Less work, more golf

[AmateurAmateur]

I'm a recent college grad with a major that was appealing as a multisport high-school athlete but has since proved essentially useless in the real-world post grad life. Like most of you, the goal is to work less and golf more. Curious what career paths y'all might recommend that allow me to do just that.  Been working in the golf industry part time through college and have enjoyed it- but have witnessed first hand that the saying "if you want to play more golf don't work in the industry" is quite true. 

Backup plan if all else fails is work the oilfields for a couple years and invest every spare dollar to fund a minit tour pro career that likely won't amount to much- but surely there's better options out there someone can recommend. 

[Mrgreen36]

Plumbing, or electrical 

[mshills]

10 hours ago, AmateurAmateur said:

I'm a recent college grad with a major that was appealing as a multisport high-school athlete but has since proved essentially useless in the real-world post grad life. Like most of you, the goal is to work less and golf more. Curious what career paths y'all might recommend that allow me to do just that.  Been working in the golf industry part time through college and have enjoyed it- but have witnessed first hand that the saying "if you want to play more golf don't work in the industry" is quite true. 

Backup plan if all else fails is work the oilfields for a couple years and invest every spare dollar to fund a minit tour pro career that likely won't amount to much- but surely there's better options out there someone can recommend. 

There is no secret. Work now. Play later.
 

Unless you are in a high-commitment field (consulting, public accounting, coaching, etc.), a young single person should easily be able to average 2 rounds / week even when you are starting out. 
 

I don’t think I touched my clubs much from finishing undergrad until I was about 27 or so….but I took the consulting path and it was a….difficult lifestyle. 

[bigred90gt]

On 11/26/2023 at 7:10 AM, mshills said:

There is no secret. Work now. Play later.
 

Unless you are in a high-commitment field (consulting, public accounting, coaching, etc.), a young single person should easily be able to average 2 rounds / week even when you are starting out. 
 

I don’t think I touched my clubs much from finishing undergrad until I was about 27 or so….but I took the consulting path and it was a….difficult lifestyle. 

Funny, I took the opposite path. I did consulting work for 17 years in the oil business (after a few years of working my up to that for Pennie’s). I managed to play more golf in those 17 years than most people do in a lifetime. I was, for the most part, in control of my schedule. As long as items needing coverage were covered, no one questioned me. Now, 22 years in the business, I’m a project manager, salary, and have zero time for golf. 
 

as an old hand who has worked my way through the oil business, my only advice would be find a different career path. It can be good when times are good, but over my 22 year career, there have been some major lulls where I was one of the lucky few locked into long term contracts while people I know were doing side jobs to make ends meet. The industry has been good to me over the years, but I fell in with a good group at a major oil company and got lucky, until that luck ran out.
 

Me not having a degree significantly limits my upward mobility in this business, as well as my ability to change professions/industries. I’ve literally had a major oil company that I did contract work for for 16 years tell me they wouldn’t hire me for no reason other than I didn’t have a degree.
 

 

 Also, the plan of “work a few years and invest then do xxxxx” rarely if ever works. People get in, start getting those paychecks, then the lifestyle that comes with making good money, and it’s hard to walk away from. 

[mshills]

12 minutes ago, bigred90gt said:

 Also, the plan of “work a few years and invest then do xxxxx” rarely if ever works. People get in, start getting those paychecks, then the lifestyle that comes with making good money, and it’s hard to walk away from. 

 

Fully agree.  It is rare, particularly if someone gets married, has kids, etc.  The reality is if you earn $X, it is very difficult to be disciplined enough to voluntarily live every day like you earn $X minus $Y, and that challenge is compounded by getting your household to do that too.

 

Apologies my earlier post was unclear.  "Consulting" means a lot of things.  In my case, business valuation / management consulting, and effectively 100% travel.  Golf was not part of my vocabulary at that time.  There's no way I could have done it.

[tatertot]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:31 PM, Mrgreen36 said:

Plumbing, or electrical 

Never plumbing and electrical.

[Jeff58]

21 minutes ago, tatertot said:

Never plumbing and electrical.

Oddly apropos to the OP’s question. While water and electricity are not directly related, attempting to mix them often results in dire consequences.

[MattM97]

If trying to personally fund a potential pro career out of your own pocket my suggestion is don't. This is coming from experience myself, if you want to be a pro athlete your job should be the sport not worrying about money for the sport. It sucks but it's the truth. 

 

If you're just looking to play a lot then a job like design, consulting, sales,  etc something where you can get work in before and after the round. Don't get into management. 

 

Could also find a job where you work an insane amount, bank an insane amount of time and take large chunks of time off cause you're burnt out. 

 

A lot of this is also company dependent, with my current role in my company I want to get to the point I can play in the morning a few days a week or be able to move days where I can play an amateur tournament and not have to take time off. My old role could only really play when I traveled and basically just finished early. 

[NJBigFish22]

First off, if you have the game to try and play professional golf, go after it now, you aren’t tied down to a job or family.  Second what is your degree in?  Did you go to a small school or a large school? 

[bigred90gt]

1 hour ago, mshills said:

 

Apologies my earlier post was unclear.  "Consulting" means a lot of things.  In my case, business valuation / management consulting, and effectively 100% travel.  Golf was not part of my vocabulary at that time.  There's no way I could have done it.

Perfectly clear, and completely agree it means different things. My "consulting" was doing quality engineering and inspection work. Since I did not have an office and was expected to cover manufacturing and testing activities at various locations thoughout the country, aside from busy "moments", I pretty much made my own schedule. I would go to work early, leave and play either 9 or 18, then go back if needed. Multiple times per week, and always played 36 on sundays. I was a bit of a golfing machine, lol. 

[Wooley12]

I had a buddy that worked for a title company. They paid for his club membership and insisted he play with clients 2-4 times a week.

 

For 10 years I had a sales job as a road warrior was able to play a lot of golf. It was meeting mostly women clients around the state. Quitting time was 2-3 p m during the selling seasons with summers and the month of December off. Look for something like that.  

 

Good luck

[PNW]

In all seriousness, an electrician or a plumber could afford a lot of time and money to golf once in mid-career. Especially if you aspire to grow a business, hire people, and market/sell. Hourly rates are really high even when comparing to consulting. Plus as this stage, schedules can be very flexible, take whatever jobs you want. It can be a good lifestyle and people always need electricians and plumbers. 

 

I work in data analytics sales, and similar to consulting or other professional jobs, have plenty of funds to play more frequently but not the time.