If you are like most golf Mini-Tour and Developmental Tour players, you know there are a ton of things to learn to get yourself ready for “prime time” on the major tours. And these tours provide a great place to do it.
Many exciting challenges and opportunities lay ahead for you. Not only will you get tremendous tournament experience, you will also get a great introduction to all the pros-and-cons, and ups-and-downs of life as a touring professional.
After the structure and predictability of being on a high school or college golf team, being a pro on any tour can be a bit of a shock to your system. And it can be a pretty wild ride, depending on how you handle it.
With the right approach, you can sharpen your skills and turn yourself into a super, tournament-tough competitor ready to take on the top pros. But if you let the golf mini-tour and developmental tours “beat you up”, you may find yourself questioning your sanity for choosing to take on this career.
Handle it well and there is much fun to be had, great people to meet, and invaluable opportunities to learn to develop your game.
Challenges Will Be Waiting
Just keep in mind there are challenges waiting and how they affect you will largely be up to you!
You might start by thinking of each and every challenge that you face as an “advanced class” or “on-the-job” learning opportunity for building your business. It’s hard, but if you can keep this attitude, you will do great.
Here are a few interesting challenges you might get ready for, if you have not faced them already:
Golf is Now Your “Job”
Taking your golf from an avocation to a vocation involves much more that just playing golf for a living. What a lot of people (including many golfers) do not realize is that you are now also building your own business!
Yes, it is glamorous and exciting! But it can take a lot more effort than just working on your game and playing in tournaments. And it requires a bit more of you than taking a nice, secure corporate job.
You are now a small business owner and you are the business. Besides the never-ending attention, you must give your game, you must learn to run your own business too. This can include:
- Learning to interview and select your support team which could eventually be a teacher, a mental coach, trainer, a caddie, a sponsor and/or an agent.
- Developing a “business plan” of sorts that lays out how you are going to run your golfing enterprise…your schedule, a budget, an accounting system, goals and a way to monitor progress.
- Finding a reliable banker/sponsor, if you need one, and putting a sound contract in place.
- And much more…
Note: Players who put their plan in writing make measurably more progress than players who just “wing it”.
If you need help getting organized we suggest you get the Golf Mental Game Builder Guide our tour clients use.
“When Are you Going to Get a ‘Real Job’ ?”
Have you been asked that question yet?
Surprisingly, even some of the most important people in your life may not take your decision to play the golf mini-tours seriously.
Perhaps they mean well, maybe some are even just a wee bit jealous, or they may grow weary of seeing you struggle when they say to you, “When are you going to get a ‘real’ job?”.
Ouch, that can hurt! Especially if you were just “beat up” on your last road trip, coming home with little to show for it except the experience you gained and the expenses you incurred.
Speaking of Money
You know very well the pressure Lee Trevino was talking about when he spoke the often repeated quote,
“Pressure is playing for $10. When you do not have a dime in your pocket.”
Because it can be very hard to make enough money from winnings each week on the mini-tours to cover expenses on the road–much less at home–you have to either:
- Spend your life savings and inheritance
- Work and play intermittently
- Live with and/or get support from your family
- Get a sponsor(s)
As you probably know, each one of these choices can bring on a complete new set of challenges.
Sponsors Can Make the Job Easier or Harder
If you are fortunate enough to have found one, you may have already learned the hard way that not all sponsors are made alike. Some are awesome sponsors who are totally professional, respectful and encouraging of what you are trying to do (and love being a part of your team).
And there are sponsors who are not.
You could easily find yourself in a situation where you begin to feel you are actually working for a “bad boss” who is ever questioning and critical, or into micro-managing your game and everything you do.
Make the Very Most of Your Opportunity on the Golf Mini-Tours and Developmental Tours
Whether your “ride” on the golf Mini-Tour or Developmental Tour is short or long, you will likely find it an extreme test of courage, confidence and commitment.
Look through the articles below to see if there are currently posted topics that might help you. Check back often for new ones.
Better yet, sign up for our free Golf Gimmees e-zine today and we will begin alerting you monthly to new tips, lessons and articles that will posted to help make your golf great.
We aspire to help make your experience on the mini-tours and developmental tours the very best by freely sharing what we have learned in our work with countless golf mini-tour and developmental tour players before you….many who have moved into the ranks of the world’s best players.
You can be one of them!
