Pulling a Tom Coyne

[JYB]

After this year of college, i'm seriously thinking about packing up and moving to the big FL.

For real. I don't like school and i don't know why i'm going back. I just bought an apartment and i really don't want to live in it. I like manhattan and i like modeling but i'm sick of it. I want to do something adventerous and daring, something near frickin' impossible so...

If you had $400,000 from selling an apartment, no college degree and you were 24 years old, what would you do?

[Surefire]

I think I would move to Fl, rent a condo on a golf course. Have lessons from a top instructor, and devote my lfie to golf.

Probably not actually, having never been in that position I have never thought about it. I guess thats what you wanted to hear though!

In all honesty you should do what want to do. Providing that if it goes wrong you won't make someone else pick up the pieces and foot the bill. Its your life, no-one else is going to experience the joy or regret from the outcomes of decisons made rightly or wrongly.

[Harry Longshanks]

Errrrrrr, did you finish the book?

Recall how things turned out for Coyne?

And he had sponsors, free instruction, free sports psychologists, etc.

(how the f*** did you get a $400k apartment at 24?!?! And why would you be willing to piss away that kind of nest egg?!?!)

[Surefire]

Errrrrrr, did you finish the book?

Imagine if everyone took that view. The tour wouldn't exist. Also consider the fact that Coyne didn't really want to make it. He was always a writer pretending to be a golfer, which is not the same as a golfer. No wonder he had mental issues.

You can get a lot for $400k. Why wouldn't the OP be able to pay for all the instruction etc or even get sponsors himself? The apartment, maybe he worked hard to get it, maybe he has a rich family, does it matter. I am 26 and have a £300k ($600k) house, its possible. If he turns his $400k into $5million of winnings is that pissing it away? If he turns his $400k into $0 but a once in a lifetime experience that he remembers forever is that pissing it away? The short answer is we are all different with varying opinions, and so have to decide these things for ourselves.

[kafka01]

After this year of college, i'm seriously thinking about packing up and moving to the big FL.

I like the idea. Why dont you go for a combinations of college & golf, so you always will have a backup plan. Maybe something that is closer to your intrest level than your actual studies?

But before you start doing this - i really would spent some time with some touring pros (cant be to hard to match up with them) and compare your game level to theirs and if you think you are make it to this level and in which time frame. I also would get feedback from these guys how they would see your chances of getting your skill level up to a competitiv point. I started golf with 25 (i am now 27)- for the last two years i played like 50 % of my time and didnt had to worry about anything else. I advanced pretty quick but to make the step from where i am to scratch imo is still a though way - just for the one reason that i´m pretty inconsistent - one day i shoot 4 over - the next 15 - and that is something i personally blame on the fact that i only play golf for such a short period of time so far...

[Uber$winG]

Go for it... although, personally I would take AZ over FLA.

[StoliGolf]

If you had $400,000 from selling an apartment, no college degree and you were 24 years old, what would you do?

Go to and finish college. The likelihood you're going to turn that $400k into $5mm playing golf is very small. The likelihood you're going to turn that $400k into $0 and then trying to figure out what to do is very high. Find a school you like and take lessons while you're there the first year. Try out for the college golf team your 2nd year. If you make the team, then maybe you've got a shot. If not, at least you're part of the way through school and closer to obtaining a degree that you can use to build off of the remainder of the $400k.

Good luck.

[JYB]

here's my plan :

i'm going to go to college this fall and continue to do so until i feel like my golf game is getting to a point where i'm ridiculous. if it never gets there, then so be it.

basically, i need to finish school. i'm going to give it my all for the next three years and see what happens. if after that time, when i have my degree at age 26, i feel like i'm good enough to golf, i will make my move to florida and try to do it. maybe just play in the Gateway Tour or something...we'll see.

i have plenty of time between now and then to figure things out; hey, i still want to play in a rock band so i've got to get on that now don't i?!

[Soup Fan]

A good golfer with a college degree will have more options in life than a good golfer with no college degree.

[iQuest Golfer]

If you had $400,000 from selling an apartment, no college degree and you were 24 years old, what would you do?

Option 1: I'd head for St. Andrews and learn the game of golf in the land of Shiva Irons. I'd secure a small flat near the town centre and and get hooked up with one of the seven courses under the St. Andrews Links Trust -- all worthy courses to get an excellent golf education/work. Consider going to St. Andrews University part-time/FT majoring in history or philosophy and mingle with some of the new order uber-intellectuals and golfers. In two or three years, by the time you have mastered the game, the weather, the pubs, the language, and the university, you'll be in great shape to conquer anything in the world. Your connections in the world of golf and money will be broad enough that you will have plenty of options a head of you.

Option 2: I still like option 1. SoupFan and StoliGolf summed it up. Get your degree and then you can do anything! Bottom line... Get your degree.

[Magnus]

There may be a few more people whose opinions on the rest of your life you should value more than those of people on a golf forum

[iQuest Golfer]

There may be a few more people whose opinions on the rest of your life you should value more than those of people on a golf forum

Magnus???? Say it ain't so?

[JessN16]

I did this very thing one year when I was a much younger man.

I'd worked my handicap down to 15 just by playing once a week. So I decided to see just how low I could get it. I'd been going to college year-round, with no breaks, for three years, so I took a break one summer and did nothing but play golf.

And when I say "nothing but," I mean it. I was on the course seven days a week except when lightning drove me off it. I took lessons. I worked on the range. Played 36 holes most days and sometimes 54 or even 72. I beat more golf balls into practice greens than I thought possible.

At the end of the summer, my handicap had fallen to ... 10.

Worse yet, I no longer enjoyed golf. I wasn't good enough to make money at it but I was good enough that there was no such thing as a "casual round" anymore. Everything was about improvement, scoring. There was no stopping to smell the roses.

You actually have a third option with your $400,000 -- invest it. Even in a conservative investment strategy, you can get a return of about $20,000 a year on the interest. That's not much, but it is enough to scrape by on if you do something other than college.

However, I strongly advise you to finish school. If you are 24 and your handicap is truly 10, I would think it would be difficult for you to get it down to zero at this point in your life. A lot depends on your natural talent, of which I know nothing about since I've never met you or seen you play.

Do what makes you happy, but remember that happiness is not infinite. You have to mix what you love with what is practical.

Jess