Call me Jason. Or Jordan. Or Dustin, Ricky, Bubba, Rory, or any other name you want. I'm a pro golfer out on the PGA tour.
But unlike all the other guys, I'm not consumed by the desire to win majors. Tiger was obviously the worst, He was obsessed by it. For that matter, even winning lesser tournaments doesn't particularly concern me.
Sure, I give it my best when I play in one, and would love to win it. But if I don't, something else takes a much higher priority.
Making the cut.
It's not cheap doing what I do. Flying all over the country (and sometimes abroad) to various tournaments (while paying for my caddy too) comes with a cha-ching. So do motel rooms or rental houses for a week. And we have to eat. Sponsors are a god-send, but not everybody has them. To those without, we have to cough up dough for golf clothes, shoes, thousands of balls, gloves, and all the rest. It can get expensive.
Everybody seems to be caught up in the hype of statistics, wins, particularly majors, and the ever-fanatical press keeps feeding the flames of the gullible masses.
Hey, I get it. Though Jack was the best, and Eldrick had his decade of dominance, I don't kid myself that I'll ever approach that level.
And you know what? That's fine. We can't all be superstars.
I'm just out here trying to make a living and I'm very cool with knocking down a few million a year while playing golf on some of the finest courses in the world. The food and accommodations at such places are absolutely fabulous.
And c'mon, it surely beats supersizing people at a drive-through window somewhere or being a prison guard, much less an inmate.
Life is good, and my caddy is pretty happy too. Every time I make a cut and get a check, he gets his cut and check as well. I'm pretty sure he'd rather be doing this than his old job of carrying bags for old rich people that can't break 100 at their local ritzy country clubs.
So let the media rant and rave about titles all they want. And let the golf fans continue to eat it up. Further, I wish the best for my compatriots out here on tour that are also obsessed with winning, winning, WINNING, dammit, and their legacies eventually.
I couldn't care less. So I feel no pressure standing over a 3 foot putt that might get me a win. If it goes in -- great.
But if it doesn't, that's OK too. Second place at any tour event comes with a pretty hefty paycheck, as in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And who cares about trophies? I had a bunch of those from when I used to play little league baseball as a kid, and a few when I was a halfway decent bowler as a teenager. I'm not even sure where they are any more. Maybe my mom threw them out or sold them in a garage sale for a couple bucks. No big deal. The same will be true of any hardware I might win as a professional golfer someday.
Such things come and go and nobody else cares, so why should I?
This whole mania about winning is vastly overrated, and for those that I suspect have some sort of inferiority complex, thereby making them feel like they always have to prove the elusive "something".
Personally, I'm comfortable with myself. I'm a nice guy, have a wife and a couple kids which I love more than anything, and just so happen to be a pretty decent golfer or else I wouldn't have qualified to be out on the PGA tour.
Sure, wins would be great, but if I can make more cuts than I miss, or even rack up a handful of top-10 finishes in any given year -- everything is just peachy, especially when it comes to the financial thing. I'm happy, my wife is happy, my caddy's happy, and the kids are well taken care of.
No worries.
So what's the problem?
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