33 replies to this topic

[nfarzati]

I am 20 years old and going to try to play the NGA/Hooters tour next spring. But for now I go to the SDGA in orlando. The SDGA is supposed to prepare you for a career in the golf industry(head pro, teaching pro, F&B manager, Director of golf, GM and others).........

[IMAGOLFER]

I attend SDGA (Arizona campus) also and am looking to get into the golf equipment industry when I'm finished (in less than a month)... May look into teaching, but equipment is more my thing.

[Lord Thomas]

I'm a college player, and I have no aspirations of a playing career.  I would like to continue to play amateur tournaments after my college career is over, and I wouldn't mind to find a job in the golf industry.  However, an older friend of mine once told me: "Don't do what you love for a living, make a living so you can do what you love".  I would probably rather enjoy the game of golf than try and make a career from it.

-Thomas

[TigerStrong]

Lord Thomas, on Nov 15 2005, 08:44 PM, said:

I'm a college player, and I have no aspirations of a playing career.  I would like to continue to play amateur tournaments after my college career is over, and I wouldn't mind to find a job in the golf industry.  However, an older friend of mine once told me: "Don't do what you love for a living, make a living so you can do what you love".  I would probably rather enjoy the game of golf than try and make a career from it.

-Thomas

Lord Thomas you have made the most sense I have heard in about two weeks. Love the game and play the game but its hard to love the game and make a career out of it. Nicely done.

[ScottWS33]

Love to play on European Tour but nowhere near good enough yet.

[Scottymc_6]

I want to be either a head professional at a club, an equipment rep, or a plain teaching pro.  Not exactly sure what I want do do, but after 3 years of PGM, hopefully i'll have it all figured out.

[Croonie15]

My dad played ont he PGA tour, and hopefuly i can follow suit.  Thats my goal and i'll do everything in my power to achieve it

Croonie

[sync71]

I would love to go to get a college scholorship from golf then after college play on some mini tours and such and maybe even go to the PGA tour. If not that equipment rep, head pro or something would be awesome.

[GolferGal2009]

i mean, who secretely doesn't want to play on the LPGA or PGA!?! but to be more realistic, i would love to be a teaching pro. when i'm at the range, i watch people while i stretch and figure out what they're doing wrong or right and IMAGINE what i would say or show them to fix their swing. It kills me when i see someone who thinks they're Leadbetter telling some poor beginer what to do...  

[Goose]

GolferGal2009, on Nov 16 2005, 09:47 PM, said:

i mean, who secretely doesn't want to play on the LPGA or PGA!?! but to be more realistic, i would love to be a teaching pro. when i'm at the range, i watch people while i stretch and figure out what they're doing wrong or right and IMAGINE what i would say or show them to fix their swing. It kills me when i see someone who thinks they're Leadbetter telling some poor beginer what to do... 

Thats exactly how i feel... i believe in myself and believe that i have the talent within me to make but i have to maintain realistic goals.  I would like to be a teaching pro but you can ONLY make so much money doing that.  So more realistically i am looking into the architectural design field... a close family friend of mines brother works at jerry pate golf design so i will most likely intern with them.....  I am fascinated by golf course design and even have a book by Tom Fazio about his course OLD OVERTON...he signed the inside cover.....  I recently played one of his layouts...Trump National Bedminster and it is BY FAR the most challenging couse i have EVER played......thick deap rough large undulating greens that were faster than ANYTHING i have ever putted on.  So more realistically i would like to enter the architecture/ engineering field like my grqand father...he went to Georgia Tech.. which is truly my ultimate goal to be good enough to play on the golf team there while i go to school there!!!!! bes to have goals!!!!!  and try ur hardest to achieve them.

[k-unit]

i would love to be a teacher, and coach highschool golf, and play state ameture events all summer. that is my dream, after playing on the PGA tour.

[italianstallion]

I've thought about it, but I don't think it'll work for me. Tour players complain all the time about the hard work, which I'm sure it is. Even though they play the best courses in the world, maincured down to uniform rough height throughout the course, 4 days of tourny, plus a few practice rounds must have it's tolls. I love golf now, and i'm afraid if I make a living off it, i'll get bored of it. Going out once a week is what helps me survive, I'm afraid golf will lose it's hold on me if I'm there all the time. I'm looking to going into go to med school, then I can enjoy golf wherever I want when I'm done.

However, I have thought of opening up a chain of golf stores, if the plan above falls through. I think it would be awesome to be around golf equipment all the time, and to help people with their games.

[simmoboy]

I would love to play on the mini tour in Australia for a year or so and see if I could get good enough to make a playing career but most likely that want happen so i will love to become a teaching pro or get into club design.

Brent

[Golfin4Weezer]

I mean, my dream is to play professionally. I know I am progressing fast enough to probably reach my goal, but money is a HUGE issue. The European tour is my biggest goal, but I would like to play on the Austrailasian or Nationwide tours before. I am 15 and have only just begun to play competitive golf (4 tourneys) but can hold my own on pretty much any course around my area. If I dont play professionally, I would want to be a tour rep or caddy. Golf has been a huge part of my life ever since I started walking so I wouldnt want to leave it in the dust.

[BCruiser2]

Well I still have 2 years left of High School to go and im 16 now so I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing in the future with golf. But I live about 2 minutes away from TPC of Boston, where they hold The Deutsche Bank Championships every year, and since I know a bunch of people that work there I am going to be able to work there when I turn 18. So, in that case I am pretty sure that is what I'll being doing during college.

