Can You Make Your Living from Golf?

As with most professional sports, there are millions of dollars for professional golfers to earn each and every year but what about the rest of us? Why should only a select few have the opportunity to make their living from this great sport while the rest of us collectively spend millions just to play? If you truly love the game of golf, wouldn't it be great for you to be around it all day at work? The key to making this work is to combine what you are good at and apply it to the game.

Let's face it. Not everyone can play golf like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. No amount of time spent training and learning the game can guarantee a successful career like these two professionals have. Not everyone has the natural talent to play on the same level. That's exactly why, if you truly want to make your living from golf, you need to first sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself. What are you good at and what do you like to do? Is there something you enjoy doing that other people consider work? Each one of us has unique talents and skills that just need to be taken in the right direction to ensure success.

Success doesn't come easily defined either. For Tiger, it's not the amount of money that he wins but it is winning itself. He goes into every tournament or event thinking that he is going to win. Most of us would be happy just finishing the day with a decent paycheck if we ever had the chance to play in a PGA Tour event. Does that mean that Tiger has unrealistic expectations? When you consider he's the best player in the world, his expectations are well in line with what the outcome could very well be.
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So how has Tiger become the greatest player in the game today? He simply applied the same ideas than can work for us, taking something he loves in the game of golf, applied an incredible amount of time and effort into mastering and becoming an expert in his chosen field, and consistently worked towards bettering his skills. There's no secret here, just a lot of hard work and time spent becoming good at what he loves to do. Do you think about the fact that Tiger plays golf with his friends when he's on break from the PGA Tour and his charity events? How many of us spend our vacation time doing what we do for a living and enjoying it? Not many, you can be sure.

The hard part, of course, is translating your passion for golf into a viable career. The good news is that there are thousands of people who do just this and there's no reason you can't do exactly the same thing. And if you are satisfied by simply volunteering at a local golf event rather than making your career based on golf, that's okay too. It all comes down to how you decide to make golf a part of your living.

Mike Wyman is co-creator of the online dating website for golfers, DateAGolfer.com and PuttingForPar.com, a golf website specializing in personalized ball markers.