On the tour, but never a winner. Would you accept?

[Righty to Lefty]

Absolutely....The bottom line is that you would be getting paid to do what you love to do.  To do that and in the meantime never have to worry about my son's college or anything financial in itself would be worth it.  But I would want to be a no name guy because I think the "best to never have won" talk would get old.  Imagine if Tiger had never won a tourney yet he was crowned since he was three to be the next big thing and it just never came to be.  All those questions would drive a man crazy!!

[zipazoid]

Since the responses have pretty much been consistent, this brings up an interesting question -

I wonder how many guys on the tour don't 'care' about winning? I mean, I'm sure they would love to win, but I wonder how many are just thinking of it as a means to an end - make a good income, be able to retire.

The stories about Byron Nelson comes to mind. Now don't get me wrong - I am in no way calling Lord Byron anything but a great champion, but he even said his motivation wasn't winning tournaments, it was earning enough money to buy a ranch in Texas. And once he did, he retired. Of course back then the only real way to make money was to win.

So again, I wonder how many guys, with the gobs of money out there, aren't playing to win, but instead to just be financially comfortable.

[joekelly]

Money alone does not seem enough for Lee Westwood who will be uprooting his family from their  'beloved Worksop UK' home lands, moving to a new culture (the private and protected gated McMansions of Orlando), practicing in the heat and humidity of Florida despite the massive earnings, and worldwide winnings, Lee has enjoyed for years. Some, it seems, are 'obsessed'. One of the great English writers once told that 'only a fool does not write for money'.

[inthehole]

beats getting up at my usual 4:30 AM, driving an hour in rush hour traffic EVERY DAY.      Uh yeah, I'd rather play runner up pro golf, make a million bucks a year, play the best courses in the world, and never win.    I'd muttle through this lowly existance for ten years or so, and pull a Curtis Strange - would vanish from the spotlight & no one would ever see me again - I'd fish, hunt & play golf and retire in my 30's... tough career choice.

[Kieran123]

Yes, probably. But it would drive me so far into depression knowing that I will never win, I would probably quit.

[Spyder]

Call me a loser because I would sign up today! My dreams are that my son (who is only 6 months old right now) will love the game of golf from an early age and hopefully become a professional one day. Obviously, I'm aware of the odds of that happening and I'm a realist - but those are just "dad dreams" of the NFL, or PGA.

Anyway - pay me millions a year to travel the country/world and play the game that I currently love the most? The answer is yes, I would take that deal yesterday.

[TourSpoon]

I think another good question would be at what level would you accept if you knew before hand? Would you be content playing the Nationwide and making top 60 so that you could return year after year? That puts you @ $75,000 in winnings before expenses. It's probably not a bad deal right out of school for a few years, but it would be a total grind after a while. Maybe you could get into a nice club as a teaching pro with "Tour Credentials, but it's the question of how bad do you want it? Trading spots with a Briny is not a question (sign me up), but settling for Nationwide mediocrity would be tough to justify. I would pass on that unless I was really young and looking for it to open doors in a golf related side industry where I could then find some stability, raise a family, and be able to pay for it, but I would not do it for a "career".

[wolfsburg2]

where do I sign?

[wolfsburg2]

I looked:

10. Alex Ceyka - $7,696,123. Runner-up twice, with 53 top 25 finishes in 255 PGA events. Ceyka has missed the cut 110 times (43% cut rate).

9. Charlie Wi - $7,747,221. In 163 PGA events played, Wi finished second for the fifth time at the AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week and moved up from #10 on this list the week before.

8. Jason Dufner - $7,870,705. Dufner, ranked #35 in the official world golf rankings, lost a three-hole playoff to Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship. Winning that Major championship could have changed his life forever.

7. Skip Kendall - $8,011,651. Kendall first appeared on Tour at the 1987 Greater Milwaukee Open, with four second place finishes in more than 400 events. He has not made an appearance in 2012.

6. Brandt Jobe - $8,334,010. Jobe also has finished second four times, most recently in the 2011 Memorial Tournament, and has played in nearly 300 PGA Tour events.

5. Jeff Overton - $8,442,943. Overton's most recent runner-up finish was at the 2011 CIMB Asia Pacific Classic. He is currently ranked #86 in the official world golf rankings.

4. Steve Marino - $8,988,869. In 2011 Marino finished second twice, at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He has played in 144 PGA Tour events.

3. Brian Davis - $9,269,395. With just a little luck going his way, Davis could have become a PGA Tour Winner in 2010, when he finished second four times.

2. Brett Quigley - $11,048,433. Quigley has five PGA Tour runner-up finishes in more than 400 tournaments played. His first paycheck, at the 1991 New England Classic, was for $1,990.

1. Briny Baird - $12,480,752. Baird has been playing a full schedule on the PGA Tour since 2001, finishing second five times. He is #88 on the all-time PGA Tour Money List for all players, without a single victory.

