Stress of being a pro

[playit]

I know we all say "It must be nice playing a game for a living!" And that's true. But they work their butts off, for sure. Cue "It Don't Come Easy." You know it don't come easy.

 

My mind sometimes wander when I am watching a middle of the pack pro, or when an announcer is talking about any certain pro who has endured some struggles to contend. And it makes me think how stressful it must be to try to maintain a game sufficient to even make the cut on the PGA Tour and then we have trying to be in the hunt! Trying to even keep your card... there is a new crop of youngsters nipping on your heels and some of them are sensational. Think of how good the guys are on the mini tour. They can trounce pretty much any amateur. And then there's the big boy's tour. Tough game for some, I tip my hat no matter what if one has even made the cut on a mini tour. These guys are good. And then we have the stars of the PGAT. On another level. Until they aren't.

 

EDIT: The good news is the money is climbing. Hopefully, if a guy can make it even a couple years, they can sock away some serious jack.

Edited September 13, 2024 by playit

[NosajNeelik]

Watch out some people here think if you’re not flipping burgers you should just appreciate that and not complain. Just check the Lydia ko thread earlier this year when she was simply asked what is the pressure like of being an lpga pro. 

Edited September 13, 2024 by NosajNeelik

[tiderider]

2 hours ago, NosajNeelik said:

Watch out some people here think of your not flipping burgers you should just appreciate that and not complain. Just check the Lydia ko thread earlier this year when she was simply asked what is the pressure like of being an lpga pro. 

yep ... 

 

thing is, hitting a golf ball repeatedly between the ages of about 14 to 24 or so, when you know whether or not you're going to make it to some degree as a pro on some level, is about as monotonous as anything can be, imo ... 

[Dutch1008]

Super stressful. But shouldn't it be? The top 156 on the tour all made north of $500k. Wesley Bryan is a part time player and full time youtuber and still made nearly $500k on the tour. Michael Thorbjornsen made over $800k in 7 starts fresh out of college. Imagine how jealous his Stanford classmates who are working 100 hour weeks as investment banking analysts are. 

 

Its a massively cutthroat and competitive business, but the upside is phenomenal. The juice is absolutely worth the squeeze. 

[NosajNeelik]

1 hour ago, Dutch1008 said:

Super stressful. But shouldn't it be? The top 156 on the tour all made north of $500k. Wesley Bryan is a part time player and full time youtuber and still made nearly $500k on the tour. Michael Thorbjornsen made over $800k in 7 starts fresh out of college. Imagine how jealous his Stanford classmates who are working 100 hour weeks as investment banking analysts are. 

 

Its a massively cutthroat and competitive business, but the upside is phenomenal. The juice is absolutely worth the squeeze. 

Plus he gets free Pro V’s!!!

[Dutch1008]

41 minutes ago, NosajNeelik said:

Plus he gets free Pro V’s!!!

[golferdude54]

Have you ever played a tournament walking with a caddy carrying your bag? It's not that stressful.

 

The stressful part is practicing and prepping on the right things before tournaments so that you can shoot this number.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2024 by golferdude54

[NosajNeelik]

26 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

Have you ever played a tournament walking with a caddy carrying your bag? It's not that stressful.

 

The stressful part is practicing and prepping on the right things before tournaments so that you can shoot this number.

 

 

I’d say the practicing and preparing is the fun part. Playing in the tournaments is the real stress and worrying about the future. 
 

Bobby jones would lose 15-20 pounds during a tournament week because of the stress 

Edited September 13, 2024 by NosajNeelik

[GoGoErky]

27 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

Have you ever played a tournament walking with a caddy carrying your bag? It's not that stressful.

 

The stressful part is practicing and prepping on the right things before tournaments so that you can shoot this number.

 

 

Have you looked at the faces and body language of even the top pros after a tournament. They are physically and mentally drained from the stress of a tournament 

[golferdude54]

1 hour ago, NosajNeelik said:

Bobby jones would lose 15-20 pounds during a tournament week because of the stress 

 

He was wearing long sleeve shirts and a tie with +4's on the hot and humid East Coast. Most of the tournaments in that era, especially the majors, were during the summer on the East Coast. Pretty much the only cool tournaments he played were the Open and British Amateur's. Plus he drank heavily as a self-prescription to relieve whatever stress he had which exacerbated it even more. No doctor today would recommend that. 