-Brendan

[SCameron009]

Like probably every kid on this board, my dream is to PLAY professionally. I've caddied in some professional events, and the atmosphere is beyond anything you can describe, it's simply amazing. I want to go to school and play golf, and then out of college, spend a year or so working hard at my game, and hopefully start out on a mini tour (like the Cleveland, or Hooters), then working my way up to the Nationwide, ect. I am already working at a golf course, so I've been around the proshop/head professional jobs a lot this year. I don't know if a head pro is really what I want to be, it seems more of an office job than anything else, and I would die not being able to play but once or twice a week. My pro, left after this year and went to New Hampshire to open his own golf school. Fore-U Golf Academy in Lebanon (I think?), and just from the little bit that he did in the fall, he says he LOVES it. He gets to play in all the Pro-Ams he wants (actually part of his job description, which is awesome), and he creates his own schedule, he is his own boss, and since the driving range and facility is already owned by somebody else, he is really just the teaching professional there. So I guess I would like to do something like that if all else falls through; he has a V1 system up there, so I should be making the trip a couple times a month to go play in pro-ams and help him out.

So I geuss, Play Professionally would be my first goal, but I'd be happy being a swing instructor at a golf school somewhere down south. So yeah, I want a job in golf, and I don't care what it is, as long as I am doing something that I enjoy.

- Bryan

[animalistic]

jus wanna play high-end amateur golf[like the south of ireland championship-but only jack the lad will understand what that is-so for all the americans its kinda like a western amateur or mid amateur] cos its hard to make money if you dont quite have the talent

[stickman]

In about a year or two i want to get a job as a bagboy or caddie, then eventually be a PGA tour player.

[wholeinwon]

I am 19 and Currently in a Program up here in Canada called the Professional Golf Management Program sounds alot like the SDGA is it?

Its geared towards preparing you for a job inthe golf industry.  We learn Rules of golf, Law of the golf industry, swing fundamentals, teaching techniques, etc. plus take field trips to courses, golf shows and have guest speakers from top courses in Canada, golf course designers, club reps, magazine editors, pros both course and playing pros, rules officials, tourney organizers...


I've been in the program since October and it has been the greatest experience of my life and I can't wait to have a career in the industry.  It's actually FUN to go to school!!!

[Nelson A]

I would like on be on the PGA.   The dream

[Stick Shootin]

PGA Tour is obviously the ultimate goal. But I'd settle for a mini tour

[Golfer1995]

My "backup" career would be something in golf management. (tournaments or marketing)

[Gongshowguy16]

Listen, I just turned 26, and I am sure most of you will roll your eyes because I probably would have too at your age. I got serious about golf in my sophmore year of college. Not a great player, but just natural from my 17 years of hockey. I worked at a private course next to Muirfield Village for 3 years, played for free almost whenever I wanted, worked long/late hours and thought I wanted to change path's into the PGM until I looked at the bigger picture and realized you play less golf in that environment but get to watch all the wealthy families play 4,5, maybe 6 times a week. At the same time, you don't start making decent money until you get that head position anyways, which is at least 4-5 years into the program. You can't live off of $11/hour + lesson fees. I won't even get into the healthcare, but you will get bottom of the barrel benefits if you're lucky.

So I graduated with a Hospitality Management degree, thought I'd go work at some fancy resort and live the dream working near the beach...WRONG. Welcome to applying for $30k salaries working 70 hours/week. Instead, I used my 4 year old piece of paper that I earned to get a job in sales for an insurance carrier, have busted my a** for the past 2 years and just landed my first monster sale that made me more than what most people make in a year. I have recently joined a private club and have become a part of what I originally wanted to do...have the freedom to play golf whenever I want and even get to do it during work hours with brokers/clients at my companies expense. Everybody's path is different, but...

...if you're going into golf, do it from the start or don't do it at all. If you are undecided about getting into the PGM program, do it early or you'll be living in your parents basement for many years as you earn your credits while driving a rusted 99 Honda CRX. If you are going to try a few years dabbling at mini tour events and not go get your bachelors, at least start at a community college to get your General Courses taken care of while you play. Just be honest with yourself and look at the end result. I have had friends dabble in PGM, then change paths and go into course architecture/turfgrass management, then have the reality of school loans, car payments, bills, rent, etc and recently just blew his knee out playing a pick-up game of basketball (he has now left school, living with his parents and trying to make ends meet)....it's not so fun when mommy and daddy aren't going to support your "dream" anymore.

Each person takes their own path, I would just prefer to have a tee time set up every Saturday and Sunday morning, play some money games with my group and have a few beers and laughs in the clubhouse afterwards. (and not drive a 99 CRX haha).

[Bingo1976]

Interesting. I work in a bank earning a good salary. I'm just about to start a golf management diploma to supplement my business degree. I'm 36 and the thought of climbing the corporate ladder much further makes me sick to my stomach. Hopefully in a couple of years I'll have my diploma, and saved up enough cash to take a temporary pay cut whilst I take the inevitable junior role. Golf is in the ascendancy out in Asia, so I'm hoping there will be loads of opportunities to leverage my project background, plus business and finance acumen. At 36, I'm under no expectation that I'll be playing golf every day, but at the same time, it's an industry that I am passionate about.

[Gongshowguy16]

While I work for a large corporation, like you I hate the corporate feeling. But I could stay in the same sales position I'm in and not have to become a manager or district manager. I control my destiny and income, no one else does. So I get your point. I would love to use my business skills and find a way to incorporate that into golf. But until I owe no more money to anyone, I will continue down the path that is working. At 36 you also have a very clear understanding of what will work and what won't, what is logical and practical. I was just trying to help the guys who were saying they were 15-16, life comes at you fast, it did for me at least (and I have small debt/school loans compared to most). Anyways, not trying to be that "life lessons" guy, I hope everyone is successful and is passionate about what they do!

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

Every once in a while, a thread that is worth it's weight in gold gets resurrected.