Want to try to turn pro

[DrvFrShow]

Work hard at the game, live the game, breathe the game, and above all, be very gifted at the game. Then you have a chance. Essentially win the lottery in life.

But whatever you do, be good to the people around you no matter what. As you're moving up, people will be watching. If you fall people will remember.

[flopster]

And the chances are better.....

And a lot less effort.

[dchoye]

LOL, good one. It is easy to turn pro.  You just say "I declare myself a professional golfer and renounce my amateur status."  There ya go, you're a pro. And for someone who is in 10th grade and is an 8, your grades in school probably are not the thing that will prevent a golf scholarship. My daughter had very very good grades, was way better than the equivalent of an 8 in tennis, and was female, and never had a smell of a scholarship. Go ahead and pursue your dream, but I think you need a really really strong fall back plan.  Maybe one that focuses on what you need to do, not just what you want to do.  Which might just include stepping up your game on the scholastics.

Yea. Why wait. Turn pro now You don't have school in the summer School of hard knocks is the best way to learn

[Truegolf]

Good luck with that Have to be +4 or better to be competitive enough to be touring pro.

[Pretzel]

While becoming a tour professional may be unlikely from your current situation, you may want to look into college PGM programs or the PGA apprenticeship program if you wish to pursue a career in golf. I was looking at (and went through the application process with) several different PGM schools before looking at my interests/career options and deciding that I would prefer to go into engineering with the possibility of still earning PGA membership through the apprenticeship program if I was interested.

One thing to note about that job is that a PGA professional is not only responsible for giving lessons at a course, but often is the person who manages the course's finances. They're contracted by cities to oversee and run the day-to-day operations of public courses, while privately owned courses are more likely to have someone else who handles all of the finances for the course from what I've seen.

Just something that you might want to consider as a fallback should your PGA or Web.com Tour bid fall short, but still would like a golf-related career. As an added bonus obtaining your PGA certification (through either of the mentioned routes) would give you 3-5 more years to improve your golf game (and prepare your bank account) before you try your luck on the professional circuit of your choice.

[vangator]

If the pro tour doesn't work out and there's no college and poor grades, what's your backup plan?

[mcanadiens]

I've read enough stuff about how people used to engage in big money games backed by professional gamblers. Surely some of this still exists. Maybe OP can find the right people and play for big money. Of course, he may find the wrong people and get his legs broken.

[Lihu]

I've read enough stuff about how people used to engage in big money games backed by professional gamblers. Surely some of this still exists. Maybe OP can find the right people and play for big money. Of course, he may find the wrong people and get his legs broken.

He'd need to be a +4 handicap either way. I know one person who regularly plays skins for $10-$50 per hole and he's about a +2.

[dbuck]

Hey guys I'm just wondering I want to turn pro after I'm done school I'm in my 10th grade right now so I have two more years of school after this year and I want to know what I want to do after school if I want to turn pro I don't think I will get a scholarship because my marks are not doing very wellbut what's another way of turning pro but not playing college golf thanks?

Please do not take the following as mean spirited. I sincerely do not mean it that way. I am going to tell you some things with which most of this board will agree. I am assuming you are in the US; if not the standards may be a little different.

1. You have an 8 handicap and poor grades; playing professional golf should be somewhere near the last of your goals at the present moment.

2. The MOST important thing you can do right now, is to do everything you possibly can to have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 on 4.0 scale by the time you complete your senior year, and to have completed the ACT with a score of 26-30 or the equivalent SAT. You may think this impossible because "your marks are not doing very well", but if you had enough sense to get on the internet and find this board, you can do it.  Get off your A$$.

3. Plan to go to college and apply yourself. If you complete #2, you will be able to go in the US. I am not knocking trade schools either; there is good money to be made in blue collar work, and advancement as well, but you must apply yourself. Even if you decide on a trade vs. an academic or professional vocation, a college degree and the associated experience will not hurt you.

4. Does your high school have a golf team? If so, are you on it or have you tried out? If your "marks" prevent you from participating, refer to item #2.

5. As I said at the outset, this is not meant to be mean spirited. If you have a dream of professional golf, you must compete.  I believe Nicklaus said, "Do you beat everybody at your club? When you play away, do you beat everybody there?" So keep working on your golf game, but 2 and 3 above are MORE important, and should have PRIORITY.