[otto6457]

The stress of a competitive golf as a career can be incredibly destructive if you're not one of the truly gifted and talented ones.  You don't see the thousands of failures like myself, and I was a solid player back in the day.  Multiple City Championships and Regional Championships.  I felt like I could play this game pretty well.  But the pressure of laying down $900 of your own money on some MIni-Tour event, betting that you are going to score well enough this week to get your entry fee back; let alone make enough extra for food, gas, and a fleabag hotel, Is whole new level of stress.  Watching every penny you spend and doing things like sleeping in a Camry in the parking lot at the course, and hoping the host club will let you take a free shower, finally wears you down to exhaustion.  Getting to stay with a "sponsor family" at an event was like winning the lottery. 

 

You never feel like you have practiced enough when you're missing cuts.  So the pressure to practice as much as you can drains the love of the game from you.  It's not just your job playing golf, it's everything you do.  You are never NOT thinking about what you need to do.  What you need to fix.  There's always a weakness that costs you strokes.  And losing one stroke a round is often the difference between finishing in the money and losing another $900+.  The grind literally never ends. Even sleep becomes stressful.  

 

I was "lucky" that I had a great friend that offered to sponsor me for my second season.  Then comes the part where you have spent all of your sponsor's money missing cuts or finishing out of the money with 3 events left in the season, and you have to call your recent ex-wife, who finally tired of the journey through golf hell and filed for divorce, to send you a hundred bucks to have enough money for gas to get home.  That's about as low as you can feel.

 

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't tried to play golf for a living how lonely and hard it can be.  All of your dreams are tied to a number you write on a scorecard.  Your actual worth as person is right there for everyone to see.  There is no one else to blame when you fail.  You are solely responsible for every missed cut.  YOU personally failed to do your only job. The call to your sponsor that you have lost all of their money, but you will pay every penny back with interest even if it takes ten years, (it took six years) is still the most embarrassed I've ever been. I was a complete and utter failure.  At least I felt like I was.

 

It took many years and some professional help to get me back to feeling like I wasn't worthless.  I didn't think I would ever swing a club again.  But golf doesn't seem to let go of your soul for very long.  It always seems to drag you back.  I've said it here before, but I'm glad I tried.  It wasn't all bad.  Those times I was in contention, and when I made a little money, were the best days of my life.  Nothing else ever came close.  I just wasn't good enough.  But if I hadn't tried I would have always wondered.  

 

I'm still out there trying to get better every day.  I just don't let my golf score define my life.  It's a LOT more fun to play now.  And I figure I've got a couple of U.S. Senior Am Qualifiers left in me.

Edited September 14, 2024 by otto6457
punctuation

[NosajNeelik]

26 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

 

He was wearing long sleeve shirts and a tie with +4's on the hot and humid East Coast. Most of the tournaments in that era, especially the majors, were during the summer on the East Coast. Pretty much the only cool tournaments he played were the Open and British Amateur's. Plus he drank heavily as a self-prescription to relieve whatever stress he had which exacerbated it even more. No doctor today would recommend that. 

That proves my point even more that he drank because of the stress of playing tournament golf for the masses 

[NosajNeelik]

30 minutes ago, otto6457 said:

The stress of a competitive golf as a career can be incredibly destructive if you're not one of the truly gifted and talented ones.  You don't see the thousands of failures like myself, and I was a solid player back in the day.  Multiple City Championships and Regional Championships.  I felt like I could play this game pretty well.  But the pressure of laying down $900 of your own money on some MIni-Tour event, betting that you are going to score well enough this week to get your entry fee back; let alone make enough extra for food, gas, and a fleabag hotel, Is whole new level of stress.  Watching every penny you spend and doing things like sleeping in a Camry in the parking lot at the course, and hoping the host club will let you take a free shower, finally wears you down to exhaustion.  Getting to stay with a "sponsor family" at an event was like winning the lottery. 

 

You never feel like you have practiced enough when you're missing cuts.  So the pressure to practice as much as you can drains the love of the game from you.  It's not just your job playing golf, it's everything you do.  You are never NOT thinking about what you need to do.  What you need to fix.  There's always a weakness that costs you strokes.  And losing one stroke a round is often the difference between finishing in the money and losing another $900+.  The grind literally never ends. Even sleep becomes stressful.  

 

I was "lucky" that I had a great friend that offered to sponsor me for my second season.  Then comes the part where you have spent all of your sponsor's money missing cuts or finishing out of the money with 3 events left in the season, and you have to call your recent ex-wife, who finally tired of the journey through golf hell and filed for divorce, to send you a hundred bucks to have enough money for gas to get home.  That's about as low as you can feel.

