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To play in nationwide tour

post #1 of 87
10/21/10 at 9:47pm
Thread Starter 
Can you qualify for the nationwide tour being a true scratch golfer?? Or what does it take?
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post #2 of 87
10/21/10 at 9:57pm

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Think of it this way... there are hundreds of thousands of people in the US who play at scratch to +2 handicap consistently... and they struggle to play along the mini tours.

In order to play on Nationwide tour, you have to be beyond exceptional. Scratch? Not a chance. Think +5 and MAYBE.
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post #3 of 87
10/21/10 at 10:02pm

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by jrsmith1491 View Post
Can you qualify for the nationwide tour being a true scratch golfer?? Or what does it take?
There are alot of great golfers but I think one of the main ways to actually get on tour is being set up for it. Like being a really good player for your college etc. how many guys are playing in the nba that didnt play college ball?

I was watching tv the other day on big lottery winners. There was one guy that won alot of money off the lottery, after he won he spent all of his time taking lessons to get good enough to play on tour. He spent thousands of dollars each week on lessons. They showed him putting and he putted like 4 times before it went in the hole, the guy was retarted to think he would play for money someday.
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post #4 of 87
10/21/10 at 10:23pm

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by motteler621 View Post
There are alot of great golfers but I think one of the main ways to actually get on tour is being set up for it. Like being a really good player for your college etc. how many guys are playing in the nba that didnt play college ball?

I was watching tv the other day on big lottery winners. There was one guy that won alot of money off the lottery, after he won he spent all of his time taking lessons to get good enough to play on tour. He spent thousands of dollars each week on lessons. They showed him putting and he putted like 4 times before it went in the hole, the guy was retarted to think he would play for money someday.
not necessarily. While its true that some, very few, college players end up going on to play pro, golf is very much different than NBA. With golf, you get a chance to qualify through various means (PGA tour school, monday qualifiers, sponsors exemptions, etc). Of course, some great college players CAN do it but anyone who is absolutely great can try and qualify if they had the game for it.

NBA on the other hand is different because their recruiting is very heavily based on scouting college players. You can be the best street baller from Brooklyn, but you won't get discovered that way. This is why great street ballers neve get recognized because scouts don't goto the streets to recruit.
This is not true for golfers, though sponsors may find college players to play for sponsors exemptions but thats a very small number. If you have the money and the game for it, you can try to qualify for an event.
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post #5 of 87
10/21/10 at 10:36pm

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by golfro View Post
Think of it this way... there are hundreds of thousands of people in the US who play at scratch to +2 handicap consistently... and they struggle to play along the mini tours.
I think that's a slight exaggeration. But point received.
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post #6 of 87
10/22/10 at 12:47am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by golfro View Post
Think of it this way... there are hundreds of thousands of people in the US who play at scratch to +2 handicap consistently... and they struggle to play along the mini tours.

In order to play on Nationwide tour, you have to be beyond exceptional. Scratch? Not a chance. Think +5 and MAYBE.
Curious, where'd you get that number from? There are only 28,000 PGA professionals. I imagine half of them don't play to scratch, although they are all definitely all low cappers (less than me and you).

Sure, there are plenty of golfers who don't end up being PGA professionals but play to scratch. But not 100's of thousands. I imagine only 1%-3% of America golfs. So maybe 10 million people. 1/100 golfers playing to scratch, I don't think it's that high.
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post #7 of 87
10/22/10 at 1:12am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by MJP View Post
Curious, where'd you get that number from? There are only 28,000 PGA professionals. I imagine half of them don't play to scratch, although they are all definitely all low cappers (less than me and you).

Sure, there are plenty of golfers who don't end up being PGA professionals but play to scratch. But not 100's of thousands. I imagine only 1%-3% of America golfs. So maybe 10 million people. 1/100 golfers playing to scratch, I don't think it's that high.
i was exagerating to get a point through...that even at +2, people struggle with mini tours...
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post #8 of 87
10/22/10 at 1:28am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

A Golf.com article said there were 306000 men in the USA who are scratch golfers. They can call the USGA any time and get the data. Anyway, that's pretty good. Reference - it's in the middle of the article.
http://www.golf.com/golf/instruction...7876-0,00.html

Woods is estimated to be a +8. So the guys behind him must be +5. This article by our forum owner confirms.
http://thesandtrap.com/the_numbers_g...es_of_the_pros
Suggests that Nationwide players are only 1-2 strokes back. Probably need to be +3 then, and that's on the longest and roughest courses..

