Testing the incentive effects in tournaments with a superstar

► We study the effects of the levels and the structure of prizes on the efforts of agents in tournaments. ► We investigate the determinants of scores of golfers using data from the Japan Golf Tour. ► We find that the presence of a superstar adversely affects the scores of the other players. ► The larger the size of the total prize, the better are the scores. ► The larger the marginal prizes after the third round, the better the scores in the final round.