The Ugly Side Of Professional Golf
Hey everyone, it's been a while since I last wrote, I've been searching for inspiration and I think I’ve finally found it. Now what I'm going to talk about today is rather challenging for me and it took me some time to swallow my pride in order to talk about this side of my career. This week I will be talking about the ugly side of professional golf, the financial burden that strickens many players including myself. Now before I get into all the details I just want to preface that I'm not writing about this for handouts, sympathy, or anything like that. I choose this path to chase a dream to make it to the PGA Tour and when you choose something like this you take everything that comes along with it, the good and the bad. Although there is a lot of good in the game the bad starts to creep up on you after a while.
For those that don’t know golf is wildly expensive, between clubs, clothes, greens fees, or membership fees before you even swing a club you are shelling out thousands of dollars. Once you tackle all of those financial obligations you are then on the hook for other expenses which include various coaches, tournaments, and travel expenses. On top of that the tournaments/events that you need to play in to really progress your career in hopes of making it to the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour will cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars. The bottom line is that unless you are full time on the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour you probably aren’t making enough money to sustain life. With that being said, due to the expensive nature of golf, many professionals like myself are forced to have jobs, in my case I have three jobs throughout the year not including competitive golf and, to put it bluntly, if I didn't work these jobs I’d be even more broke than I already am.
I work these jobs for multiple reasons, but before I get into the reason I want to talk about what my jobs are. At two different courses throughout the year, I work bag drop a few days a week. In New Jersey, I work at Blue Heron Pines, and in Florida, I work at ChampionsGate Golf Club. Now to preface both of these golf courses have made my life a lot less challenging. These two facilities have been wildly helpful with days off for tournaments, providing practice facilities for me, and just really getting behind me and supporting my career. Two top notch facilities filled with outstanding people. There are two more clubs that greatly help me out, the first one is The Seawane Club in Long Island. This club allows me to play in various events in New York and constantly and consistently support my golfing career. The second club is Seaview in Galloway Nj, this course has been the biggest part of golf. This is where I learned how to play and over the years the club and staff have been absolutely incredible in the progression of my career over the years. Moving on, the next job I have, which mostly takes place in the summer, is club fitting for Callaway Golf. This job is a huge help for me because it allows me to further learn about the golf swing and golf club technology, finally, my last job is giving lessons and teaching golf. Despite these positions being all part time I really take a lot of pride in what I do and I really do enjoy them because I’m just obsessed with golf in all facets of the game. All of the money I make through these various positions goes directly back into golf, which unfortunately leaves very little money left for rent, groceries and other various bills. I’m blessed to have amazing parents who will literally do anything for me in order for me to get to where I need to go, and my girlfriend, Gab who never gives up on me and always figures out a way to make all this work. Along with my girlfriend, her entire family has been behind me every step on the way as well no matter what. I couldn’t be any more grateful, but sometimes it just weighs on you harder and harder after a while. Although there always comes a time when I can’t accept any more money from my parents, I just feel bad, I feel like I'm taking away their hard earned money. That’s the part that hurts me the most. Regardless, my parents have not and never will give up on me no matter what.
This year the finances have been even tougher, I've unfortunately had to skip Korn Ferry Q- School because I simply couldn’t afford to spend upwards of $10,000 which includes entry fees and travel expenses. It really stung not being able to compete and I tried my best to raise the money, pick up extra shifts, more lessons etc, but it simply wasn’t in the cards. It hurt, I'm not going to lie, it really hurt. Not being able to do something you need for your career is just a gut wrenching feeling. What hurts even more is the fact that I've had a very solid summer and I've played some really good golf as of late, but I'll be fine. I believe in the end all of this will be worth it. I was raised to believe that hard work and determination always prevail. I was also taught that there will be people in your life who will try to break you and convince you that not having the money is a way of saying give up and throw in the towel. I’m here to tell you that those people are mad at themselves for selling out their own dreams. As challenging, frustrating, and depressing my financial situation gets I'll always find a way.
Finally, this one goes out to golfers in a similar situation as my own. If you really want it badly enough, don't let financial problems kill your dreams just keep grinding, keep knocking at the door and something good is just on the horizon.