Steph Curry Played on His High School Golf Team

[DaveP043]

It seems to me that I've read that your average PGA Tour pro has a handicap index around +3 to +5.  Consider how difficult it is to go from a 15 handicap to a 10, from 10 to 5, each increment is more and more difficult.  Even for an incredible athlete, the step from scratch to professional golfer competitive is one they're unlikely to be able to do.  A rare exception was John Brody, one-time quarterback for the 49ers who played on the Senior tour in the late 80s and 90's, and even managed to win a tournament.

[Wally Fairway]

2 hours ago, freshmanUTA said:

Yeah, I'm more thinking along the lines of "I'm a retired multimillionaire why not waste this money qualifying for something I know I won't make." More of a hobby at that point.

I think the other point that is missing is the dedication to the game that it takes to play at the Tour level. Not many retired superstars want to trade the difficult daily routine required to play another professional sport; it is one thing to go out and play some with your buddies, it is quite another to spend 4-6-10 hours a day working on your game, hitting buckets of range balls, tons of chipping/pitching and putting.
I think most would rather play their 4 or 5 rounds a week, if that, and be good with it.

[SavvySwede]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

It seems to me that I've read that your average PGA Tour pro has a handicap index around +3 to +5.  Consider how difficult it is to go from a 15 handicap to a 10, from 10 to 5, each increment is more and more difficult.  Even for an incredible athlete, the step from scratch to professional golfer competitive is one they're unlikely to be able to do.  A rare exception was John Brody, one-time quarterback for the 49ers who played on the Senior tour in the late 80s and 90's, and even managed to win a tournament.

I think +5 is closer to the bottom of the PGA Tour. +3 means you're stuck on mini tours.

[iacas]

+4 to +7 or so on the PGA Tour. The slope starts to work against them on the "other side" of scratch (it makes the number closer to 0).

[flopster]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 11:27 AM, pganapathy said:

Most professional athletes who make good money do not take up another sport for the money.  They do it because they are too competitive to just laze back and do nothing.  Look at MJ, who took up baseball when he first retired post the three-peat and death of his father.  Perhaps if he retires from basketball at 40 he might be a bit less competitive but if it is mid 30's at most, the juices would still be flowing.

Anyway, didn't realise that there was such a huge gap in the level of play between club professionals and the pro's playing on the tours

Steph Curry's NBA career will no doubt go into his late 30's like Tony Parker, I don't see him after 18 years playing NBA basketball wanting to put in the time and hard work to pursue a different sport, And MJ soon realized he was not going anywhere with his baseball experiment and resumed dominating basketball like he should have done during those 2 years.

[flopster]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 1:03 PM, DaveP043 said:

It seems to me that I've read that your average PGA Tour pro has a handicap index around +3 to +5.  Consider how difficult it is to go from a 15 handicap to a 10, from 10 to 5, each increment is more and more difficult.  Even for an incredible athlete, the step from scratch to professional golfer competitive is one they're unlikely to be able to do.  A rare exception was John Brody, one-time quarterback for the 49ers who played on the Senior tour in the late 80s and 90's, and even managed to win a tournament.

I don't think Brodie was as much an exception as the level of competition was not where it is today, not trying to diminish what John Brodie did but it simply was what it was back then, I would even bet an athlete of Curry's level would be able to make it on what was then the Ben Hogan tour back in the late 80's.

[DaveP043]

2 hours ago, flopster said:

I don't think Brodie was as much an exception as the level of competition was not where it is today, not trying to diminish what John Brodie did but it simply was what it was back then, I would even bet an athlete of Curry's level would be able to make it on what was then the Ben Hogan tour back in the late 80's.

 Brodie played and won on the Senior Tour after he finished his career in the NFL.  Other winners that year included Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, and Chi Chi Rodriguez.  I'd call him an exception. 

The Hogan Tour back then is what has become the web.com tour, which serves as the qualifying process for the PGA tour.  I think its a stretch to say that Curry would be in the hunt to get his PGA tour card.  I've seen scratch players a lot, and the difference from there to being able to make a living on the lowest pro tour is incredible.