Would You Rather…?

[Bob M]

Definitely #2; my reputation matters to me. And, assuming it was true, I wouldn't want to have to look my wife and kids in the eye and admit to being a cheater.

[WillieT]

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would you rather #46:

Would you rather?

1) Play on the PGA tour for 20 years. Win 10 majors and 50 tournaments. But then the world finds out you've been using PED's. The world thinks of you as a cheater. 

2) Play on the PGA tour for 20 years. You play just well enough to keep your tour card. You retire after 20 years on the tour and nobody notices. Only the most hard core PGA fans could even pick you out of a line-up.

I’m in the consensus here with option 2.  20yrs as a career “journeyman” on the tour means I’ve made some good money, played the best courses, met a lot of great people and content with my ride into the sunset.  PED’s ruined my kid’s memories of the great run Mark McGwire and such had in the 90’s.  A good name is to be hand above riches. 

[Pretzel]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would you rather #46:

Would you rather?

1) Play on the PGA tour for 20 years. Win 10 majors and 50 tournaments. But then the world finds out you've been using PED's. The world thinks of you as a cheater. 

2) Play on the PGA tour for 20 years. You play just well enough to keep your tour card. You retire after 20 years on the tour and nobody notices. Only the most hard core PGA fans could even pick you out of a line-up.

I'll go against the grain and say with certainty I'd choose option #1.

It's the difference between spending 20 years of your life worried that this year could be your last year on tour (risking getting sent back to the meat grinder that is the Korn Ferry) because you're struggling to make that top-125, or spending 20 years of your life comfortably retaining status and playing the best golf of anyone on the planet during that same timeframe.

To be clear, it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the amount of stress you're going through during that 20 year period. 125th on the FedEx Cup standings last year was Chesson Hadley, who still earned $940,986 in prize money and enough from his various sponsorship deals to comfortably push him into 7-figures annual earnings. Those guys right on the cusp there are playing in every tournament that will accept them into the field every year (based on their priority ranking) just hoping to do well enough in a couple weeks per year to get to the ~350-450 FedEx cup points required to stick around in the top 125. Almost all of them have between one and three top-10 finishes, maybe another one to three top-20 results, and the remainder of the tournaments scraping by with ~50% made-cut rate. Just incredibly stressful to live knowing each week you need to perform and get that next top-10 to keep your priority ranking, only able to relax some for the remainder of the season once you've reached the 400 FedEx Cup points. You also are less likely to get to play in the biggest and best tournaments, and specifically would be unlikely to earn an invite to the Masters unless you got lucky with a win once or twice in your career. 

While your reputation in option 1 gets tarnished after you're done playing golf, you still played a much less stressful 20 years on Tour. You won't be considered the greatest of all time and some of the lifetime benefits historic players receive could be revoked, but you had 20 worry-free years that you can follow up with a quiet retirement of doing whatever you would have done anyways had you chosen option #2 (where you wouldn't be getting lifetime benefits or sponsor arrangements anyways after retirement).

[Flushed]

#46 - it's like asking if you'd prefer to be Lance Armstrong or another top cyclist... maybe not to that extreme, but you've got to have morals.

[Vinsk]

4 hours ago, Pretzel said:

spending 20 years of your life comfortably retaining status and playing the best golf of anyone on the planet during that same timeframe.

I think some may feel those 20 years are riddled with conscious of knowing you’re cheating and could get busted any day. That may not be considered a ‘comfortable’ 20 years….🙂

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, Flushed said:

#46 - it's like asking if you'd prefer to be Lance Armstrong or another top cyclist... maybe not to that extreme, but you've got to have morals.

The problem with your analogy is that if you were another top cyclist you were also doping. You just weren't winning. 

I find it interesting that they didn't give Lance Armstrong's Tour De France titles to anyone, because there were no "clean" cyclists to give them to. 

Perfect example of "Everybody's Doing It". 

 

[iacas]

7 hours ago, Pretzel said:

I'll go against the grain and say with certainty I'd choose option #1.

It's the difference between spending 20 years of your life worried that this year could be your last year on tour (risking getting sent back to the meat grinder that is the Korn Ferry) because you're struggling to make that top-125, or spending 20 years of your life comfortably retaining status and playing the best golf of anyone on the planet during that same timeframe.

Like @Vinsk said, you've got the stress of knowing you're cheating for 20 years… and the stress of being known to have cheated for the rest of your life.

20 years inside the top 125 is generational wealth.

