THE LEAP FROM ‘AMATEUR’ TO ‘PROFESSIONAL’. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU SHOULD DO IT? WHEN SHOULD YOU DO IT? HOW LONG SHOULD YOU DO IT FOR?
In my opinion, there’s always going to be a lot up in the air when it comes to pursuing a career in professional sports. However, there are several factors that can help you decide if you should or should not take that leap.
One, do you want to turn professional, and why? Personally for me, I don’t really know when I decided I wanted to pursue golf. I know that it’s something that I’ve loved and enjoyed doing ever since I began competing and the desire to take that next step sort of came naturally to me, which ended up being after graduating from college.
However, not everybody follows the same path. Some pursue a career as a golfer because they see it as a window for them to give their families a better future, some just do it because they are talented and “good enough”, and others do it because they love the game. There’s no right or wrong. But the ‘why’ behind turning pro can and most likely will change the course of the journey that you’re about to take.
To me, there are several important personality traits that you should have if you want to pursue this career. First, perseverance. The journey of a pro golfer is like a roller coaster. When even the best in the world like Tiger Woods, who is clearly an extremely talented athlete can experience the fall that he did, what about the rest of us? There will always be highs and lows but if you do not persevere, sometimes you might not make it out of the ‘low’ to experience the ‘high’.
Next – and I think this is the most important factor – is the willingness to put in the hard work. There is no substitute for it; you can’t achieve success without the blood, sweat and tears. As clichéd as that may sound, it’s true – and nobody will deny it. Again, referencing Woods, someone who grew up exposed to golf from such a young age and with immense talent, even he wouldn’t have been able to achieve all that success without hard work … and golf requires lots and lots of it. Without consistent hard work and dogged perseverance, it would be so easy to just throw in the towel.
But golf is not only about attitude and personality, golf is also about cold hard facts. It’s very easy to look up statistics and information about current tour players. A couple of important ones could include average scoring and average driving distance. Keeping statistics is an important tool for every competitive golfer, especially ones who are contemplating the professional circuit. Knowing your average scoring ability compared to the scoring of those already competing on the platform that you want to compete on is important. Of course, there are various factors such as course conditions and golf course layouts which could affect this but simply put, if you’re not a golfer who can shoot under par, it will be unrealistic for you to try to compete on a tour where the last person keeping their tour card is shooting under par consistently.
Information on Trackman can also assist players in knowing their potential. The Trackman tour average shows that the average LPGA Tour player has a driver club speed of 94mph and would thus carry their drives around 218 yards. Depending on your age and how close your goal of turning professional is, this can either be an eye-opener or something that can motivate you to work harder.
For instance, if you’re 18, in college, and wanting to turn pro within the next 3 to 4 years, having a clubhead speed that is 10mph below average is not something that you need to worry about, but rather something that can be set as a goal. Whereas if you’re wanting to turn pro within the next month and are only swinging 84mph, it might be unrealistic to do so, unless you have a world-class short-game. So these are some examples of statistics that can help in your decision of whether you should turn pro and when.
How about how long you should play professionally? We’re lucky that golf is a sport where this is something that is discussable. In other sports such as gymnastics, there’s a clear timeline as to when you would be competing at peak and when you would need to retire. With golf, we can play till we’re old and grey. However, some factors might affect this decision.
As mentioned above, I think a big factor is the ‘why’. Why someone turns pro can determine how long they pursue this career. In most cases, women might have shorter careers than men if they decide to start a family but they could also resume their careers later on; it doesn’t necessarily mean the end.
Another important factor would of course be the monetary support. Being a professional is not cheap. Many see the 1% that are living luxurious lives but not the 99% who are struggling and barely making ends meet. Of course, we hope to never have to make a decision like this based on monetary factors but this is the harsh reality for many pro golfers.
Being a professional golfer isn’t easy. There are many factors that we need to constantly worry about. Travelling might seem fun, but we travel to work, not to explore. Ask any professional golfer how many countries they have travelled to and how many they have actually seen. Furthermore, as a golfer, we know the unpredictable nature of golf. We cannot control anything other than ourselves and so we never know when we are going to be on-form or off-form. Every day brings a different challenge.
This is why I believe that a huge factor in your decision to pursue professional golf is whether or not you have the love for the game; if you do, then go for it! I believe passion is the most valuable element that will help you in this career. Skills are something that can be developed and improved upon but without passion, pursuing a career in golf can be extremely draining.
Finally, if you’ve decided that you want to pursue this game, give it 100% because you might never know where it will take you and the opportunities and doors that it will open for you. It’s truly an experience that cannot be bought.
