Share The Wealth

Two events took place this week, The Tour Championship in Atlanta Georgia and Stage 1 Q School in Ebreichsdorf, Austria, They are nearly five thousand miles apart, but in golfing terms it may as well have been different planets.


Ninety six players in Austria and thrity in America,  the players in Austria one day hoping to be part of the elite few playing in America. Four rounds of high pressure golf, playing for your career in Austria versus an end of season Jolly up for the PGA tour boys.

No money passed hands in Europe,  just a very important stepping stone to the next stage of tour school. I can only think it's called School because of the severity of the test that faces these players. Only twenty players make the leap from this venue to another in Spain in November where they have to do it all again hoping to get into the Final Stages. All in all fourteen rounds of golf are played before you know if you'll have any starts in Europe next year. I can't even begin to imagine the mental strength one must have to get through each stage without making mistakes so I suppose the cream does rise after all these rounds.

In America however the top thirty from this years FedEx cup are fighting it out for a purse of nearly nine million, that is of course without the bonus of ten million for the overall winner of the FedEx Cup.

I have wrote before that these players at the very top don't seem be motivated by money:

“Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore, It will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. It's nice to think that you could win $10 million this week, but that's not what excites me.”

“It excites me to play well and to try and win. And the FedEx Cup is one of the only things that I haven't put on my golf CV, and that would be more exciting to do than walk away with a check.” 

Rory McIlroy ( Wednesday 25th of September )

Incredible remarks. For 99% of the world that is life changing money and he just shruggs it off like it's pennies ! I know he has worked very hard to get into that position, but he needs to have some remorse at times. And he should remember that you should always be nice to the people on the way up because golf is a fickle sport and you don't stay there for long.

It's funny these guys on the PGA Tour probably spend more on expenses for the year then players on the bubble of keeping their card in Europe.

The top end of the Pyramid in golf keeps getting wealthier while these tour pros seems to forget what it was like to grind week in week out just to pay your rent.

My fear of top players turning more and more like spoiled footballers is getting nearer and nearer.