 

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't tried to play golf for a living how lonely and hard it can be.  All of your dreams are tied to a number you write on a scorecard.  Your actual worth as person is right there for everyone to see.  There is no one else to blame when you fail.  You are solely responsible for every missed cut.  YOU personally failed to do your only job. The call to your sponsor that you have lost all of their money, but you will pay every penny back with interest even if it takes ten years, (it took six years) is still the most embarrassed I've ever been. I was a complete and utter failure.  At least I felt like I was.

 

It took many years and some professional help to get me back to feeling like I wasn't worthless.  I didn't think I would ever swing a club again.  But golf doesn't seem to let go of your soul for very long.  It always seems to drag you back.  I've said it here before, but I'm glad I tried.  It wasn't all bad.  Those times I was in contention, and when I made a little money, were the best days of my life.  Nothing else ever came close.  I just wasn't good enough.  But if I hadn't tried I would have always wondered.  

 

I'm still out there trying to get better every day.  I just don't let my golf score define my life.  It's a LOT more fun to play now.  And I figure I've got a couple of U.S. Senior Am Qualifiers left in me.

Thanks for sharing that and glad you got that perspective and the experience. What a crazy sport 

[PedronNiall]

Any street paved with gold and with dollars hanging from the roadside trees is going to be a tough one to hoe. I don't envy having everyone you know following your ups & downs if it's going the wrong way but that's why at least some of the highest pressure jobs pay the biggest bucks. Can't deny that having every career move in print for all time is a burden many would wither under. 

 

Glad for the new kids on the block that if they're on the come up and have a decent personality they can make high five to low six figures just in the right advertising deals via social media and logos. If they get all the way to the big show now they get $500k in coverage to get them through the season without having to stress over how they'll eat, sleep, or afford to fly/drive to the next stop.

 

It's work, but all jobs are, and there's major compensation most people will never sniff. Golf is still a relatively closed circle. If the newest cool kid crashes and burns the average person won't ever know. Be a top football, basketball, or futbol prospect and fail out and a lot more eyeballs will be aware of you falling short. 

 

All that said, most people are going to look at you positively for laying it all out there and chasing your dreams. There's no magic formula to know what you can handle until you get there, but you rarely see anyone piling on to anyone who doesn't make it. Some of my favorite watches are seeing guys on the Kuest to play their way to the top. Anybody willing to take on the challenge is getting a pat on the back from me.

 

If someone gets all the way to the heights and wants to bemoan their life circumstances I won't lie, I'm probably going to tell them to go cry into their money. When you make enough in one year to put you in top percentages of lifetime earners you're free to invest intelligently and walk away or scale back and coast on sponsor money, appearance fees, and all the other guaranteed money. 

 

If people dislike me for seeing it that way so be it. 

[PJE]

I know a guy who went pro and made it to the Euro Tour for a season but he couldn’t stick with it. He’d been an elite level am, e.g., US Am contestant.
He came back to the States, got a regular job, and tried Q School a few times he but couldn’t get past the Second Stage. 
I went with him to a practice round at a Tour event and a couple of the guys inside the ropes stopped and said hi to him. 
His marriage broke up. His wife cheated. I’m not sure golf contributed to that situation  but I sensed she grew contemptuous of him. It was like he was perpetually one ill timed swing or one putt away from success. 
He eventually got his Am status back and played in a US Senior Open but missed the cut. 
I hear from him from time to time and while I think he’s doing fine, there’s wistfulness when we talk about golf. 
So, I think there’s a lot of stress if you make it , just look at the guys on the Netflix series, Full Swing. They’re a bunch of head cases.
But, I think there is debilitating long term stress for the almost guys regarding what could’ve been. It’s like minor league baseballers who were five tool guys who never made it. 
 

[AmateurAmateur]

6 hours ago, NosajNeelik said:

Plus he gets free Pro V’s!!!

The PGA tour player I was paired with in US Open final qualifying this year helped me find my ProV1 after I thought it caught a bunker but ended up a few yards past it. 
I jokingly said to him “thanks, us washed up Mid-Am’s still have to pay for our balls” and he said “man, you’re younger than me, don’t give up on your dreams, if you want to be a pro chase it”. 
 

