How to become a pro golfer on the PGA Tour?

Other than the ways you have named you can play in state/regional qualifiers for the US Open, not sure how it all works since I have never investigated. I have known a few people that tried to follow their Dad's footsteps to become a PGA Pro, but even then it is a very long and hard road. My club hosts a lady's future tour and members house and feed the players when they are in town.

 

If you do not shoot 66 or better on your home course everytime you play. Do not think about it.
I had the opportunity to try and quickly realized that those guys were not playing the same game that I was. After spending lots of time and money with a fairly prominent teaching pro in the early 90's, I was told to go back home, hit 600-700 balls a day for a year and then I "might have a chance" at playing on tour.
Instead I started the PGA Apprentice program to be a club pro and that lasted for 2 years when I realized that I did not love golf enough to spend my entire life surround by it.

 

Most PGA Tour "Open" events have Monday Quallys. The top four get in to the event. The Monday is usually filled by a pre-qualifier to narrow the field down to 50 players. Amateurs need to be a 2 or less. PGA members have no limit. The pre-qually is usually around $200 and the Monday $400. If you're serious and meet the 2 hdcp limit, reach out to your local PGA Section and they'll have more info.

 

Pretty harsh reality. A friend I play with is a +4 and I've never seen him shoot >68 when we play on courses he's never been on. He's 52 and got washed out immediately for senior events.

Didn't Tiger Woods have a $100K bet that a 10 handicap couldn't break 100 on this years Open course from the pro tees? I wonder what is up with that? It speaks to how hard the courses are they play and how good they are.

 

A friend of mine I've known my entire life was our high school phenom so to speak. He played in countless invitation only tournaments around the country. Usually finishing in the top 10, if not the top 5.

He definitely has the skill to be on the pro tour. He never really answers why he won't try out. IMO, he want's to get a career outside of golf under his belt, and then when the time is right he'll try out. He's a pretty reserved guy. But he does live on a course in Arkansas.

 

There should be no illusions about how hard it is to make to the PGA Tour.

I managed to play in a few mini tour events years ago when my game was as good as it would ever be. I even made a cut or two. That said, I was not even CLOSE to being good enough to make it to the Tour. On my best day, I was a middle of the pack mini tour guy. On my bad days I was just another hack trying to stay out of the way. This was when I was a legitimate +1.5.

It's not enough to be a "good player". A scratch player is NOT going to make a dime playing professional golf. You have to be able to go LOW!!! Not just shoot a smooth little 68 on your home course every so often. You should be the guy that holds the course record on your home course. You should be able to crank out a 62 or 63 on a 7300 yard course when you are playing well and scrape a 68 out when you can't buy a putt. If you average more than 26-28 putts a round on your home course. you will NEVER be a professional golfer. Geoff Ogilvie was in town a a couple of Christmas' ago visiting family and he played a round at my home course. He had never seen the course before he strolled around all 7400 yards in 64. He had 26 putts on some very tough greens. He came into the clubhouse after his round and talked to the staff and all us folks that just happened to be hanging around. He really put the whole thing in perspective. One of the guys there asked him how good you have to be to play on the PGA Tour and this is what he told us.

"Every player on Tour is a great ball striker. Some are a little better than others, but ALL of them hit the ball where they want and they can all work the ball in any direction. The difference between number 10 on Tour and number 150 is putting. Pure and simple. If you are the best putter in your city, you can be competitive at your State Amateur and if the rest of your game is solid, you can make some money on the mini tours. If you are the best putter in the state, you can scratch out a living on the Nationwide Tour. If you can be in the Top 20 on the Nationwide Tour in putting, you can make a good living on the PGA Tour. If you are in the Top 20 in putting on the PGA Tour, you will win on the PGA Tour and you might even win a major. If you are the best putter in the world.....you are Tiger Woods."

