http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeln...rtin-pga-tour/

Hope this link works. If it doesn't, the story is on the Forbes magazine web site. Talks a little about the business side of the game for a young player.

It will be interesting to see how this kid does on the Nationwide Tour this year.

As someone that knows nothing about professional golf, I found that a interesting read.

I know it's amazingly hard to be a pro golfer, and the travel and expenses are insanely expensive. But man that whole article falls apart at the end when it says he won 340K for the year(+ titleist + others?). He's in a better position than literally thousands of "pro" golfers after an unsuccessful season. It's pretty tough to feel too sorry for a guy who traveled the world playing golf last year and made half a million doing it.

Keep in mind, that is what he grossed.

Right, and I mentioned that it's insanely expensive to travel the tour.

I just thought the whole vibe of the article was for us to see how it was SO hard and SO lonely to travel the tour. Seems like using a guy who shipped his second pro tourney(no begging from friends), then shipped his first Q school shot, then signed a pretty decent Titleist deal(for a non total stud) and then won 340K on tour isn't the best way to portray that.

On the other hand, this guy is most likely going to see his income drop through the floor this year. He gets a lot less money from sponsors and will be playing for purses that are 10 percent of what they were on the PGA Tour. It would kind of suck to make that much money one year and then bank $34k the next, especially when your expenses are $75k.

It also provided some insight into the "Q School vs. Nationwide Tour" debate. This guy qualified through Q School, but the article seemed to indicate that he wasn't ready for the grind of the PGA Tour, and may have been better served working his way up through the minors.

I'm sure from a "perfect mind set to succeed" route that slowly working your way up is better for some people, especially someone like this guy. But from a point of view of making it as a pro golfer long term I can't imagine anything other than other worldly talent is as important as money. I'm sure pretty much every person on the Nationwide tour would gladly sacrifice some loneliness in exchange for the concern they have for making rent or paying for gas to get to the next tournament.

The grind of playing pebble beach for 4 days and then getting only 100k is tough man. I mean, you literally have to play golf every day. Then if you do really well, you have to go all the way to like freaking england and play over there for the "Open", and it's cold and windy. It's such a beating. Did you know that if you make a measly 2 million your first year, you still have to pay taxes and tip the room service? People just don't get how hard it is.

The worst was this one time when I was in second and I had a bad day. I only made 100k and I had to buy a plane ticket to get to the course, so basically I was out money when you calculate that. And they make you play certain clubs, seriously. You have to play the Ap2s and they make you use a scotty cameron, and they only give you 150k for it, which barely covers the entry fee to the tournaments. I'd really just rather be back home sometimes. The worst is when you have to go all the way to hawaii to play, and especially if you win, you HAVE to play all 4 days. There were a couple of tournaments where the courtesy car they gave me didn't even navigation. Am I supposed to guess where the course is?

I dunno - think of it as a college grad coming out of school, having a decent first year, then making a couple hundred K the next year, and despite this, getting "fired". Profiling some guy who made $23,000 on the Nationwide or whatever wouldn't be interesting at all because the only thing you'd think is "this guy should wake up and realize he can't compete".

Ernie Els played several (7, I think) Nationwide events before he made it big.
I'm sure there are dozens of other examples.

Yeah it was a good article but I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone like that after they get "fired" from the tour. I followed Ben Martin coming off his runner up at the US Amateur in 09 and was interested to see how far he would go after his high finish in the Q school. Then he basically fell off the map for his entire rookie season. You feel bad for him that it didnt work out but you kind of dont because he could be much much worse off than having to play nationwide this year. It shows the killer instinct you have to have to stay in the big leagues too. Ben mentioned how he was "sick of golf" at the end of the year and was relieved to play nationwide tour this year. Maybe he will learn this year how good he had it on the PGA and re-dedicate himself to getting out there. Dont want to seem harsh but it sounds like everything has been handed to him his entire life and just expected the PGA Tour life to be easy.

Also, would be interesting to hear the story of someone struggling on mini tours for years before finally getting his shot at the big time. Like how much of their own money or sponsors money they have sunk into there game before finally being able to make some real cash. I think that would be much more compelling.