[Titleist Staff]

1st off finish school and keep working on you game. I played the mini tours for 7yrs and did a bunch of different qualifiers. If you can't go to your home course and shoot 67-68 all the time keep practicing, then your gonna need $$ just to go play lets say the Adams Pro Series or Hooters your probably gonna need a minimum of 50k to play for the season and probably more. The expenses are usually what gets a guy and the fact that shooting even par all the time means you  won't make a check. And then you may have to figure out how to pay back you money backer unless it's some sort of tax write off. I wouldn't even worry about turning pro now just enjoy playing HS golf work on you grades and game and if you can somehow go to Junior College or a university by all means do it cause you'll need as much tournament exp. as you can get, and see where your at with you game in 4 or 5 yrs.

[mvmac]

@golfrocks , any thoughts to what others have posted?

[scorpion12]

Hey Golfrocks,

Admirable dream to have there, play golf professionally right out of high school. It may seem like everyone here is raining on your parade. Don't take it like that. They're trying to help you with their life experience and try to get you to think about a back up plan in case turning pro doesn't work out.

One of the members here caddied for a friend of his during a Web.com tour prequalifier... he said that the scores that were seen around the cut were mid 60's... 65, 66, 64... scores like that. If you aren't able to shoot those scores with regularity, then professional golf might not be in your future.

The catch phrase of the PGA Tour is "These guys are good!" That's not a boast. The guys on the PGA tour really are that good. They're on a totally different level talent wise when it comes to the game of golf.

[Shorty]

@golfrocks, any thoughts to what others have posted?

LOL -

I was just going to say something similar.

The answers people have given him are incorrect.

The answer to his OP is:

Yes, you can do it.

It's easy.

You must be a great player already.

We are jealous.

You will be famous.

No need to worry about collage. (sic)

These guys NEVER reply.

They are rude and selfish and don't respect the time that others take to answer their questions seriously.

[dbuck]

I will add a #6:

Don't drink alcohol, don't smoke (either kind), and don't use illegal drugs or abuse legal ones. All of these things are illegal for you to do at your age, they are not good for you, and the potential for pain and severe consequences greatly exceeds the potential for pleasure. All of these things will also make  the accomplishment of 2 and 3 more difficult.

I don't necessarily agree that you should be 21 to drink, but it is the law in most states/cases, and the consequences are not worth it. When you are 21 you will be in a better position to make an informed decision about your use of alcohol.

[Pretzel]

I would agree with @dbuck that it's not too late to turn your grades around and go to college with a bit of hard work.

It's the second semester of your 10th grade year. This means that you have completed 3 semesters of coursework. You have 5 more semesters of school before you graduate, meaning what you do in the future has more weight in your GPA than what you have already done in the past. Even if you had a 2.0 GPA in the last 3 semesters with 8 classes per semester, you can still graduate with a 3.25 GPA (which is enough to get into nearly any school that isn't highly selective) if you got straight A's in 4.0 weighted classes. You can also take classes that are weighted above 4.0, such as honors classes or AP classes, to increase your grade point further.

This seems like a lot of work when what you really want to do is play pro golf, and I can promise you it does take some effort, but the reality is this:

- The amount of professional golfers that make a comfortable living on any tour is very small compared to the pool of golfers

- Due to the above, you are likely going to need a second job while you're trying to make it on tour since you won't start out making that comfortable living(assuming you can get good enough to play without throwing your money away)

- The most common route to the tour these days is through college golf first to try and get your name out there for sponsor's exemptions. Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and more all went to college first.

- If you can't make it on the tour (which nobody but maybe your backers would blame you for), you will want to have something else that you can do to make a living. In general, having a college degree (even if only in business) will earn you more money and make it easier for you to land a job. If you're in a pile of 50 applicants for a single job, you can bet that the guy sorting them is going to toss every single one of them that doesn't have a college degree. Following through and getting your degree shows that you at least are capable of committing yourself to a task and completing it, whereas all a high school diploma says in a competitive job market is that you showed up most days.

[vangator]

We scared him off.

[Abu3baid]

We scared him off.

I just don't think this is the response he expected . Although he was met with a ton of sarcasm he was given some real world advice that I personally think he would be a nut not to take seriously and apply asap.

[David in FL]

We scared him off.

Or just a pure troll to begin with......