Every day at a professional golf tournament has its basis in drama: Thursday and Friday are about making the cut and getting to the weekend to earn a paycheck; once you have cleared that hurdle on Saturday and Sunday it’s all about how big that paycheck will be.
Because make no mistake, professional golfers play the game for the money. Sure, there’s a lot of talk about “the love of the game” and all that – but let’s face it, despite the pressure, the stress, and the uncertainty of life as a professional athlete, getting paid to play golf beats the hell out of selling life insurance, arranging home loans, driving a delivery truck, or doing any of a thousand other mundane jobs that the majority of people do to make their monthly nut.
A few years ago a friend of mine who was retired from a career as a professional golfer interviewed for a position at a golf-related business. When they asked what other job experience she had she paused, and then replied, “ None – all I’ve ever done is play golf.” How many of us wish that we could say the same thing – but how many of us are prepared to deal with the type of pressure that this profession entails?
During his retirement celebration years ago, Joe Montana, a San Francisco 49ers football legend and one of the professional athletes I most admire, was asked by a local newscaster what he felt that his football career had meant to his fans in the Bay Area. His reply: “Entertainment.”
Despite the fact that they play a game for a living, and are essentially entertainers, life as a professional golfer can be a stressful, pressure-packed way to make a living. There is no life-or-death component to it, as there is for medical professionals or public safety professionals, for example, but it is your livelihood, and your success is directly tied to your day-to-day performance in a way that isn’t found in many other professions.
Just ask Albane Valenzuela, the Swiss national and Stanford Women’s golf alumna. She saw her chance at a paycheck this week at the LPGA’s Founders Cup tournament slip away Friday afternoon as two double-bogeys and a pair of bogeys in her final nine holes dropped her from a somewhat precarious position a stroke or two above the even-par cut line to absolutely out of contention at five over par.
Or ask this tournament’s defending champion, Bay Area native Yealimi Noh, who saw her chances of defending her title effectively quashed even earlier, on Thursday, when a terrible run of bogeys and double-bogeys on her back nine dropped her from even-par to seven over, a deficit that she was unable to recover from as she struggled to a two-over 74 in her second round.
In some ways the weekend rounds might entail less pressure than Thursday and Friday rounds, because a paycheck of some kind is assured, but then both pride of accomplishment, and the desire (and/or need) to maximize income come into play. There’s definitely a different vibe around the course on the weekend than on Thursday and Friday, but it is all part of the attraction of the game, the larger dynamic that brings back fans – and golf writers – week after week.
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