BANGOR, Maine — A youngster who picks up a golf club often dreams of draining a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club to win the green jacket emblematic of capturing the Masters Golf Tournament.
But the road to the Masters or even the PGA Tour is an extremely long and difficult one.
Many golfers on the way up have sponsors who will pay the tournament entry fee and possibly supply some food, lodging and travel money.
Others pro golfers work part time, mostly at golf-related jobs such as caddying, parking carts or picking the range.
Golfers also will play in local tournaments around the country, like the recently-concluded Greater Bangor Open, to keep the money flowing.
Greater Bangor Open regular Eric Egloff from Sandy Spring, Maryland, who spent 10 years playing on the Australian Tour against the likes of current PGA pro Marc Leishman, said the life of a touring golf pro is “hard.”
“It’s very, very difficult at this level. You aren’t playing for a lot of money and a lot of [your existence] is check to check,” said Egloff.
It cost $400 for a professional to enter the Greater Bangor Open, and winner Jon McLean of Weston, Florida, pocketed $9,000.
Second-place Braden Shattuck of Aston, Pennsylvania, earned $5,000, while the next three places paid $3,100, $2,500 and $2,000. The 24th-place finisher earns his entry fee ($400).
“A lot of us caddy down south in the winter, and we take the money we earn and come up here and play in the summer to try to roll it over. It’s a big gamble,” Egloff said. “You are paying to go to work, and you aren’t guaranteed anything. Is it worth it? Absolutely. If you gave me a tape to rewind, I’d do it all over again.”
That was a common theme among touring pros at the Greater Bangor Open over the weekend as they said it is all worth it even though it can be frustrating.
PGA Tour path difficult
Golfers can take several routes to the PGA Tour including qualifying school, the Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica; the Mackenzie Tour, which is a Canadian PGA series; PGA Tour China; the National Golf Association Tour; and Monday qualifying tournaments.
The top four finishers in the one-day Monday qualifiers earn a spot in the following weekend’s PGA Tour event but their inclusion is just for that tournament.
The top finishers at PGA qualifying school used to earn their PGA Tour cards but that changed in 2013 when the top qualifiers earned spots on the Web.com Tour rather than the PGA Tour.
The Web.com Tour sends 50 golfers to the PGA Tour each year and the Web.com tour pays well as the winner of this weekend’s Utah Championship will pocket $117,000.
Anybody who wins three Web.com events in a season also earns a PGA Tour card. The top five money-winners on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, Canada and China tours earn Web.com tour cards for the following season.
“It can be tough,” said Greg Jarmas from Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. “There are a lot of ups and downs. You have to try to stay even-keeled through the ups and downs.
“There’s a lot of travel,” said Jarmas, who has been a pro for one year. “I try to savor my time at home. I’m lucky, there are a lot of great guys playing out here in the northeast. I know a lot of them. It has been fun.”
The Princeton University graduate and former Ivy League tournament champion said he does a “little caddying” to supplement his income, “but there are a couple of Princeton guys who help me out [financially] as does my dad, [Al].”
“It’s not as glamorous as you think it is,” said Brian Bergstol of Upper Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania. “It’s fun, but coming out of college [Division III Moravian College, Pennsylvania], I wasn’t used to the travel. I didn’t really like spending eight hours in a car. The guys who played Division I travel in packs. I was the lone wolf.”
Thirty-three-year-old Mike Welch of Quincy, Massachusetts, has been a pro for eight years and said things have gotten more difficult for touring pros who haven’t cracked the PGA or Web.com tours.
“When I first started, there was a lot of money to be played for,” said Welch. “It has gotten a lot harder to make a living. The economy has tanked, the competition has gotten better, the entry fees are up and the purses have gone down. It’s hard to turn a profit.
“Since turning pro, I’ve been able to support myself. My mother helps out a lot. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be able to play,” added Welch, who played in three PGA Tour Latinoamerica tournaments this year.
“I made the cut in all three, but I didn’t make too much money,” he added.
Kensington, Connecticut’s Cody Paladino was a first-year pro last season and figures he played in at least 30 tournaments. He played PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the PGA Canadian Tour tournaments along with regional events such as the Greater Bangor Open.
“I would travel on Monday, play a practice round on Tuesday, a pro-am on Wednesday, try to make the cut on Thursday and Friday, and [if I made the cut], play Saturday and Sunday, and then I’d wake up at 3 a.m. on Monday morning to make my flight,” said Paladino. “I’ve been to 15 countries in Latin America from Mexico to Argentina.
“You lose track of time. It could be April, July or September. You don’t know what month it is, what state you’re in or what country you’re in. It was wild,” said Paladino.
He said all the tournaments under the PGA umbrella mimic the PGA Tour and lifestyle in that they are four-day, 72-hole events. The money was decent as the PGA Tour Latinoamerica events had purses in the $200,000 range, he added.
‘The dream is attainable’
Bangor native Jesse Speirs said the life of a pro golfer “isn’t for everybody.”
“But if you love it, you want to keep playing and keep getting better,” said Speirs. “It can get frustrating but that’s what keeps driving you. I know I can make it, and that’s why I keep practicing and playing every day.
“Everyone has something they’re good at and other things they need to work on. It’s just a matter of bringing it all together and playing good at the right time,” said Speirs. “I have no plans to stop. I love it.”
“The dream is attainable. Absolutely,” said Matt Smith from Thompson, Connecticut. “There’s not much money at this level, but you’ve got to keep chasing it and see what happens. It’s stressful, but it’s worth it. When you play well, it’s a lot of fun.”
Ricky Stimets from Paxton, Massachusetts, said he has some good friends who have made the Web.com tour and they have inspired him because he likes to think he is as good, if not better, than they are.
“You have to play well at the right time,” said Stimets. “You’re doing something you love. You may not be making the big bucks but the opportunity is there [to make big bucks]. As long as you make enough to get by, that’s all that matters.”
Several pros intended to play in the Maine Open on Monday and Tuesday at the Augusta Country Club and the New Hampshire Open on Wednesday and Thursday at the Owl’s Nest Resort and Golf Club in Thornton, New Hampshire.