One of my favorite works of journalism in recent years is Shane Ryan’s 2022 deep-dive into “The Club Pro Crisis.”
Chances are if you are reading this particular blog, or ever visited onebeardedgolfer.com before today, you are familiar with the primary narrative echoed throughout that article – working in the golf industry can be a challenge, and for many people, it isn’t worth the trouble.
That’s generally because it doesn’t take too long for someone to take up golf as a hobby, get hooked, and then hear somebody say working in the golf industry ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“If you want to play more golf, don’t join the golf industry.”
“Say goodbye to your personal life if you become a golf professional.”
“If you’re not good enough to make a living as a professional golfer, get used to folding shirts in a pro shop.”
Any of those sound familiar to you? I can distinctly remember hearing those sentences said multiple times directly to me, or when I was within earshot of a conversation, during my junior golf days as I attempted to figure out what I would study in college.
I ignored those remarks when I decided to join the PGA Golf Management program at Eastern Kentucky University. (More than a decade later, I still consider that choice to be the best decision I’ve ever made in life.) Golf was the thing I had the most expertise in, and I had met people who did love being in a job immersed with the sport, so I was willing to find out for myself if those comments I had heard would be true.
Four and a half years later, I left EKU with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and virtual certainty I would be elected as a Class-A Member of the PGA of America once I landed my first full-time job. During the time in between as a college student, I completed four internships and gained a better sense of clarity with where I wanted to focus my efforts upon graduation.
I learned becoming a head professional wasn’t for me. I learned there were plenty of outlets to take to enter golf administration, where I had a strong interest. And I also understood it was possible to combine my love for communications with golf administration.
That led to me landing a true dream job just a month after graduating college. It was the role I had been coveting and saw tons of opportunity with – both professionally and personally. To use that cheesy phrase you oftentimes hear, “I never felt like I was going to work because I was doing something I love.”
As the months passed and time evolved, I fell in love with the woman of my dreams and started getting a better grasp on the whole work-life balance concept. Spending time with someone who was working a 9-5 job without ever having to worry about working on weekends or nights became something of a romantic idea to me. While I wasn’t working as an assistant professional at a golf course, I was still at golf courses almost every day of the week during summer months with many dawn-to-dusk days on the clock. Even if it was for only 30 minutes, there was also something I had to ensure was completed or taken care of during weekends.
I still loved what I was doing, but I began wondering if I was missing out on a life outside of work as I frequently had to decline invitations to do things with her between April and September.
I also vividly remember during a lunch break at my office when a coworker asked me what trips or fun activities I had planned during the summer. My response: “Nothing, I can’t really take any time off during the heat of the golf season without properly doing my job.”
I had never thought about this before uttering that comment, but it hit me like a sack of bricks that perhaps my job was beginning to encompass too much of my life.
Those thoughts existed in my head for a while before Ryan’s aforementioned piece in Golf Digest was published. While I had heard many of those stories shared in generalities as many conferences and seminars discussed the issue of too many people leaving the golf industry, it was jarring to read actual anecdotes and how people’s lives were negatively affected by their jobs in golf.
I considered myself very lucky as I read those stories. I was making decent money, had room in my budget to take some trips during the winter months, and essentially did have a Monday-Friday job once November arrived. And again… I liked what I did.
But the comments from people who had left the golf industry stuck with me, both from that article and replies to various other tweets about this very subject. I also had two of my closest friends leave the golf industry for jobs in fields not even remotely close to golf. They adapted to their new surroundings and have never second-guessed going back.
All those comments swirling in my head, a desire to have more of a life outside of work, and the realization I could be making more money while doing so prompted me to resign. I did so just prior to my wedding date which guaranteed I could enjoy my newfound marriage and honeymoon without any stress, or the nagging inclination to do anything work-related, no matter how small.
Shortly thereafter, I started my new job away from the golf industry but still in a marketing-based role. As I expected, I was working less, I had a consistent schedule, I was making more money, and I was able to make weekend plans during the summer for a change.
One element was missing, however, and that was the passion for the work I was doing. I wasn’t arriving at work with the excitement of completing any of the tasks that lied ahead, nor did I see a long-term future in this particular industry for me. All of which brewed a storm cloud of self-doubt in my head.
“Why did you leave your dream job, you idiot?”
“You don’t care about this line of work. Why are you here?”
“All these other people left the golf industry and are happy. Why can’t you be happy?”
It’s at this point I feel like I should mention why I’m writing this blog and what I’m hoping it accomplishes. I have seen and heard many comments from long-time PGA Professionals expressing the love for the work they do and never considering taking a job in a different industry.
But, as indicated earlier, I have also seen and heard many comments from former PGA Professionals who lost their love for the work they did and took a job in a different field with no regrets.
I have not seen many PGA Professionals, if any at all, leave golf only to then wish they could return. That is the bucket I found myself in for a while which seems to be extremely rare. I hear of it taking place in other industries, but not so much in this sport.
Fortunately, another dream job came along and I was fortunate to receive an offer which is going to put me back into a golf-based role. It is very much non-traditional and unique compared to the people and stories depicted in Ryan’s article, but the essence of it surrounds golf which has me thrilled.
My excitement for beginning this role is extraordinarily high and tops the job offer I got right out of college. I’ve come to find as this new reality sets in that it’s all because of perspective.
Beginning with my freshman year of college, for a decade all my studies and jobs surrounded golf. I enjoyed the vast majority of those years, but there was the egging temptation during the latter years that had me asking, “Would I be happier doing something else?”
I found out the answer for me is no, I would not be happier. Maybe I picked the wrong line of work, but I sense the results would have been similar in other fields.
Plenty of other people have found out they are happier away from the golf industry, which is awesome. Our society and communities operate significantly more efficiently when people hold jobs they are experts in and have a passion for.
That makes the golf industry even more fascinating to me. For all the golf sickos who exist on the internet, I’ve wondered many times in the past year how many of them actually work in golf. I could be wrong, but my assumption is not many of them do. Which begs the question – where does a passion cross the line as it relates to how you make your living?
The society of people who play golf is a fascinating melting pot of individuals. Lawyers. Doctors. Construction workers. Real estate agents. Real estate agents who also blog about golf and entitled their blog based off a distinct facial feature. Mechanics. Restaurant managers. Teachers. And obviously thousands more.
Each person in those professions owns a unique skillset that allows them to thrive in their given line of work. I assume they have a reasonably strong passion for what they do, but is it greater than their passion for golf? If it is, does the difference in workplace stem from their income, family history, time off, or something else?
As a person too curious for his own good, who has also started answering the question of “What do you want to be doing in 30 years?” with the response of “Something that makes me happy,” these are the things I have a heightened appreciation for as I prepare to get back into golf on a full-time basis.
If you’re reading this, I hope you have a genuine sense of passion for the work and you do and are satisfied with where you are in life. It’s more nuanced than I imagined.
If you’re reading this and not feeling that passion or satisfaction, let’s discuss it on the golf course together. I’m obviously no expert on this matter, but I am a staunch believer talking about these feelings can genuinely help. And whether you work in golf or not, something about this sport can oftentimes lead us exactly where we need to be.
