The PGA Tour Fall Series: Where The Real Pressure Lies

When you think of the most pressure-packed tournaments in golf, the first tournaments that come to mind are probably not The Viking Classic, The Turning Stone Resort Championship, or the Frys.com Open. 

You would most likely think of tournaments such as the majors, The Players Championship, The Tour Championship and The Ryder Cup. 

Although there is a tremendous amount of pressure that comes with playing in and contending for a major, the pressure that players experience in tournaments such as The Viking Classic or The Turning Stone Resort Championship is a much different form of pressure.

It is real-life pressure. 

Most of the players who compete in the fall series are playing for a lot more than their general love of the game or any interest they have in competing in the driving hail and wind, as they did on Friday at The Turning Stone resort in New York. 

They are playing for the most coveted prize in all of golf: their PGA Tour cards.

When Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, or any of the other top players in the world stand over a putt to win a major, they will feel a tremendous amount of pressure on their backs. 

However, sink or miss that putt, and they will still get on their Gulfstream jets and head back to their absurdly large mansions. 

Whether they play well or miss the cut completely, players such as Woods, Mickelson, Singh, and many others still have bank accounts filled with enough money that their great-grandchildren will never have to work a day in their lives if they choose not to.

Many view the PGA Tour’s fall series as "mop-up" time and as interesting as watching paint dry.

However, if you knew exactly what these guys were playing for in the fall series, you would find these tournaments just as exciting as any other.

Unless you are a die-hard golf fan, you probably haven’t heard of players such as Jason Gore, Charles Warren, or Dustin Johnson. 

Gore, Warren and Johnson are ranked 126-128 on the PGA Tour money list, just outside the all-important 125^th spot which ensures your PGA Tour card for the following year.

The PGA Tour’s qualifying school, generally known as "Q-School," consists of several stages that are played at different locations throughout the country.  After each stage, only the top players go through to the next round.

Q-School finishes with a six-day final event with a field comprised of all the players who have made it through each of the previous stages. 

Falling within the top 125 spots on the money list guarantees that you will not have to attend Q-School and face the very real and devastating thought of going from the PGA Tour to the Nationwide Tour if you are not able to play well enough to make it through Q-School. 

As with any golf tournament, anything can happen on any given day or during any given week. 

You may not be one of the best players competing in the PGA Tour’s qualifying school, but if you happen to get hot for a month during Q-School and particularly during the final stage, you could find yourself on the PGA Tour.

Then you have players such as David Toms and Chris DiMarco who currently fall outside the 125th spot on the Tour’s money list and are in danger of losing their cards. 

DiMarco has won several times on the PGA Tour, and Toms has won a major and played on several US Ryder Cup teams.  Both players could very easily find themselves back in Q-School, where a couple of bad rounds during the course of a month could lead to their membership on the Nationwide Tour in 2009. 

Players such as Toms and DiMarco have earned enough money over the course of their careers that they probably never have to pick up a golf club nor work another day in their life if they don’t feel like it. 

For the younger players on the Tour who might have young families, going from the PGA Tour back to the Nationwide Tour will be one of the most devastating and stressful experiences they will ever have to endure. 

Players such as Jason Gore, Charles Warren, and Dustin Johnson have all earned over $600,000 this year on the PGA Tour.

The leader on the Nationwide Tour’s money list has earned $378,973 this past year.  That means that players on the PGA Tour around the 125th spot on the money list are facing the very real possibility of having their earnings cut in half next year at the very best. 

They will most likely earn a third of their current earnings—not to mention that they will have to deal with the stress and anguish that comes along with losing your tour card and having your income cut by 75 percent. 

Now, you may be saying that earnings of over $300,000 are nothing to balk at.  This is a significant amount of money to earn in a year by most standards.

But not if you have become accustomed to and molded your lifestyle around earning over $600,000 per year.

A player such as Jason Gore is 38 years old, has been on the PGA Tour for some time.  Since 2004, Gore has earned an average of $834,740 per year. Gore, who has become accustomed to living with this yearly income, is now playing to avoid having his income cut by at least 50 percent next year.

That is some serious pressure.  

You see, there are several drastically different sections of the PGA Tour. 

There are those such as Woods, Mickelson, Els, Singh, etc. who make tens of millions of dollars per year, most of which comes from their massive sponsorship deals. 

Then you have players such as Tom Pernice Jr., Bart Bryant and Paul Goydos, who have spent years on the PGA Tour earning an excellent living, yet you would not recognize them if they came to play a round at your local golf course.  

Finally, you have those players such as Jason Gore, Charles Warren, and Dustin Johnson, who are playing the game to earn a decent living for themselves and their families. 

There are hundreds of players who, over the next four weeks, will be staring down tee shots and approaching shots and putts that will literally determine whether or not their lifestyle will significantly change in the coming months. 

This pressure trumps in comparison the pressure upon the likes of Woods, Mickelson and Singh staring down a putt to win the Maters. 

The tremendous amount of money that PGA Tour players earn is widely known.  But many people do not realize that there is a whole other PGA Tour which consists of players that are going out every week with the pressure of trying to earn a decent living by swinging a golf club. 

If you want to see some real pressure-packed golf, tune in to the PGA Tour’s fall series and watch guys who are not only playing to win, but are also playing not to lose everything they have become accustomed to.