How much does money motivate golfers?

Not as much as pussy.

 

If you watch enough on Sundays, you can count on an announcer mentioning how Joe Schmoe's missed 8-footer will cost him 85K. I've asked a couple tour guys whether they ever think about the money on each Sunday, back-nine shot and they say they don't because if they did, they'd go crazy.

 

It's always interested me that a golfer can lose thousands of dollars on one bad shot. The difference between finishing second and tied for third can be costly.

Is there anything else like that in sports? Tennis and minor sports such as bowling and rodeo are the few I can think of where participants are paid based on their finish.

Auto racing, too, where an error by an opponent can knock you out of a race and cost you prize money.

 

I figure most of the Tour regulars have sponsors that take care of the travel etc. But I agree with the assessment that golfers don't think about it. Golf isn't one of those games that has many opportunities where you can go big risk/big reward. I would argue that they might think of the money when they consider some ludicrous shot, thinking about how many spots they could drop if it doesn't pan out.

 

It's been a while since I've read but I recall Feinstein writing a bit about purses in "A Good Walk Spoiled"

He talked about avoiding the "trunk slammer" and it's financial peril. Idea was to not have to toss your clubs in the car on Friday and drive home.

 

Here's last year's PGA money list. Enter 2010 in the search box. You have to scroll down to position #91 before you get to the ham-and-eggers who earned less than a million dollars.

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?109

 

Good point, Boom. The economics of the Tour are structured so that you might want to play conservatively on Friday to make the cut, but the risk-reward ratio on Sunday is more skewed toward the reward of the big shot.
Of course, in about 30 percent of the tournaments, if you're not well under par after two rounds, you miss the cut anyway, so you CAN'T be conservative.

 

good stuff Az. thx for posting.

 

And that missed putt on the first hole of the tournament technically costs you as much as that missed putt on No. 18 of the final round, but, from a psychological standpoint, it has to be exponentially more painful because by then, you can put an actual price tag on it. As we love to hear the announcers point out.

 

The European tour looks better at the top, thinner toward the bottom. The first golfer under a million $ here (converted) is 53rd on the money list. http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/racetodubai/pastseason/index.html

 

That reminds me of a good story from back in the day where the Boston Celtics were playing someone in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and Red Auerbach asked ... I think it was Frank Ramsey ... to make the pre-game rah-rah speech.

Ramsey merely walked to the front of the room, and wrote on the chalkboard, "We win= $10,000. We lose = $5,000"

Needless to say, the Celtics won.