I work 40 hours a week, the dream is long gone; but I still get free Prov’s so him and I are basically the same 😎

Edited September 14, 2024 by AmateurAmateur

[archer1]

11 hours ago, otto6457 said:

The stress of a competitive golf as a career can be incredibly destructive if you're not one of the truly gifted and talented ones.  You don't see the thousands of failures like myself, and I was a solid player back in the day.  Multiple City Championships and Regional Championships.  I felt like I could play this game pretty well.  But the pressure of laying down $900 of your own money on some MIni-Tour event, betting that you are going to score well enough this week to get your entry fee back; let alone make enough extra for food, gas, and a fleabag hotel, Is whole new level of stress.  Watching every penny you spend and doing things like sleeping in a Camry in the parking lot at the course, and hoping the host club will let you take a free shower, finally wears you down to exhaustion.  Getting to stay with a "sponsor family" at an event was like winning the lottery. 

 

You never feel like you have practiced enough when you're missing cuts.  So the pressure to practice as much as you can drains the love of the game from you.  It's not just your job playing golf, it's everything you do.  You are never NOT thinking about what you need to do.  What you need to fix.  There's always a weakness that costs you strokes.  And losing one stroke a round is often the difference between finishing in the money and losing another $900+.  The grind literally never ends. Even sleep becomes stressful.  

 

I was "lucky" that I had a great friend that offered to sponsor me for my second season.  Then comes the part where you have spent all of your sponsor's money missing cuts or finishing out of the money with 3 events left in the season, and you have to call your recent ex-wife, who finally tired of the journey through golf hell and filed for divorce, to send you a hundred bucks to have enough money for gas to get home.  That's about as low as you can feel.

 

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't tried to play golf for a living how lonely and hard it can be.  All of your dreams are tied to a number you write on a scorecard.  Your actual worth as person is right there for everyone to see.  There is no one else to blame when you fail.  You are solely responsible for every missed cut.  YOU personally failed to do your only job. The call to your sponsor that you have lost all of their money, but you will pay every penny back with interest even if it takes ten years, (it took six years) is still the most embarrassed I've ever been. I was a complete and utter failure.  At least I felt like I was.

 

It took many years and some professional help to get me back to feeling like I wasn't worthless.  I didn't think I would ever swing a club again.  But golf doesn't seem to let go of your soul for very long.  It always seems to drag you back.  I've said it here before, but I'm glad I tried.  It wasn't all bad.  Those times I was in contention, and when I made a little money, were the best days of my life.  Nothing else ever came close.  I just wasn't good enough.  But if I hadn't tried I would have always wondered.  

 

I'm still out there trying to get better every day.  I just don't let my golf score define my life.  It's a LOT more fun to play now.  And I figure I've got a couple of U.S. Senior Am Qualifiers left in me.

Thank so much for sharing this. A question if I may.

 

You said "I just wasn't good enough.".

 

We all know golf is a multi-faceted game. What part, or parts, of your game prevented you from realising your dream?

[Ferguson]

Talent carries a person only so far in life.  

 

Top professionals in any sport or vocation know the value of learning to deal with stress early in life. If you're brought up in an anxiety filled household, chances are you will be an anxious adult. 

 

I've read one of the keys to deal with stress is to focus only on the things within one's control.  It settles the mind and helps the individual focus on the task at hand.  We hear that a lot in golf.  Easier said than done. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2024 by Ferguson

[dropkicked]

When you "Eat what you Kill", going to bed on an empty stomach and not knowing when your next meal will come, can cause some serious stress..

[dropkicked]

2 hours ago, Ferguson said:

Talent carries a person only so far in life.  

 

Top professionals in any sport or vocation know the value of learning to deal with stress early in life. If you're brought up in an anxiety filled household, chances are you will be an anxious adult. 

 

I've read one of the keys to deal with stress is to focus only on the things within one's control.  It settles the mind and helps the individual focus on the task at hand.  We hear that a lot in golf.  Easier said than done. 

 

 

 

 

 

[MtlJeff]

The person who is 150th on the PGA tour this year has made 548,000$ YTD . I am sure that people feel stress, it's all relative.....Everyone on tour wants to keep their card, and 548K minus travel expenses and etc doesn't last you all that long and if you're one and done. But it's still pretty good

 

But i don't think there is anything mythical about the stress they feel versus anyone else. What about recent college grads in Vancouver or Toronto? Their starting salaries are barely enough to afford much more then rent. Most people <28yrs old feel stress like this every day which is likely why depression is at record levels.....not trying to go on a socio-political rant here

 

The PGA tour is hard work and stressful for sure. But i dont know that the guy in 140th place has it any worse than 90% of the population

[Ironman_32]

On top of everything said above, tour players have really only themselves to rely upon. They say take a guys earnings and 40% is what they walk away with all in all, so yea $500k gross but you're walking away with $200k. Not bad, but you're on the road all the time, and you're the 150th best person in your field, any other field (law, accounting, doctor,), add a couple zeroes. 

