clubhouse” for three players who fill out the questionnaires and whose names are selected by a lottery.
c. Using the city telephone directory and a plus-one dialing procedure, a random page in the directory and a name on that page would be selected, both by means of a table of random numbers. The plus-one system would be applied to that name and every name listed after it until 1,000 golfers are identified and interviewed by telephone.