jim8flog
Journeyman Pro
Are lower ranked tour players right to be concerned about how difficult it is to get in the Top50?
No tournaments for them for 4 consecutive weeks.
No tournaments for them for 4 consecutive weeks.
Lower ranked Tour players
- Thread starter jim8flog
- Start date
They're lower ranked for reason, I suggest telling them to dry their eyes and work on their game a bit more.
Garush34
Journeyman Pro
A few of them have got starts on the challenge tour, I suppose its a break for them to get some practice in and get ready for the summer when there is a tournament every week.
Curls
Journeyman Pro
I guess the issue is really that the PGA tour guys don't have that much of a gap, so it's theoretically easier for them to keep climbing while the Euro Tour guys are benched. Realsitically these second tier tourneys don't have great purses and the only way you're going to fight your way into the top 50 these days is by doing well in the top events. Getting in them is the first hard bit. I guess you could think of it as another tour, harsh but true - "well done, you've made the Tour! Amazing achievement. Now you have to make the upper tier".
Not much room at the top and insanely talented guys taking up half of those spots more or less continuously for years.
I'll echo what Cabby said, but maybe not as abruptly, and say no one is going to hand them anything. Fewer opportunities there may be, all the more reason to make the most of them.
No, that was pretty abrupt too
Not much room at the top and insanely talented guys taking up half of those spots more or less continuously for years.
I'll echo what Cabby said, but maybe not as abruptly, and say no one is going to hand them anything. Fewer opportunities there may be, all the more reason to make the most of them.
No, that was pretty abrupt too
3offTheTee
Tour Rookie
Bit like Steve Smith then!!!
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Depends if their concern is about getting into top 50 or not playing for 4 weeks, the latter is just a poor period in the schedule for ET players compared to PGA
If it’s about getting into top50 then relatively speaking for a tour pro it’s not difficult, just look at players like Adam Hadwin, Brian Harmon or Patrick Cantlay, all in there and not really done anything more deserving than the group on the other side of the cut, just timing the win to go with a chunky amount of ranking points
Look at J Vegas, he’s spent the last 9 months in top50 riding pretty much solely on a Canadian open win last July (not knocking him, I actually quite enjoy watching him) but he’s no different to the lads 50 to 80
If it’s about getting into top50 then relatively speaking for a tour pro it’s not difficult, just look at players like Adam Hadwin, Brian Harmon or Patrick Cantlay, all in there and not really done anything more deserving than the group on the other side of the cut, just timing the win to go with a chunky amount of ranking points
Look at J Vegas, he’s spent the last 9 months in top50 riding pretty much solely on a Canadian open win last July (not knocking him, I actually quite enjoy watching him) but he’s no different to the lads 50 to 80
Curls
Journeyman Pro
Can't agree with that, check his record for this year and last (he made $3mill in 2017), pretty decent imo
https://www.pgatour.com/players/player.27064.jhonattan-vegas.html
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Some correlation but this isn't really about money it was about getting into the top50 (although reading the OP again its not clear whether the topic's about money ranking or points ranking so you could be right but I'd assumed points) but I'm guessing the imbalance of money between the tours is even bigger than the imbalance of points
As I said I like Vegas but its clear he's there or thereabouts either side of the top 50 cut line (currently back outside) and its down to getting a win 9 months ago. Even since then his average finish is 40 something
Compare earnings for Vegas and Poulter in 2017, the difference between them is close to the one putt that separated them in the same Canadian open, yet Poulter not in top 50 for same period
Curls
Journeyman Pro
Yeah I like Vegas too, anyone who plays Mizunos is okay with me
I guess my point was that if you won, had a T3 and a T4 in a season with fewer than 50 tournaments, it would stand to reason you'd be in the top 50. The fact is the top guys are nobbling far more points than the rest of the field (espeically at the Majors) so there's less to go round. The pareto distribution is everywhere. As for Poults, he blew cold for an extended period, I hope he bounces back after the disapointment last weekend, we need more characters out there (like him or loath him) to stop it being a borefest.
Anyway I don't think we are disagreeing on the central points - i.e. PGA tour players have a better chance to kick on the world rankings the ET players, but it was ever thus. Right? And secondly players outside the top 50 will find it even harder to break in through not being invited to big point tournaments. Well, that's just the way it works. I hope the Rolex series will go some way to addressing the first point.
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Yeah I like Vegas too, anyone who plays Mizunos is okay with me
I guess my point was that if you won, had a T3 and a T4 in a season with fewer than 50 tournaments, it would stand to reason you'd be in the top 50. The fact is the top guys are nobbling far more points than the rest of the field (espeically at the Majors) so there's less to go round. The pareto distribution is everywhere. As for Poults, he blew cold for an extended period, I hope he bounces back after the disapointment last weekend, we need more characters out there (like him or loath him) to stop it being a borefest.
Anyway I don't think we are disagreeing on the central points - i.e. PGA tour players have a better chance to kick on the world rankings the ET players, but it was ever thus. Right? And secondly players outside the top 50 will find it even harder to break in through not being invited to big point tournaments. Well, that's just the way it works. I hope the Rolex series will go some way to addressing the first point.
Yup agreed. Me too
(except I watch out for Vegas because he uses the same putter as me, I don't care about his irons
)drdel
Tour Rookie
You need deep pockets (or a lot of luck) to get access to a 'tour'. Very few make enough; for every top golfer the a thousand scraping by only kept afloat by family/contacts.
jim8flog
Journeyman Pro
I was thinking about the European Tour rather than the PGA.
Total purse on the ET could be less than £1million for the smaller Euro events.
Total purse on the ET could be less than £1million for the smaller Euro events.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Open De Espana the week after the Masters (Beef won last year) and a 1.5m prize fund. I would think a few of the lower ranked ET players will get in as the top names will probably have a weeks off (or play in the US if they can)
Dasit
Tour Rookie
You just time your schedule according to what events there are.
Don't take a break when you have an entry to a decent comp, and when the masters etc is on you can take your off weeks to work on your game.
Of course the top 50 guys can be much more flexible, but they didn't start in the top 50 they all earned their right to play.
Don't take a break when you have an entry to a decent comp, and when the masters etc is on you can take your off weeks to work on your game.
Of course the top 50 guys can be much more flexible, but they didn't start in the top 50 they all earned their right to play.
Sports_Fanatic
Assistant Pro
Interesting that one of the Twitter spats (think it was Grayson Murray) last year was from pga tour pros saying the European tour and points awarded to it gave an unfair advantage for Europeans to break top 50.
Think it’s an opinion one of the no laying up guys have talked about on the podcast as well.
Think it’s an opinion one of the no laying up guys have talked about on the podcast as well.
Garush34
Journeyman Pro
Was Grayson and Kelly kraft discussing it i believe, found it strange they had an issue with the european guys but dont think they said anything about how some of the Japanese players get into the top with only playing in asia.
