Look at this money list

[playit]

Here is top 250. Average earnings is $1.5 million. I don't know why it doesn't show Fedex Cup earnings, maybe that is not 'official' money?

 

Just keep scrolling down that list and it makes you realize how much of a struggle it is to stay anywhere on the leaderboard. Names who could flat out play and are barely making it. It's quite revealing! I kept saying to myself, "Oh yeah, THAT guy, wow, he is really struggling!" Tough sport. But, at least, these days, if you can do well for even a few years, you should be set for life if you take care of your money. As opposed to taking up the game of pool or lacrosse or some such game when you were young instead of golf... at least there is money to be had with golf.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.109.html

Edited September 8, 2021 by playit

[iBanesto]

$1 million after tax, costs and expenses should be enough to live but you won't keep your card though.

 

It is better to look at the median rather than the mean.

Edited September 8, 2021 by iBanesto

[MtlJeff]

Seamus Power is officially my new favorite name. If you had me guess whether this was a PGA player or WWE wrestler, i would've said the latter

 

How much money is 1.5M on tour? I mean someone in the 100 range for earnings who isn't a known guy like Adam Scott or Rickie Fowler.... how much travel are sponsors paying for? Any at all? After caddy and travel and agents etc...How much are these guys making?

 

Still doing really well right? I mean 5% to caddy and 30 flights a year + hotels....gotta still be well over 1M. I mean you're doing well

[MattyO1984]

There are obviously a lot of names on there that a little long in the tooth now or maybe weren’t truly elite but the one that I find most starting is Hunter Mahan - 222 in the list with £58,600 in earnings from 26 events!! No one is lower and played more. Golf is a crazy game!

[playit]

Just now, MattyO1984 said:

There are obviously a lot of names on there that a little long in the tooth now or maybe weren’t truly elite but the one that I find most starting is Hunter Mahan - 222 in the list with £58,600 in earnings from 26 events!! No one is lower and played more. Golf is a crazy game!

 

Yes, his name was one that jumped at me. There are a lot of such names on there. As I said, tough sport! And these guys can probably beat most any mini tour player. And any mini player can very likely beat any amateur! It's crazy to think of how precise pro players are, how do they do that! There are exceptions who don't pure it shot after shot but most of them do and it's hard to envision having a swing that is so grooved. And then there is the phenomenal length. And then there is putting. These guys are good.

[smashdn]

Isn't there a pension as well for these guys?  If not a pension some flavor of retirement as I have read it discussed/mentioned here before.

 

I have never heard of Taylor Gooch at 50 on the list.

Edited September 8, 2021 by smashdn

[MattyO1984]

14 minutes ago, smashdn said:

Isn't there a pension as well for these guys?  If not a pension some flavor of retirement as I have read it discussed/mentioned here before.

 

I have never heard of Taylor Gooch at 50 on the list.

 

Mr Gooch right now:-

 

[DON SVO]

Every year there's some surprisingly good names grouped in with the bunch outside the 125 mark and some eyebrow raisers in the bottom 1/4. One of my "favorites" is Billy Hurley in 2018: dude won a great event in 2016 and was the toast of the town, did decent and barely missed FedEx playoffs in 2017, and in 2018 played 27 events for a grand total of $145,000 in earnings. Golf is a fickle game.

 

 

[BigManSlim]

19 minutes ago, DON SVO said:

Every year there's some surprisingly good names grouped in with the bunch outside the 125 mark and some eyebrow raisers in the bottom 1/4. One of my "favorites" is Billy Hurley in 2018: dude won a great event in 2016 and was the toast of the town, did decent and barely missed FedEx playoffs in 2017, and in 2018 played 27 events for a grand total of $145,000 in earnings. Golf is a fickle game.

 

 

Good putting/short game only gets you so far over the long haul. Dude is is like 5 back just driving it on Thursday morning. Good luck with that Billy

[Ferguson]

Beau Hossler at 149

 

Will Zalatoris ???

