Being a golf pro is a title thrown around rather loosely these days, realistically you could decide to enter a tournament as a pro any time, even if you had no playing experience, and a lot of good amateurs could even beat a pro. You don’t even need to know the 5 pillars of better golf to be a pro.
However, there is a massive difference between types of pros.
This is what we will talk about today, highlighting how you can be a pro golfer, while also defining the types of pro golfers.
The Types Of Golf Pros
There are 5 main types of golfing professionals. Let’s take a quick look at these, as they all differ.
- Teaching Pros.
- Head Pros.
- Mini Tour Pros.
- PGA Tour Professionals.
- Non-PGA Tour Professionals.
We won’t go over every single one of these today, instead, we will focus on PGA Tour Professionals. But, let’s look into what ‘professional golfer’ really means for a moment.
Professional Golfers
Mini-tour golfers are just as pro as everyone else, but the step up from this would be the golfers who compete on the tours just below PGA, they are more advanced than mini tour events, and the payouts are more significant.
These tours could include the PGA Tour China, Korn Ferry Tour, Mackenzie Tour, Latin American Tour, and so on,
PGA Tour Golfers
Of course, you are likely most interested in the pro golfers who compete on the biggest world stage of golf, the PGA Tour.
This is where you find the best players in the world playing. It is the golf coverage that a majority of fans watch during the weekend and contains the most elite players on the golfing field worldwide.
There are thousands of high-quality players in the world, but only 125 have the privilege of playing full-time on the PGA Tour. Although there are only 125 who do have this privilege, there are still many that compete based on exemptions.
Of course, it is often the top 60 players who will qualify for the major golfing tournaments.
Consider how a player could lose their PGA Touring card for one year, but they may still retain part-time privileges based on their previous exemptions. A player could also gain an exemption from a sponsor to be able to compete in particular events as well.
Becoming A PGA Tour Player
You are probably looking into what you need to be a PGA Tour player, it is the ultimate goal for so many players. This means that to get to this point you can expect to grind for years, or even decades to be able to make it onto the world’s biggest golfing stage.
It is not easy, though.
You see, much like being an elite sports player in any type of sport, there are only so many available spots. Meaning that you need to be so good that you can gain one of these.
Here are some tips on how you can get to this point step-by-step.
Up Your Game
You need to be good. Golf is a competitive sport, and people start this game very young, so you need to find a coach, work hard on every aspect of your game, do not burn out, and avoid any injuries.
Compete
After a while, you should start to participate in formal tournaments as an amateur. Every state will have its amateur tournaments, with each differing slightly, check costs, days, cuts, and so on. You could also participate in USGA events as well, such as the US Amateur.
These will bring together the best players in the world to compete nationally, this could be a good idea as you will also get to see what your competition is like for your end goal.
Go From Amateur To Pro
Now, if you have had a good and successful amateur career then you will want to look at turning pro. This is where most get confused, as there is no drafting, you simply turn to pro events instead of amateur events.
You just find a pro event and register.
Q-School
As you build your resume you should go to Q-school. This will earn you a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour. It is quite tough, lasting 4 months, but it is worth it to meet your end goal.
Overall
Being a professional golfer is not easy. It is not an easy path to take, but if it is a goal you have, then getting there is possible if you put your heart into it.