Obviously Dufner is off the snide now.

[RonTheSavage]

Originally Posted by Clambake

This is a golf forum with a bunch of people who are sufficiently obsessed to sit around at their computers and talk about golf stuff.      Let's see, instead we can quit our annoying day jobs, play golf all week long, make a really good living, get all the free equipment and clothing we want, have some other cool sponsor perks, play great courses in top condition, and get coddled at every tournament we play.        What person here in their right mind would say no????

Perfect Response Here!

[vo-man]

lets see ... give up my day job and play golf almost every day, quite often taking home a nice paycheck even though not coming in 1st place,

and getting to play some of the best, most famous courses with sponsorships providing my equipment, supplies and clothing....?

hmmm...give me a second to think it over.

ok...I'm in...do I get two more wishes?

[k-troop]

Charlie Sheen is "winning", look where that got him.

[newtogolf]

You guys are all approaching it from a comparison to what you do now and I agree, it sounds like a sweet deal.

I approached it more from the Devil and the crossroads perspective.   You become a PGA Tour pro knowing that no matter how hard you work or how well you play, you can never win.  I think about the torment Luke Donald must go through when he fails to win a Major and how much was written about Rickie not winning.  There's no guarantee you finish 2nd and make millions, the only guarantee is you will never know the joy or satisfaction of winning once.

On the surface it seems like a great life, but if we interviewed some pro's who struggle every day to keep their pro card they might tell a different story.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by wolfsburg2

I looked:

10. Alex Ceyka - $7,696,123.

9. Charlie Wi - $7,747,221.

7. Skip Kendall - $8,011,651.

6. Brandt Jobe - $8,334,010.

5. Jeff Overton - $8,442,943.

4. Steve Marino - $8,988,869.

3. Brian Davis - $9,269,395.

2. Brett Quigley - $11,048,433.

1. Briny Baird - $12,480,752.

Exactly - the OP specified the player would still be very successful and make millions. He didn't ask if we'd want to be a guy on the fringe bouncing between the Canadian and Nationwide tours.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

You guys are all approaching it from a comparison to what you do now and I agree, it sounds like a sweet deal.

I approached it more from the Devil and the crossroads perspective.   You become a PGA Tour pro knowing that no matter how hard you work or how well you play, you can never win.  I think about the torment Luke Donald must go through when he fails to win a Major and how much was written about Rickie not winning.  There's no guarantee you finish 2nd and make millions, the only guarantee is you will never know the joy or satisfaction of winning once.

On the surface it seems like a great life, but if we interviewed some pro's who struggle every day to keep their pro card they might tell a different story.

Well, I only know one guy who "struggles every day to keep his [PGA Tour] card" and he has no thoughts of quitting.  He wants to be on tour, where a bad year is still over $500k, and he can "suck it up" playing golf and being away from his family for 20 years, finish at least 5 or 6 full seasons on Tour, then retire very, very comfortably.

I know guys who spend 10 years out of a 25-year military career away from their families in combat zones and never come close to $100k a year.  Makes spending 25 weeks a year on the road playing golf, beating balls, and eating roomservice seem pretty desirable.

[newtogolf]

Does he accept that he'll never win a pro tournament because that's the crux of the question.  Is he grinding in the hopes that some day it all comes together and he wins or is he just content to grind and is content to not win

Originally Posted by k-troop

Well, I only know one guy who "struggles every day to keep his [PGA Tour] card" and he has no thoughts of quitting.  He wants to be on tour, where a bad year is still over $500k, and he can "suck it up" playing golf and being away from his family for 20 years, finish at least 5 or 6 full seasons on Tour, then retire very, very comfortably.

I know guys who spend 10 years out of a 25-year military career away from their families in combat zones and never come close to $100k a year.  Makes spending 25 weeks a year on the road playing golf, beating balls, and eating roomservice seem pretty desirable.

[zipazoid]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

You guys are all approaching it from a comparison to what you do now and I agree, it sounds like a sweet deal.

I approached it more from the Devil and the crossroads perspective.   You become a PGA Tour pro knowing that no matter how hard you work or how well you play, you can never win.  I think about the torment Luke Donald must go through when he fails to win a Major and how much was written about Rickie not winning.  There's no guarantee you finish 2nd and make millions, the only guarantee is you will never know the joy or satisfaction of winning once.

On the surface it seems like a great life, but if we interviewed some pro's who struggle every day to keep their pro card they might tell a different story.

Understood. I guess if you were to ask Tiger the question he would say hell no.

Man, I just looked at that money list - Briny Baird has made twelve million dollars without ever winning. Wow.

[newtogolf]

I saw that but OP also said you wouldn't get any respect and could be confused as being the locker room attendent, which I doubt those on the list do.

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Exactly - the OP specified the player would still be very successful and make millions. He didn't ask if we'd want to be a guy on the fringe bouncing between the Canadian and Nationwide tours.