Even on the PGA TOUR, there were players losing money once you factored in expenses like travel, caddies, coaches, and entry fees. When I played the NGA Hooters Tour, you needed about a top 20 just to break even. That meant roughly 136 guys in the field lost money every single week. I was so frustrated knowing the PGA TOUR had money to spare that I wrote a letter to Jay Monahan, and not long after the Tour introduced the Earnings Assurance Program.
But the deeper problem remains. We celebrate purses of tens of millions of dollars going to players who don’t need it while thousands of other talented players grind at a loss. A portion of that money could help fund those players with $120,000 a year to develop their games instead of getting weeded out purely because of funding.