[Pretzel]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

Like @Vinsk said, you've got the stress of knowing you're cheating for 20 years… and the stress of being known to have cheated for the rest of your life.

20 years inside the top 125 is generational wealth.

It absolutely is generational wealth, like I said you're making 7 figures a year for 20 years.

Being known to be a cheater is less than ideal, but if you're living a quiet retirement it doesn't make you any different from a nobody. It's a much different kind of stress to spending 20 years wondering if this is the year you'll be "laid off" because you didn't perform well enough. The stress of that can start to ease after the first 5 years with enough savings though, because you'd at least have a fallback plan sorted out by then.

[iacas]

23 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

Being known to be a cheater is less than ideal, but if you're living a quiet retirement it doesn't make you any different from a nobody. It's a much different kind of stress to spending 20 years wondering if this is the year you'll be "laid off" because you didn't perform well enough. The stress of that can start to ease after the first 5 years with enough savings though, because you'd at least have a fallback plan sorted out by then.

I don't think a 10/50 winner is going to be a "nobody."

And I still think you're under-rating the stress of cheating for 20 years.

And the poll doesn't say you're constantly stressed if you choose the "journeyman" route — I feel you're reading that into the question. The question asks you which of the two you'd take: so I take that to mean you're given a choice between A or B. Since you're given that choice, you know you're going to keep your card for 20 years.

The question is not "would you rather have the skill to win 10/50 but you MUST cheat and you WILL be outed to do it, or the skill to barely keep your card any given year." The question gives you the conclusion, so you can assume it to be true.

[mcanadiens]

19 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I think some may feel those 20 years are riddled with conscious of knowing you’re cheating and could get busted any day. That may not be considered a ‘comfortable’ 20 years….🙂

Guess it depends on whether you are a sociopath or not.

Personally, I wouldn't want any part of that. Whatever disorders I have, that isn't one of them.

[pganapathy]

23 hours ago, Pretzel said:

To be clear, it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the amount of stress you're going through during that 20 year period. 125th on the FedEx Cup standings last year was Chesson Hadley, who still earned $940,986 in prize money and enough from his various sponsorship deals to comfortably push him into 7-figures annual earnings.

I have to believe the amount of money you want will determine your stress levels.  Let us be honest, if you make a million dollars, there are many people in the world who could comfortably retire on that at the age of 25, invest that money wisely and live peacefully for another 75 years.  Of course, if you want to make 25 million dollars or 100 million or 500 million dollars, that isn't NEED, it is WANT.  Therefore, the money you earn is one part of this discussion.  The other is your ethics/morals and a third part is whether you care what your reputation and legacy is.

[ChetlovesMer]

Okay easy one this time. No controversy here. Just a simple question. I think I know how a lot of you will answer but here goes. 

Would You Rather #46:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round? 

[iacas]

32 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round? 

I don't eat much during the day. Breakfast (sometimes, usually) and dinner. So, skip it and get food afterward.

[Ty_Webb]

Most of the time I wind up stopping to eat because everyone else is, but I'd rather just keep going. I don't like the break in my rhythm

[mcanadiens]

45 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would You Rather #46:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round?

Left to my own devices, food will wait until the end if I eat at the course at all. 

Normally, my turn involves hitting the bathroom and refilling the water bottle. In certain cases, that normally involve particular friends of mine, I'll get a beer or two. If I'm waiting for more than a couple of minutes on someone, I get really impatient. 

 

[NM Golf]

59 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would You Rather #46:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round? 

I carry a kind bar or a banana in my bag when I play unless I am fasting, I don't see how tossing a gut bomb like a burger or hotdog down my throat at the turn could ever be a good thing. 

I play 99% of my golf in the early morning so I'm normally finished well before lunch rolls around anyway.

[GolfLug]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Okay easy one this time. No controversy here. Just a simple question. I think I know how a lot of you will answer but here goes. 

Would You Rather #46:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round? 

Food after the round 90% of the time. I don't have a hard rule or anything but I rarely snack during the round. I might imbibe every now and then. 

Edited March 2, 2022 by GolfLug

[Darkfrog]

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would You Rather #46:

Would you rather get foot at the turn (hot dog, burger, something where you stop and purchase, not counting just pulling a snack from your bag). 

Or would you rather just play on at the turn and get food after the round?

Play on and eat after the round, usually after I get home. I usually carry snacks like a bag of nuts, an apple/banana, an energy bar of some sort, along with a 32 oz water bottle. I'd rather stick to small, healthy snacks on course. Plus, the course's food service doesn't open until 10am, and my group is usually making the turn around 8-830am.