This article describes a dataset that allows to explore the determinants and moderators of athletes’ decision to enter in tournaments endowed with a monetary prize. Specifically, the dataset contains variables that describe athlete's short-term momentum (i.e., performance streak in the tournaments recently entered) and long-term momentum (i.e., performance streak in the same tournament across seasons), which permits an in-depth analysis of how past performance trajectory drives self-selection into tournaments. The dataset consists of 54,915 self-selection decisions that golfers have taken over an eleven-year period (1996–2006) when deciding to participate in PGA Tour tournaments.