Professional Golf Primer

Hey all!  I thought I'd give those of you who are unfamiliar with professional golf a primer so that as the season goes on, you can understand the posts a little better.  I'll do it in bullet form because I like bullet lists, so here goes:

• There are two basic types of golf pros--a professional golfer, or touring pro.  These are they guys and gals who play tournament golf for a living.  Justin would be an example.  A golf pro, or club pro, or teaching pro, are those who earn a living from golf, just not necessarily from competing.  I would be an example of that.  While touring pros are governed by the PGA Tour, golf pros are governed by the PGA of America.  By the way, the PGA of America is very involved in the PGA Tour, running the PGA Championship (one of the four "majors") in August and the Ryder Cup every two years.
• The PGA Tour is the goal of every professional golfer.  Only 125 players are fully exempt into the tournaments of their choice on the big tour, and you must finish in the top 125 on the Money List by the end of the season to keep your playing privileges for the following year.
• The Nationwide Tour is in a sense the developmental tour for the PGA Tour.  Each year, the Top 25 finishers on the Nationwide Money List earn PGA Tour cards for the following year.  Also, if any Nationwide player wins 3 times in one year, he receives a "battlefield promotion" that elevates him immediately to the PGA Tour and gives him exempt status for the following year as well.
• The top 40 players on the Nationwide each year retain full playing privileges for the following year (and that includes the top 25, who will go on and play on the PGA Tour).
• Finishing in the top 40 on the Nationwide Tour exempts that player into the final stage of Tour School, a grueling 3 stage process involving 16 rounds of golf, and another means of earning a PGA Tour card.
• When I post that Justin finished a round or an event in T-6, that means a tie for sixth (Curt!).
• Each week, the field of players on either the PGA or Nationwide Tour is cut down to the top 60 and ties.  The remaining players play out the weekend and make checks.  The players who miss the cut make no paycheck for the week.
• A top ten finish in an event earns a non-exempt player a spot in the tour's next event
• We, like those on the PGA Tour, play almost every week through October all over the country.  The beginning of each Nationwide season actually starts in New Zealand and Australia.
• This is an extremely competitive tour and business.  Pay for performance.  Lots of travel, lots of hotels and motels, lots of early mornings and long days, lots of extreme weather, especially heat and sometimes cold.  But the show goes on.
• My job as a caddy is primarily to carry the bag, count, keep track of, and clean the clubs, laser distances and make notes about the course (hazards, green contours, yardages, wind tendencies, etc.) but is also to keep my player in the present and positive.  It can be a delicate balance to know what to say and when to say it.

So there's some basic stuff that should help.  Please post something on the blog if you have a question or don't understand something.  My real adventures start in a week when I leave for Atlanta bound for Athens.  And keep following!