Finally, if your handicap is 2 or better, and you have $350, then you can enter a Nationwide qualifying tournament on the preceding monday per this source.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6822275_ente...our-event.html
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post #9 of 87
10/22/10 at 1:31am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

The pro who I worked with in college was a +3. I asked him once why he never tried to play a tour and he explained really quickly how much better those guys were.

I played Le Triomphe in Lafayette, LA the week after the Nike tour's LA Open with the course set up for them. I was a 0.4 at the time and played a heck of a round and shot a 76. I worked my butt off to shoot 4 over after the Nike tour guys just put up some great numbers.

There's a long way between scratch and playing for a living. I'll settle with my real job and playing as a hobby.
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post #10 of 87
10/22/10 at 1:39am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

There maybe 306000 men who are scratch but how many only golf their home course. I think part of the equation lies in playing foreign courses well, you can qualify at your home course but traveling to unfamiliar setting and playing well is a different story.
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post #11 of 87
10/22/10 at 1:43am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by Valleygolfer View Post
There maybe 306000 men who are scratch but how many only golf their home course. I think part of the equation lies in playing foreign courses well, you can qualify at your home course but traveling to unfamiliar setting and playing well is a different story.
yea thats true and how do you get the opportunity to play foreign courses in competition mode, college golf
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post #12 of 87
10/22/10 at 2:02am
Thread Starter 

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Well I figure if you are good enough to play scratch daily at your home track and it has a high enough slope then you can at several others
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post #13 of 87
10/22/10 at 2:07am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by golfro View Post
i was exagerating to get a point through...that even at +2, people struggle with mini tours...
Yeah I definitely agree with that.
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post #14 of 87
10/22/10 at 3:27am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

I played in a nationwide tour ProAm yesterday with Miguel Carballo. He shot +1 on the TPC Sawgrass Staduim Course. I shot a 79. The difference between me and him, was the difference between high school football and the NFL. Guy was 80 something on the money list so he wasn't even that great, but he was damn good. He said his best round to date was a -9 63. During that round he birdied 7 holes in a row. I did get to talk to Sam Saunders on the range before I went out with Miguel. So all in all, it was a very cool experience. The big difference between Miguel and I, was that he would go out tomorrow and shoot -2 or -4 and I would shoot any where from 78-83.
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post #15 of 87
10/22/10 at 3:35am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

What it takes is a crap load of money and pretty much all your time unless you are gifted.
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post #16 of 87
10/22/10 at 3:49am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

I think if I won the Power Ball, I could devote enough time to get good enough to try out, not make it for sure, but try. You have to shoot mid 60's to Monday qualify for a Nationwide event...
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post #17 of 87
10/22/10 at 8:55am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

Originally Posted by Valleygolfer View Post
There maybe 306000 men who are scratch but how many only golf their home course.
This number is so far off the charts - first of all - only 20% of all golfers in the United States carry an offical handicap (and you can be most certain that players with really low hcps will almost all have an offical hcp) - GC´s market research came up with about 26.2 million active golfers.

So that would make it 26.2 mil * 20% = 5.24 Mil with an offical hcp.
Now you apply the USGA hcp distribution to that number (golf hcp distribtion is always a bell curve, with a fat end that covers beginners & the rest):
http://www.usga.org/handicapping/art...dicap-Indexes/

The cumulative population of scratch and better is 0.63% of people carrying an offical hcp:
5.24 * 0.63 % = 33012

I guess the golf.com article slipped a comma?

Otherwise you would need 45 million active players in the US - all having an offical hcp - and thats just not the case.
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post #18 of 87
10/22/10 at 11:01am

Re: To play in nationwide tour

I think a good way to judge yourself, would be to ask these two questions.

Are you the best golfer you know, including any club pros?

Does anyone who has seen you play say "that is the best golfer I have ever played with?"

If the answers to these two questions are yourself, then you might have a chance to try and qualify.
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