Would you turn down over 1 million dollars

[act0fgod]

So Cantlay has repeatedly said that he will maintain his amateur status and wants to finish 4 years of school. If you were in his shoes and if he holds on to win this weekend would you turn down the over 1 million dollar prize and if yes why? If for some reason he goes back on what he said in today’s interview and takes the money I'm sure he will be kicking himself for turning down the 80k+ and change he turned down last week.

[Shorty]

  act0fgod said:

Originally Posted by act0fgod

would you turn down the over 1 million dollar prize and if yes why?

He's not turning anything down. He's got a bigger picture in mind.

If he maintains reasonable form when he turns pro he'll probably sign for endorsements worth $20 million + in his first few years.

His bargaining power will be even greater if he maintains his amateur status and does well.

The prizemoney these guys play for is a fraction of their earnings at the top level.

[motteler621]

yea we dont know all the numbers involved. He probably has good advisors though.

Second, if this was basketball, it wouldnt even be a hard choice, go pro. You know how many players went pro right out of high school,

[dhanson]

i don't think money is an issue for him right now. he graduated from a private high school ($12,100/year tuition) and i'm sure his scholarship pays his tuition at UCLA.

my thought process with any athlete considering leaving college early is this: why would you turn down money when you are young and run the risk of being injured in college which could prohibit you from being as competitive as you were prior. i don't think that the risk is as great in golf as it is with other sports, but why risk it? the logic being, you can always go back to school if being a professional athlete doesn't pan out, you can't un-injure your knee/shoulder/ect.

----

side note: i don't know why any one-and-done basketball players even bother playing college ball. it's generally pretty clear what their intentions are when they take 3 classes per semester. go to europe and make bank.

[SouthernILGolfer]

Looks like he's ready to be pro, school can always wait.   He can always go back to school and get that meaningless degree when his career is over., he's only going to school to play college golf, his career will be the PGA tour.   Look at someone like Michelle Wie.  She is professional but is trying to go to Stanford and play on the LPGA tour at the same time.  If she would just realize that school isnt that important at this point and focus only on golf, she would be the female version of Tiger Woods, the old Tiger that dominated.   She needs to fine tune her game and she would win multiple times each year and would be the #1 player within a couple years.

[mck]

I think you always take the money.  If Ty Tryon had listened to everyone and gone to college he never (as best we can tell) would have made a dime playing golf.  Callaway made him a multimillionaire--- I think he made the right decision

[TourSpoon]

Time to turn pro.

[allin]

Is there a rule that he has to declare before the tournament he is playing as a pro? Can he change his mind if he wins? A win and a 2 year+ exemption would be hard to refuse. When I was his age it would have bee a no brainer, but with the endorsements now maybe he would make more in the long run by delaying turning pro. Golfers who win pro tournaments as amateuers are rare and it seems to enhance their reputation for many years, Scott Verplank for example. Maybe he just doesn't want to miss the college experience or doesn't feel ready for the grind of being a tour professional. At his age with most of the players 5 or more years older it could be a lonely until he becomses established.

[Uber$winG]

  allin said:

Originally Posted by allin

Is there a rule that he has to declare before the tournament he is playing as a pro? Can he change his mind if he wins?

I believe one has to declare, in writing, their status as an amateur prior to the start of the tournament (this includes qualifying rounds), and subsequently agree to waive the right to claim any prize money in the competition.

I think he will be better served by staying in college for at least a couple of years. He’ll get some experience both in amateur and professional competitions, and have the chance to gain some perspective.

[xxsoultonesxx]

He seems like he genuinely doesn't care about the cash. I like his attitude but don't fully understand it, either. I believe that the college experience is better experienced at a younger age than when you are older. I've got a lot of respect for the kid, though. He's doing it big time. His second shot in to that par 5 yesterday was ballsy as hell, and he backed it up with the putt. It will be a real test of nerves to keep it together for the weekend. Maybe seeing rory win the us open will help show him the way.

[newtogolf]

If there are millions of dollars being harded out as part of an endorsement, I agree, take the money, invest it conservatively and go take your chances as a pro.  If It's not at least a million, I'd encourage my kid to play their sport in college, get their degree and then pursue a career as a pro.  I don't know what the statistics are for athletes that skipped college or left early to turn pro and then went back to complete their degree but I'd guess it's very low.

One part of the equation is skill, the other is maturity and the ability to handle life on the road responsibly.  Most kids at 18-19 aren't ready to handle the pressure of being a pro athlete and be on the road away from family and forced to take care of themselves.  The chances of injuring yourself in golf compared to other sports is pretty minimal, so I wouldn't be as concerned about that.

[x129]

Well in basketball pretty much no one turns pro (there are a couple of guys that play in europe) out of high school. They all do a year of college and then go pro. In baseball it is more like 50% go pro out of high school. In football zero go pro.

There are pluses and minuses to both. For some people college is a better place to develop your game. For others the cash is more important along with the reduced risk of injury/loss of form.

  motteler621 said:

Originally Posted by motteler621

yea we dont know all the numbers involved. He probably has good advisors though.