[markheardjr]

1 hour ago, smashdn said:

Isn't there a pension as well for these guys?  If not a pension some flavor of retirement as I have read it discussed/mentioned here before.

 

I have never heard of Taylor Gooch at 50 on the list.

If you are a card holder on a major tour you get Class A-3 PGA Professional status. I assume you can furlough that into a Club Pro job somehow if you fail a wealth management big time... Guys like Omar Uresti take that route I guess.

[Soloman1]

The PGA Tour pension is funded by advertising revenue, investments, corporate partners, TPC profits, digital revenue and TV money.

The amount for each player is determined by the number of cuts made. The tour pays x for each of 15 cuts made in a year and 2x for each cut after that.

There are over 600 players with $1 million or more in their PGA Tour retirement account.

The maximum allowed by law that can be paid out from a retirement account is 4% the first year of the total.

 

Oh, and the biggest retirement plan is called The Champions Tour...

Edited September 8, 2021 by Soloman1

[Creedo77]

2 hours ago, smashdn said:

Isn't there a pension as well for these guys?  If not a pension some flavor of retirement as I have read it discussed/mentioned here before.

 

I have never heard of Taylor Gooch at 50 on the list.

Yep there is a pension 

[khalespace]

Hat, clubs, balls, apparel fees can be a lot too. 

[Superfast2.0]

Crazy to see that Mahan has fallen so far in recent years with 6 tour wins, although those were 8-10 years ago. Golf is a tough game.

[golfandfishing]

38 minutes ago, Superfast2.0 said:

Crazy to see that Mahan has fallen so far in recent years with 6 tour wins, although those were 8-10 years ago. Golf is a tough game.

In any given year there are about 200 players with some sort of tour membership - top 125, 25 KFT money, 25 KFT Finals, 126-250 FedEx points are conditional exempt plus a few stragglers with multi year exemptions, major medical, etc.  Every year new players come on tour, and every year a guy (who was once one of those new guys) is on his way out to make room. For every Collin Morikawa that we had never heard of 5 or 6 years ago is a Hunter Mahan at home looking for new fishing gear. 

[tiderider]

6 hours ago, khalespace said:

Hat, clubs, balls, apparel fees can be a lot too. 

[khalespace]

4 hours ago, golfandfishing said:

In any given year there are about 200 players with some sort of tour membership - top 125, 25 KFT money, 25 KFT Finals, 126-250 FedEx points are conditional exempt plus a few stragglers with multi year exemptions, major medical, etc.  Every year new players come on tour, and every year a guy (who was once one of those new guys) is on his way out to make room. For every Collin Morikawa that we had never heard of 5 or 6 years ago is a Hunter Mahan at home looking for new fishing gear. 

The way Collin Morikawa played in the last 3 weeks, we may talk about "What is wrong with Collin Morikawa" next year.

[grm24]

8 hours ago, Ferguson said:

Will Zalatoris ???

He won $3.48 million on the PGA Tour in 2021. He wouldn't be on the list linked above as he was not an official tour member until after the Tour Championship.

 

He is on this list of money winners.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.02677.html

[BNGL]

10 hours ago, smashdn said:

Isn't there a pension as well for these guys?  If not a pension some flavor of retirement as I have read it discussed/mentioned here before.

 

I have never heard of Taylor Gooch at 50 on the list.

Yeah it’s probably one of the better pension out there in the world, especially after FedEx got involved. But it’s not necessarily equal for everyone, if you’re good you’ve got a bigger pension. There’s the FedEx money plus cuts made bonuses etc. at least that how it was structured it might have changed. PGA Tour employees have awesome benefits as well. 

[pga43]

10 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

Seamus Power is officially my new favorite name. If you had me guess whether this was a PGA player or WWE wrestler, i would've said the latter

 

How much money is 1.5M on tour? I mean someone in the 100 range for earnings who isn't a known guy like Adam Scott or Rickie Fowler.... how much travel are sponsors paying for? Any at all? After caddy and travel and agents etc...How much are these guys making?

