Golf Special Report: A day in the life of a professional golfer
Celebrities, politicians and professional athletes have always mesmerized the general public. Whether the people like them or not, their way of life is just different than the average person. The clothes they wear, the food they eat, how hectic their schedules
are is something the general public always craves to find out about. With channels like entertainment channels and MTV, lives of celebrities are pretty out in the open. As for politicians, the press conferences they do and the policies they sign has them in
the news twenty four seven. Professional athletes are for some reason not given as much spotlight. Moreover, if one is professional golf player, he hardly has anything ‘exciting’ about his or her life unless it involves s*x or drugs.
Here is something about what a day in the life of a golfer is all about. Idyllwild native Brendan Steele was interviewed while played at the Country Club at Soboba. One unique thing about a golfer’s day is that they are always travelling. When on tour,
just like a music tour, they keep going from golf course to golf course. When asked about road life, Steele said he likes it. Of course, it is hard not to be near one’s family and friends but golfers have to go through it since its part of the job. Brendan
said that three weeks away is something he can take, after three weeks, it gets harder.
The average person’s weekly expense sum up tos six hundred dollars maximum, however, for a golfer it is a little more than that. A golfer on tour spends about 2000 dollars per week. In this sum, it is pretty standard to pay $700 to caddie. A caddie is somewhat
like a personal assistant to a golfer. He carries their bags, clubs, gives advice and moral sport. Obviously, when the caddie travels with the player he also gets a percentage of what the golfer makes.
Brendan said that the amount of money he will get totally depends on how well he plays. If you have ended in the 40th position, of course you just earn $2000. Moving further down the list, the purse decreases to $1400 or $1200. Every tournament
or game has different prize money. Some big names such as FedEx Cup can even have a $10 Million prize for the winner. Winner of the Barclay's, Matt Kuchar won $1.3 million, whereas Martin Laird who came second took $810,000 home. The rule is simple: the better
you play, the richer you are.
Golfers basically have to earn their way into a certain tournament. Then again, if they are fully-exempt just like Steele is on the Nationwide Tour, they get to chose what they play. Just like Brendan did, it is an obvious thing that one would go for all
they can get in a year. Brendan says that last year when he had to make his way into tournaments, he really had the money list on his mind. The more he won, the higher he was on the money list, and the higher he was on the list, the better opportunities he
got. It’s the chase that makes the game even more interesting.
In a week before a certain tournament, Mondays are usually travel days. The next day, Tuesday, are practice days and Wednesday’s a Pro-Am day. Mostly tournaments go from Thursday till Sunday or Friday till Sunday.
When inquired about a normal tournament day, Brendan said that they (the golfers) don’t do much on the road. Having dinner with friends is really all the ‘fun’ they have. Jokingly, one of Brendan’s friend said that all they do is play golf and eat. Basically,
they get up, have breakfast and then go on the course to play. Then they take a break for lunch and play and practice some more. After that, they go home, shower, change, eat dinner, go to bed and repeat the same routine the next day. Now this clearly shows
how passionate these players are about the game.
Even though highly talented in golf, these players are just like us as well. Their day is pretty different than an average man’s day. Then again, it is those differences that make them stand out from the rest of the crowd.
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