I play with a buddy that currently plays on the Adams Pro Tour and has just played his way through the pre-qualifying for the Byron Nelson. He has played the mini tours for 3 years now and has made it to the 2nd round of Q-School the past two years in a row. He is a past college All-American and a serious "stick". And the chances of him ever making it to the Tour is very nearly zero.

Golf is a great game.......but a "job" for only the most talented players in the world.

 

Thanks for your perspective and honesty.

When you say "scratch out a living" I assume that means just getting by. In the U.S., how many tour players make a good living? Say $250K/year net. I'm guessing less than 500.

 

Yeah.....scratching out a living on the mini tour circuit is tough. Some of the guys I play with have made serious runs at mini tour life. They have run out of money every time they tried. Just having a car break down or missing a couple of cuts in a row and they are back home and broke. The good friend of mine on the Adams Tour has a good sponsor that has really stood by him. It costs him about 40K a year to stay on the mini tour with all of the entry fees and expenses. The money leader on the Adams Tour last year made 46K. So if it cost him 40K for the season, he only made 6K.

You just have to absolutely love the game to work this hard.

As for how many guys make a good living, 500 is probably pretty close. Here is the PGA Tour money list for last year. The Top 125 keep their card. Anyone below that point has to either try on the Nationwide Tour, or try to get through Q-School again.

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/2007/109.html

And here is last years Nationwide money list:

http://www.pgatour.com/h/stats/info/?109

 

This is 100% correct.

 

The short answer is....... anyone who thinks they are good enough can pay the entry fee for Q-school and take their chances. Q-school is 3 stages w/ break downs at the final stage for full PGA Tour cards, conditional PGA tour cards, full Nationwide cards, conditional Nationwide cards..... etc. IIRC, if you make it to the final stage you'll have at least conditional status on the Nationwide tour. When I looked into it (the cost).... in the mid 90's it was about $3000...sure it's more now.

One thing people need to consider is that depending on how long you are a pro, what you accomplished as a pro, etc it can take up to 3 years to be reinstated as an amatuer.

Most promising players get a sponsor or a group of sponors. Example... 10 guys at $5K per pays for "X". If th palyer makes $, the sponsors get a cut...if the player flops, sponors get the shaft.

Some overall observations not related to the OP's question.

Professional golf (as a living) is tough...brutally tough for guys on the fringe.

Examples:

There was a kid who dominated State Am level golf for 3-4 years in the mid 90's here in WI. He won 2 state stroke plays, 2 state match plays..etc. For a couple years after that, he struggled through the Canadian Tour, Hooters tour, popped up every once in a while on the Nationwide, but never really did much...and he was the best player in our state for 4 years.

A guy I know who was a pro at some point, got reinstated and started to play on the MN State scene also in the early 90's who won the State Am, the State Open, the match play, the State Mid-Am....etc. He's now 50+ and trying to break into the SPGA Tour.....nada...zip...thanks for comming.

I live in a metro large (geographically speaking) metro area of 200K+. I'm one of the top 5 guys in the area, my wife's cousin is also in the top 5. Of the 7 major individual golf tourneys our area puts on each summer, he won 3, I won 2 and two other guys won 1 each. My cousin-in-law was ranked #30 in the state of MN, and I was ranked #80 in the state of WI...which is nothing.

One of the best young players to come out of our area...23, tourney winner, tour ball flight, 320+ avg off the tee....etc.... he's not even the #1 player on his D2 (Enginerring) shcool in FLA.

Guys like us are extremely close (hold your thumb and index finger about 1/16th" apart) to being able to play for a living, but that narrow margin is in some ways almost impossible to bridge.

I looked to try and play tour golf in the mid 90's. I didn't have the $, the family support, the climate or in all honesty the talent to really make it happen. Some people can...if it's your or someones dream why not give it a try?

 

Ironically, motor racing is the inverse.

You need many, many $tacks; talent, not so much. What you need is quality experience and $tacks with buy you just that.