19th Hole
The great “golfers don’t get paid enough” debate
Do professional golfers stack as much cash as they ought to? Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and Sam Snead would certainly say so (even allowing for inflation).
Even so, everything is relative, and (on court/course/field) athlete compensation is a function of ad dollars, sponsorships, and television deals, as we all know. In golf, it’s pretty simple tale we’ve heard time and again: Purse sizes swelled during the Tiger Woods era as sponsorship dollars flooded into the sport and more people tuned in.
Today’s PGA Tour pros are the beneficiaries…except they’re still being short-changed, GolfWRX member MaddMaxx suggests in a forum thread he dedicated to the topic.
Jordan Spieth: $34.5 million
Salary/bonuses: $5.5 million
Endorsements: $29 million
So he made 5.5 million. The pay of a 3rd string baseball player, a soccer player who shows up.
A fairly good hockey player…..
Which sport so you think is the lowest/highest paid when considering:
the talent/ability required
hours of practice
pressure situations(stress)
have a life outside the sport
life after the sport
I think golf is the most underpaid.
Your-away argues the opposite
“He will also be making millions much later in life than any other sport, soccer players are generally done by there mid 30’s, he will just be reaching his prime. I think good pro golfers have it pretty good.”
RSinSG offered some perspective.
“It’s all about putting people in stadium seats or in front of a TV. Ticket sales = more salary. A group of athletes who are even more underpaid are all female athletes. They play just as hard, practice just as long but since the viewership is so small the pay is proportional.”
Seth Pistol called to mind the athletes with arguably the worst lot
“Salary is based on demand, not based on skill. not only ticket sales but TV contracts, endorsement opportunities, merchandising, etc etc etc. Golfers get paid pretty well in my opinion. Think about the hundreds of Olympic athletes who scrape by. These athletes are no less talented or dedicated but their sport is “unpopular” and therefore $$$ is non-existant. Those are the guys who really get screwed.”
MattyO1984 writes
“I am of course biased in all of this because Golf is my number one sport but in comparison when you consider that the winner of the tennis US Open received, $3.7 Million this year, compared to the $2.16 Million that Koepka got, I think you can argue that golfers, in the world of sport, are underpaid.”
Raynorfan1 thinks this is lunacy
“This is crazy talk. In the HISTORY of mens tennis, only 54 guys have made $10M (in aggregate for their career)…compared to 174 in golf. Tiger Woods has made almost exactly the same amount as Roger Federer ($~110M), but Federer has had the more dominant career.
“Then look down to #10 on the career money lists – for golf, it’s Steve Stricker at $43 million. For tennis, its BORIS freaking BECKER. Stricker has won basically nothing (no majors). Becker won 6 slams and made a total of $25M.”
And these are just culled from the first 15 replies. And the thread is only a day old! In other words, the thread is blowing up and the takes are red hot.
How can you not have a strong opinion on the issue of player compensation? Join the discussion!
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19th Hole
Butch Harmon reveals what he worked on with Rory McIlroy during visit earlier this year
While speaking on the “Son of a Butch” Podcast, legendary swing coach Butch Harmon revealed what he worked on with Rory McIlroy when the four-time major champion went to visit him after the Players Championship this season.
Butch Harmon on what he worked on with Rory:
“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make…
— Matt Vincenzi (@MattVincenziPGA) May 15, 2024
“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make more 3 quarter swings and chop the follow through off a little. He’s a very high ball hitter, but with short irons high balls aren’t good, it’s hard to control, we wanted to bring the ball flight down.”
The work certainly seemed to help McIlroy, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in back-to-back starts.
Rory will now tee it up at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, which is the site of his most recent major victory in 2014.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Brandel Chamblee says this technological development was key to Phil Mickelson winning major championships
While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee shared that he believes the solid core golf ball helped Phil Mickelson win major championships.
“One of the consequences of the solid core golf ball coming around was it put the straightest of hitters in the rough.
“Phil started winning majors in 2004, I don’t think that’s any coincidence. I think he started winning majors after the solid core golf ball came along and put everybody in the rough.
“And so [Phil] is like ‘I got you in the rough, I’m going to kick your a**. This is my game. I’ve been in the rough my whole career. I can go over trees, through trees, around trees.’
“Because he’s got that amazing creativity and Phil is an underrated iron player, phenomenal iron player. Great, great great out of the trouble. If you put the top-40 players on a list and ranked them in terms of accuracy, he would be 40th.
“So, I think that was one of the consequences of the solid core golf balls was it allowed Phil to win major championships.”
Mickelson went on to win the Masters in 2004 as well as five additional majors from 2004-2021 including three total Masters, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship.
Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Former Augusta National employee pleads guilty to transporting stolen Masters memorabilia; Arnold Palmer’s green jacket among stolen items
The document was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Since then, more details have emerged about the case.
According to Darren Rovell of Cllct, one of the items that was stolen was Arnold Palmer’s green jacket.
The Chicago Tribune also reported that Globensky was able to steal the merchandise due to his role as a former warehouse coordinator at Augusta National who oversaw the Masters merchandise that was sold.
Rovell states that “A source with intimate knowledge of the case said an Augusta National member, who knew the jacket was missing, contacted a well-known collector who had gained a reputation for tracking down rare items. The member’s goal was to return the jacket to Augusta under the guise of purchasing it in a private sale.”
The plan worked, and the man agreed to sell the jacket for an agreed upon price of $3.6 million. After the sale was complete, the FBI swarmed the house of the thief.
Cllct also reported that Globensky pled guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Wednesday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.
The Chicago Tribune adds that Globensky’s plea deal includes an agreement to provide the government a cashier’s check for $1.5 million in the next few days.
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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