Is Being On The Tour Worth It?

At some point in our career as a hack the thought of being a tour pro has presented itself. Let’s face it, we all dreamt about making our way down Augusta National, conquering Amen Corner and donning the green jacket. It’s only natural to dream but is a life on the tour all it’s cracked up to be?

Thanks to the media, we primarily only see the good s***. Who topped the money list or how much this person made on endorsements. Do they ever come out and say last year’s last place golfer made $6370 all year? If we take the average tour pro’s salary, it probably falls in the $800,000-900,000 range. Normally we would tend to believe it’s a pretty good living, no?

Here’s the reality, that number is an average. That means some, more like a few, are raking it in and a bunch are squeaking by. The bottom 35 fell under $50K for the year. A few seasons like that and you might want to entertain a career change. Between the cost of traveling and paying bills, that money disappears quick. For example, 2014’s #1 Rory McIlroy played in 15 events and made roughly $7.3 million. Edward Loar (#233) played in 19 events and earned $29,958 so far…ouch!

Not to mention, I didn’t factor in the time and effort put into honing their craft. It’s a gamble and takes a lot of balls to become a pro, no pun intended. The way I see it, us average joe’s have a pretty good deal. When we head out to the course it’s for fun and if we have a decent job we’re doing better than a good chunk of the pro’s who are trying to make a living on the links. Stinking at golf ain’t so bad…

Hit’em long…yell FORE!!!