Tuesday this wee was a good day, a very good day.
Thanks to my son-in-law I got to play in the PGA Euro Pro Tour Pro Am at the stunning Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth. Brilliant course by the way.
The weather was brilliant, our young pro, James Watts was a fantastic guy, just an all round great day, despite my driver!
Really was a great day, but it did get me thinking about life on the road for young pro’s.
Ignore the private jets, the Bentley’s etc of the top pro’s and look at the entry level.
The purse for a PGA Euro Pro Tour is £39,185 , the top 50 make the cut, 1st prize is £10,000 and 50th is £200.
So I did a little mathematical exercise.
I imagined I was a pro, huge stretch of the imagination I know, and entered the event in Oxford.
The drive from Cruden Bay to the Oxfordshire is a 10 hour drive, 532 miles, so lets say £160 for diesel, a hotel for 4 nights £300, say £40 a day for food, so that’s £620 just for the basics.
So you need to finish at least 11th to just break even, out of a field of 152!
The sub tours, if I can call them that, are vital for both men’s and woman’s golf.
Its from these tours the next generation of front line pros will come from.
Major winners Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, World Cup winner Marc Warren and Ryder Cup winners Nicolas Colsaerts and Ross Fisher have all played on the PGA Euro Pro Tour.
So it does help prepare players to the next level.
But can you imagine living under that financial pressure and not letting it affect your play?
Tours like the LET access series and the PGA Euro Pro Tour need more events and more sponsors to help these youngster progress to the next level.
Why don’t Nike, TaylorMade or other major players in the golf industry sponsor an event at this level?
Not everyone will make it to “The Big Show” but if you have the talent then you should have, at least, the opportunity to try?
Perhaps the main tours should start to put money aside from the big tournaments and feed it back to the lower tours?
I don’t know the answers, I just wish I did.
But if you are involved in a golf club or involved in corporate days or work for a company looking to get involved in golf then PLEASE look at the LET Access Series and the PGA Euro Pro tour and get involved.
Lets give these girls and guys the opportunity to step up to the next level.
Thanks to my son-in-law I got to play in the PGA Euro Pro Tour Pro Am at the stunning Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth. Brilliant course by the way.
The weather was brilliant, our young pro, James Watts was a fantastic guy, just an all round great day, despite my driver!
Really was a great day, but it did get me thinking about life on the road for young pro’s.
Ignore the private jets, the Bentley’s etc of the top pro’s and look at the entry level.
The purse for a PGA Euro Pro Tour is £39,185 , the top 50 make the cut, 1st prize is £10,000 and 50th is £200.
So I did a little mathematical exercise.
I imagined I was a pro, huge stretch of the imagination I know, and entered the event in Oxford.
The drive from Cruden Bay to the Oxfordshire is a 10 hour drive, 532 miles, so lets say £160 for diesel, a hotel for 4 nights £300, say £40 a day for food, so that’s £620 just for the basics.
So you need to finish at least 11th to just break even, out of a field of 152!
The sub tours, if I can call them that, are vital for both men’s and woman’s golf.
Its from these tours the next generation of front line pros will come from.
Major winners Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, World Cup winner Marc Warren and Ryder Cup winners Nicolas Colsaerts and Ross Fisher have all played on the PGA Euro Pro Tour.
So it does help prepare players to the next level.
But can you imagine living under that financial pressure and not letting it affect your play?
Tours like the LET access series and the PGA Euro Pro Tour need more events and more sponsors to help these youngster progress to the next level.
Why don’t Nike, TaylorMade or other major players in the golf industry sponsor an event at this level?
Not everyone will make it to “The Big Show” but if you have the talent then you should have, at least, the opportunity to try?
Perhaps the main tours should start to put money aside from the big tournaments and feed it back to the lower tours?
I don’t know the answers, I just wish I did.
But if you are involved in a golf club or involved in corporate days or work for a company looking to get involved in golf then PLEASE look at the LET Access Series and the PGA Euro Pro tour and get involved.
Lets give these girls and guys the opportunity to step up to the next level.
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