Second, if this was basketball, it wouldnt even be a hard choice, go pro. You know how many players went pro right out of high school,

[motteler621]

  x129 said:

Originally Posted by x129

Well in basketball pretty much no one turns pro (there are a couple of guys that play in europe) out of high school. They all do a year of college and then go pro. In baseball it is more like 50% go pro out of high school. In football zero go pro.

There are pluses and minuses to both. For some people college is a better place to develop your game. For others the cash is more important along with the reduced risk of injury/loss of form.

no one in basketball goes to the nba from high school,,, what? There were tons pre 2006, now they have a rule where you have to be atleast 19 and one year out of high school...off the top of my head of guys straight from high school... Kobe Bryant, garnett, jermain o neal, Tracy Mcgrady, kwame brown, dwight howard, tyson chandler, eddy curry, amare stoudemire, josh smith, andrew bynum,livingston(went to my high school). Most are highly successful in the Nba so Im not one to judge.

Now alot leave college after a year or 2

[Harmonious]

If you view money as the be-all and end-all of existence, then by all means take the money.  If you view life experiences (like at a great university as UCLA) then you stay in school.  The money will always be there.  It seems that this young man has a good head on his shoulders, and will make the right choice for him.  Personally, I would stay in school.  You only get to be young once.

[motteler621]

  Harmonious said:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

If you view money as the be-all and end-all of existence, then by all means take the money.  If you view life experiences (like at a great university as UCLA) then you stay in school.  The money will always be there.  It seems that this young man has a good head on his shoulders, and will make the right choice for him.  Personally, I would stay in school.  You only get to be young once.

yea either way i wouldnt judge, Obviously hes going to be a tour player making millions his whole life so it might not be a bad idea to go pro if he wins. Most guys are happy with a single win while being on the pga tour, when the opportunity is there, take it. He might cool off if he doesnt go on tour from this win....

On the other hand he knows his game better than us

[act0fgod]

I guess I should clarify a little. When I first posted I thought you could declare your professional status at any point during the event but on the PGA tour you need to declare your professional status before the event. So the million I was talking about was the prize money. A lot of people were apparently aware that he couldn't take that money so were assuming I meant endorsement money.

If we are talking just about the endorsement money I agree that I wouldn't turn pro right now. Even if he plays so-so for the rest of the tournaments he plays in the next couple of years odds are he will still get a hefty endorsement deal when he does decide to turn pro. Some things that he has said is he wants accomplish is to play the Walker Cup and wants to try and win the US Am. Also I figure he wants an NCAA championship (coincidentally being played next year at Riviera a place I'm sure he feels very comfortable at).

If he has a great summer next year and wins either the US Am or an NCAA championship I would definitely turn pro at that time. At that point I think a Bachelors degree is worthless. I know if I had a sales or insurance agency I would hire a former top tier PGA player regardless of whether they have a college degree.

[GolfBear]

  xxsoultonesxx said:

Originally Posted by xxsoultonesxx

He seems like he genuinely doesn't care about the cash. I like his attitude but don't fully understand it, either. I believe that the college experience is better experienced at a younger age than when you are older.

I've got a lot of respect for the kid, though. He's doing it big time. His second shot in to that par 5 yesterday was ballsy as hell, and he backed it up with the putt. It will be a real test of nerves to keep it together for the weekend. Maybe seeing rory win the us open will help show him the way.

If by the "college experience" you're referring to the non-academic part, he can still get drunk and get laid as a pro!  Granted you don't have as much time to sleep it off!

I've got almost 300 credits worth of college credits and I'm not even working in any of the field I have degrees in.   College is WAY overrated.

[dhanson]

  Harmonious said:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

If you view money as the be-all and end-all of existence, then by all means take the money.  If you view life experiences (like at a great university as UCLA) then you stay in school.  The money will always be there.  It seems that this young man has a good head on his shoulders, and will make the right choice for him.  Personally, I would stay in school.  You only get to be young once.

here's some more words of wisdom you hear people say all the time: nothing in life is guaranteed (except death and taxes). i don't think you need to moralize this decision either. it almost seems like you create a binary between the haves and have nots, aka the basketball players whose parents struggle through life until their athletically gifted son makes it to the NBA vs the country club family. damn the kid who ruins the sanctity of NCAA basketball, but praise the student athlete who stays in school.

and when you think about being young, you think about having fun. jumping through the hoops of professors who think their sh*t doesn't stink? no thanks. maybe my experiences in life on the bottom 1/2 of the socioeconomic ladder play a factor in my views.

  GolfBear said:

Originally Posted by GolfBear

If by the "college experience" you're referring to the non-academic part, he can still get drunk and get laid as a pro!  Granted you don't have as much time to sleep it off!

I've got almost 300 credits worth of college credits and I'm not even working in any of the field I have degrees in.   College is WAY overrated.

agreed. the novelty of being away from your parents and partying every night wears off after the first semester. then you start getting letters about 'academic probation' in the mail and reality sets in.