 

Still doing really well right? I mean 5% to caddy and 30 flights a year + hotels....gotta still be well over 1M. I mean you're doing well

My favorite Pro's name is Bronson Bergoon.  Sounds like a hockey enforcer and I've told him that a number of times

 

Greg

[golfortennis]

8 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

The PGA Tour pension is funded by advertising revenue, investments, corporate partners, TPC profits, digital revenue and TV money.

The amount for each player is determined by the number of cuts made. The tour pays x for each of 15 cuts made in a year and 2x for each cut after that.

There are over 600 players with $1 million or more in their PGA Tour retirement account.

The maximum allowed by law that can be paid out from a retirement account is 4% the first year of the total.

 

Oh, and the biggest retirement plan is called The Champions Tour...

 

Isn't there something about the pension though, that since they are 501(c)3(?), were they to get into some kind of trouble, the pension plan would *not* be protected from any type of claim?  

 

Thought I read something about how it is considered part of the tour's "assets" when all things are considered, and if say a manufacturer or someone were to sue and win, that could be at risk.

 

Although my wife would say I am out to lunch(generally, not just on this), so, maybe I am wrong.

 

[MtlJeff]

27 minutes ago, pga43 said:

My favorite Pro's name is Bronson Bergoon.  Sounds like a hockey enforcer and I've told him that a number of times

 

Greg

 

LOL that's so funny because i saw his name (i had seen his before though) and thought exactly the same thing

 

he sounds like he should have been the bad guy in one of the "goon" hockey movies LOL

[Ferguson]

1 hour ago, grm24 said:

He won $3.48 million on the PGA Tour in 2021. He wouldn't be on the list linked above as he was not an official tour member until after the Tour Championship.

 

He is on this list of money winners.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.02677.html

 

 

Oh, please.  He will never win on tour.   The same guy that didn't realize he had a deformed putter.  

 

 

[grm24]

1 hour ago, Ferguson said:

Oh, please.  He will never win on tour. The same guy that didn't realize he had a deformed putter.  

He doesn't have to win now to become a PGA Tour member. He accomplished that for 2021/2022 by earning enough non-member points this past season.

[Ferguson]

Yes, I know.   I am making blanket statement that I believe he will never win on tour.  

 

No grit. 

[MattyO1984]

51 minutes ago, Ferguson said:

Yes, I know.   I am making blanket statement that I believe he will never win on tour.  

 

No grit. 

 

Wow, that is quite she sweeping statement Ferg! If you were to say that he had ridden a (very) hot hand to get himself in the position that he has, I would have completely agreed but in a world where Adam Hadwin has won on Tour, I think Willy Z is more likely than not to win.

[Ferguson]

19 minutes ago, MattyO1984 said:

 

Wow, that is quite she sweeping statement Ferg! If you were to say that he had ridden a (very) hot hand to get himself in the position that he has, I would have completely agreed but in a world where Adam Hadwin has won on Tour, I think Willy Z is more likely than not to win.

 

How many times have we've seen this sort of "flash in the pan" player in the last 5-7 years, driven by nothing more than social media hoopla after a few good rounds on television?   Too many to count. 

 

 

 

[MattyO1984]

3 minutes ago, Ferguson said:

 

How many times have we've seen this sort of "flash in the pan" player in the last 5-7 years, driven by nothing more than social media hoopla after a few good rounds on television?   Too many to count. 

 

But even the King of these guys managed to win a few…Rickie 😉

[Ferguson]

2 minutes ago, MattyO1984 said:

 

But even the King of these guys managed to win a few…Rickie 😉

 

But he never lived up to the expectations created by the public at large.  

 

Now they say things like: 

 

"He's a good guy."

"I'm pulling for Rickie."

"If you're under pressure and have a 6-footer, Rickie is the guy you want putting."

"We wonder how many times he could have won." 

"He said he feels good this week."