Since the launch of LIV Golf, there has never been more money in the game, with its players competing for individual prize money of $20m in regular-season tournaments, before battling for a share of $50m in the season-closing Team Championship.
That has had a knock-on effect elsewhere, most obviously on the PGA Tour, whose designated events in 2023 regularly had purses of $20m, with $25 million available in The Players Championship. That was before news of the merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund that bankrolls LIV Golf, with its near-bottomless financial resources.
While the women’s game doesn't yet offer the riches of the main men’s circuits, it can still be a lucrative career move for the world’s best, with one of its Majors, the US Women's Open, offering a record $11m purse in 2023.
Despite that, though, the money doesn't necessarily begin rolling in just because they regularly compete on the game's biggest circuits. That has inevitably led to some addressing their financial concerns publicly. Here are five pros who have opened up on the harsh reality of making a living in the elite game.
Scott Hend
At the age of 50 and having turned professional in 1997, Australian Hend has experienced his fair share of success, including 16 wins on a variety of circuits with approaching €6m in earnings on the DP World Tour alone. There have been some lean times as well, though, including 2022.
That April, he revealed on social media that he had lost $50,000 in opening months of the year. He wrote: “Some un useful info for the Golf Fans out there.... So far in 2022 I've missed 9 from 9 cuts and haven't made a cent.... I've been on the road playing since 17th Jan. I have burnt through approx $50k usd. This is Pro Golf people and I love it. Better times coming soon. #golflife"
Hend was right that better times would come, including a T2 in the 2023 Mandiri Indonesia Open on the Asian Tour. However, the run that saw him lose such a substantial amount of money the year before no doubt served as a reminder that prize money, like form, can be fleeting even for a player with such vast experience.
Danielle Kang
Even Major winners are not immune to at least occasional runs where the money dries up. LPGA Tour player Kang secured a place in the history books with her win at the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship, but five years later, that must have seemed like a distant memory when she revealed she had made $6,000 at an event and didn’t break even.
While welcoming the extra investment coming into the women’s game, specifically from the sponsor of the Chevron Championship, Kang revealed: “I'm one player. How about the average Tour players? I made $6,000 last week, made the cut; I didn't break even last week. That's me budgeting. I have to drive, rent a car, get a hotel room. Luckily enough for me I'm sponsored by BMW that provides for me the car. That saves like $500, $1000 etc.
"We have to think about all these things. So for us, when companies step up and give us an opportunity to make a living, make the tour better and broader and for players to compete and to be an actual job, it's nice to see that.”
Hannah Gregg
If breaking even for a Major winner on the LPGA Tour can be tricky, it is surely a problem that would be the envy of some further down golf’s pecking order. One player who has carved out a professional career on the Epson Tour and Women’s All Pro Tour is Hannah Gregg. In 2021, she laid out the less-than-glamorous reality of life on developmental circuits to Golf Monthly, explaining that it means "lots of girls stop playing."
She said: “Everyone kind of assumes if you’re good, that part takes care of itself. But entry fees, flights, hotels and rental cars don't take care of themselves. Even winning on these tours doesn’t mean much more than breaking even over a few months.”
“My annual expenses cost on average $50,000, and if you look at the purses on the development tours like the WAPT – which is the highest paying feeder tour – the average winner walks away with $5-$7,000.
“Expenses for a cheap tournament are generally $1,500-$2,000, so unless you finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in every single event, you’re not going to make a profit."
She continued: “Lots of girls stop playing because they can’t afford Q-School, which is the most expensive event of the year. If you don’t play in that then you have no Tour status and are left with very few events to play in. You get phased out and others just lap you.”
Scott Gregory
Englishman Gregory burst onto the scene by beating Robert MacIntyre to the 2016 Amateur Championship at Royal Porthcawl. However, if that appeared to open the door to a glittering career peppered with regular six and seven-figure windfalls, it hasn’t worked out that way for the 29-year-old.
Since that memorable day, Gregory has shown glimpses of his ability, including leading that year’s Open after the first round, but a rookie season on the DP World Tour didn’t go as planned, where he made only one cut, while more recently he has played on the EuroPro Tour.
As a result, Gregory knows as well as most how difficult it can be to earn a living from the game when form deserts you. In 2020, he explained to the Golf Monthly podcast that it's far from a life of first-class flight tickets and life-changing prize money.
He said: "It's a lot of money [paying for everything, flights, hotels, caddies], I would say on average last year for me doing it kind of as cheap as I could do it, you were doing well if you spent less than £1,600 a week to play.
"I knew it wasn't going to be easy to start with but a lot of people think you're flying first class, you're not paying for your hotels and you're earning a million quid a week but that's not how it works, there's a lot of guys out there that aren't doing that. It’s tricky. You've got to find ways to keep playing.”
Angel Yin
One player who would likely find plenty to relate to in Gregory’s words is LPGA Tour player Yin. Things began looking up for the American when she won her first LPGA Tour event in 150 starts with the 2023 Buick LPGA Shanghai, which saw her comfortably north of $4m in career earnings.
Not too long before that, though, she had been struggling financially, particularly with the uncertainty that came with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. She told The Golf Channel: “It’s very expensive, which people don’t really realise that nothing is covered.
“Everything comes from our own pocket and, yeah, our entire earning is public, but you have to understand a big portion goes to tax, a big portion goes to my caddie and a big portion goes to travel, and people who are on my team – let’s say physios who help me week to week.
“So there’s a lot of expenses, and when Covid hit it took a big hit on me as it did for everyone and with that, with my poor golf performance, without making that much money there was a point in one of the seasons where it was like, I need to make money now or I’m not going to have enough money to fund me for the rest of the year.”
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