[aenemated]

1 minute ago, Ironman_32 said:

on the road all the time

 

Ya know what ya miss the most on the road? Good toilet paper. Doesn't matter if you're in a Ritz-Carlton or the Extended Stay America by the Philly airport; all hotels provide the worst toilet paper. 

 

Don't believe me? Use the cheapest you can find for a month then come back and tell me it didn't make every day of your life miserable. 

[NosajNeelik]

3 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

The person who is 150th on the PGA tour this year has made 548,000$ YTD . I am sure that people feel stress, it's all relative.....Everyone on tour wants to keep their card, and 548K minus travel expenses and etc doesn't last you all that long and if you're one and done. But it's still pretty good

 

But i don't think there is anything mythical about the stress they feel versus anyone else. What about recent college grads in Vancouver or Toronto? Their starting salaries are barely enough to afford much more then rent. Most people <28yrs old feel stress like this every day which is likely why depression is at record levels.....not trying to go on a socio-political rant here

 

The PGA tour is hard work and stressful for sure. But i dont know that the guy in 140th place has it any worse than 90% of the population

You’re talking about number 140. There’s literally thousands good enough to go for it without a safely net. 

[MtlJeff]

1 hour ago, NosajNeelik said:

You’re talking about number 140. There’s literally thousands good enough to go for it without a safely net. 

 

The OP's question was largely about guys on the PGA tour, not those on the mini tours aspiring to make the tour---unless i read it wrong

[ChrisL52188]

I wonder if John Daly has any stress about playing golf?

 

Probably not. He is probably the most naturally talented golfer. And sure he wasted that talent. Then again...he won two Major championships.

Edited September 14, 2024 by ChrisL52188

[Phabs]

Promise it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.   People have this fantasy built up in their brain and think it’s great until your hands are bleeding from beating balls and practicing.. working your a** off then go out and don’t perform to your expectations knowing how hard you’ve worked.   You end up losing your love for the game and it turns into work that you hate.  I’ve been to that dark place in college and it’s not enjoyable.  I had success in a few tournaments in college and qualified for state all four years in high school.  After I graduated college I didn’t touch a golf club for over two years.  
 

I had zero desire to chase the mini tour level but I’m sure it doesn’t get any easier when your mortgage / livelihood is on the line.  You’ve got big stress then 

Edited September 15, 2024 by Phabs

[otto6457]

13 hours ago, archer1 said:

Thank so much for sharing this. A question if I may.

 

You said "I just wasn't good enough.".

 

We all know golf is a multi-faceted game. What part, or parts, of your game prevented you from realising your dream?

 

I could go into a long list of my shortcomings but it's the same for most everyone that doesn't reach their wished for destination.  My game wasn't consistent enough when it had to be.  It wasn't just one thing in my game.  My swing was an issue that raised itself under pressure.  My short game wasn't good enough to cover up enough of my bad swings.  And my putting wasn't bad, but it wasn't good enough either.  The times I really needed to make a putt for par or birdie to get into the money didn't happen often enough.   I couldn't close the gap between myself and the top 10-15% of the field enough times.  I needed to finish Top Ten a lot more often to stay financially afloat and keep the dream alive.

 

And maybe most importantly, once my confidence was wrecked I struggled with life itself.  The feeling of losing everything, no matter how much you try not to feel that way is like a poison.  The loneliness of failure is a pit that's hard to climb out of.  

[Phabs]

23 minutes ago, otto6457 said:

And maybe most importantly, once my confidence was wrecked I struggled with life itself.  The feeling of losing everything, no matter how much you try not to feel that way is like a poison.  The loneliness of failure is a pit that's hard to climb out of.  

Yessir.  That’s the dark place I was speaking too… you want to talk about a confusing messy place for your brain to live 

Edited September 15, 2024 by Phabs

[farmer]

A friend of mine won a spot in a Tight Lies level Pro-Am.  He was a legit +3 familiar with the course.  The now anonymous kid who was his pro shot 65 with one practice round.  That's how good even the lower tier players are.  Oh yeah, my friend shot a crisp 82, and admitted he never got over random people watching him play.