Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world. Well, golf is a grand auld sport to make the rich get richer. But when it actually comes to money, it can mean a hell of a lot to a player.
The signature events on the PGA Tour have breathed new life into the concept of putting bum to couch for a few hours on a Sunday night but the alternate weeks where fields are bereft of star quality can leave you scratching the surface in search of reasons to give a damn.
This week has been dominated by the persistent reports that a peace deal is imminent. Whether you are reading about US President Donald Trump making golf great again and banning paper straws, or Paul McGinley’s prediction that an end to golf’s civil war could be announced before the Masters in April, the golf on television this week is probably the biggest example of why we need the best players back together ASAP.
Away from the rich getting richer storyline to all this, there have been some real feel good stories on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour this season.
It’s never been easier to get rich playing professional men’s golf but there has also never been as much of a squeeze from the top down with so many players on the smaller tours not seeing the dollar signs trickle down through the levels.
Monday Qualifiers are set to be scrapped for events next season and the number of PGA Tour cards available to be retained at the end of the season will be trimmed from 125 to 100 from 2026.
Golf is obsessed with looking after the top and marginalising the bottom and while a peace deal is needed in golf, one wonders how it will impact the players looking to get a leg up from somewhere to get a taste of the big bucks.
Stories that come to mind of why there must be some sort of pathway for the little guy to make the top are Will Chandler at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and John Parry on the DP World Tour.
Chandler was one of three players that earned his spot in the field at TPC Scottsdale via a Monday qualifier.
He made his first cut and finished 6th, earning a career record $310,500, reaching a career high 296th in the Official World Golf Ranking AND he played with world number one Scottie Scheffler in the final round, beating him by six shots on the day and on the leaderboard.
Chandler has become a Monday qualifier specialist. He Monday-qualify for Korn Ferry Tour events a whopping four times in 2024 and also earned his way onto the PGA Tour by firing a final-round 66 to finish in the top 5 at Q-School last year.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Chandler explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz how he went from a middle-of-the-pack collegiate player at Georgia to PGA Tour cardholder.
“I love the game so much,” Chandler said. “I wanted to give it a shot. I don’t like saying that, but I wanted to turn professional and give it 110 percent.
“And I feel like I’ve done as good a job as I can the last few years doing that, and really dedicated myself,” he continued. “I worked with a couple of new guys that helped me and it’s clicked.”
Stories like Chandler’s are rarer by the year and as men’s professional golf becomes more of a closed shop one must wonder where the opportunities are going to lie for players who are looking to make their way in the game and perhaps have their own Chandler week.
Corey Conners Monday qualified for the Valero Texas Open in 2019 and won the tournament, opening every gate imaginable in his golfing career. Getting rid of them just seems incredibly daft.
Englishman Parry on the DP World Tour is in an early position to secure one of ten available PGA Tour cards on the Race to Dubai.
The 38-year-old won his first DP World Tour event in 2010 but had to wait another fourteen years for his next as he became a journeyman golfer.
After dropping back down to the European Challenge Tour at the end of the 2023 season, Parry won three times last year to earn automatic promotion back to golf’s global tour and he is now playing the golf of his life.
In a sport where the rich are getting richer by the day, Chandler and Parry show the importance of having pathways to the top to give the opportunity of actually earning genuine life changing amounts of money.
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