Tiger Woods injured

Guys who miss cuts make the same as always. If you’re a bottom feeder you lose your card and go back to the grunt tours. Even on those, you can make a decent chunk of change, though. And if not, there’s always being a teaching pro. You can easily make six figures doing that, which is more than the vast amount of Americans make to provide for their families.

 

Baird finished fourth in The Players once! That was in 2008, when he won more the $2 million for the second (and last) time in his career. No wins, five runner-ups, including one in a playoff.

He also tied a PGA Tour record with eight consecutive holes of birdie or eagle -- eagled a hole then followed with seven consecutive birdies.

 

What exactly is your argument/point here?

Guys on the Tour understand Tiger made them a whole lot of money and they appreciate that. Is this even in question?

 

‘parently

 

Well, let's review ...

Swingline said

In the same post he also said

You, da man (not YOU DA' MAN!), said in the very next post

So in essence, you also said that "guys went from playing to support their families to building generational wealth because of Woods."

After which, I said

And they weren't.

But then, apparently, Swingline, da man, and also, it seems, Poindexter, had trouble with the idea that guys making more than a million per year for a decade or so before Tiger came on the scene somehow was not equal to Joe Dad pulling down $60,000 at his ad firm. Fact is, these guys were making huge bank before Tiger ever stuck a tee in the ground on tour.

And Tiger is responsible for the explosion of golfer income, no doubt. But the numbers suggest not as much as it seems. Golf purses increased 350 percent in the 80s, which Tiger started in kindergarten and ended around his sophomore year of high school. Pretty sure he wasn't driving up purses yet.

Tiger's first 10 years on tour saw an increase of 320 percent, so a smaller gain than in the 80s. In the 2000s, the height of Tiger's powers, purses elevated by about 170 percent. Since then, about 125 percent. So the biggest gains came during the last days of Jack Nicklaus and the prime of Greg Norman.

But back to feeding those poor PGA Tour player families in 1995 for a sec. There were 160 players who won $100,000 that year ($171,000 in today's dollars), if you include Gary Hallberg's near-starvation-inducing $99,332. That's way beyond the number who keep their tour cards. You had to go down to No. 221 Brian Watts and his $33,725 to finally get to someone at the median household income threshold at the time. And a dude only making $33k back then probably was looking for a new gig if he didn't turn it around quick.

In 1996 (couldn't find '95), the top 65 players on the freaking Nike tour won more than $30,000. In other words, an average minor league golfer made the national median household income.

Point is, the top 100 guys were making Park Ave. cash in '95, and another 100 or so after that were making at least the equivalent of six figures in 2021 dollars. If those guys were "supporting their families," their families lived fucking great lives.

And all before Tiger.

 

All true, Junkie.

The all-exempt Tour was already in place. Purses were already spiking. More golfers weren't merely struggling to stay out on the road.

The hidden - i.e., not discussed - nugget? Sponsorships.

Notice how many players now wear caps with logo(s) on them. Notice how many top players with multiple different logos on them - especially the top players not armed with a six- or seven-figure contract with a golf apparel maker.

Many of those deals allow some golfers who had won tournaments to bank some money and maintain an exempt status through the struggles of swing changes and such. Look at Jordan Spieth. His deal with Under Armour was paying him millions even if he slammed his trunk a lot more on Fridays between his consecutive major victories in 2015 and his improved play of recent weeks.

Those cap, polo and apparel deals put a lot of money in their pockets before they ever tee off in the pro-am on Wednesday or the tournament itself on Thursday. And these days, a lot more than just Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are backed with lucrative deals. A bunch of them are just fine before they cash their tournament winnings.

 

Sam, good points. And the apparel (and other) sponsorships run pretty deep. A girl I know who actually won the money list on the Symmetra Tour (she made $68,000 or so in the early 2010s) and then flamed on the LPGA Tour, had everything covered by Adams Golf at first, then Calloway. I think in her one year on the LPGA tour she might have won $10,000, yet still had a six figure income. The apparel and equipment companies (Puresilk being one, along with some software company) couldn't write checks fast enough. So if an LPGA hanger-onner was getting sponsor cash, imagine what a decent PGA Tour player would get.

 

Making 100 to 200 grand a year is a good income, when you don’t have to pay for your travel, coaches and everything else that goes with being an independent contractor.

 

No doubt. But do you believe they pay for any of that out of pocket? I don't. At least not much of it. At the Tour stop in my town, they're all given free lodging and cars for the week, plus dining expenses. They just need to get here. Gonna guess Calloway, Ping, Taylor Made etc., are more than happy to buy some plane tickets for the fellas. Do they really pay for coaches? I thought they got about a 3% cut of winnings. I mean, if you're a card chaser, you ain't getting Harmon or Ledbetter anyway.

And yeah, the guys down in that lower range aren't making a mint. But they have a chance, and one good week can set up a guy for a few years. They also have some very good options available if it doesn't work out. Most of us can't say that.

 

Yes, the guys hanging on at that time used to pay for most of it.

 

He's the man.
And after that whole debacle at Hilton Head, I thought for sure that he was going to win the next time out after he called the penalty on himself.
Sadly, no.