AN ARTICLE THAT EVERY WOULD-BE LADY PRO SHOULD READ
YOU NEED TO MAKE $100,000 JUST TO
BREAK EVEN, SAYS STACY LEWIS and
IT'S A SHORT CAREER ON TOUR
BREAK EVEN, SAYS STACY LEWIS and
IT'S A SHORT CAREER ON TOUR
Editor's note: This story originally was published in the Nov. 21, 2014, issue of Golfweek magazine.
Patty Sheehan was 42 years old when she adopted her second child. It was 1999, the year her father was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Many days, the fun-loving Sheehan would walk the fairway with tears streaming down her face. On the road, she thought about her family; at home, she felt guilty about not practising.
Sheehan played one more season on the LPGA and then quit.
“It was a really difficult time in my life,” she said. “I was home, but I don’t think I was really at home.”
Deep down, the LPGA Hall of Fame member thought she had left the tour too soon. Those feelings haven’t changed.
Knowing when to walk away is a complex decision that can jell in an instant or drag on for years. LPGA players generally avoid the “R” word.
“Nobody retired from golf,” said Jane Geddes, a major champion who works in talent relations for World Wrestling Entertainment. “People just faded away.”
When Lorena Ochoa told Betsy King that she wanted to play on the LPGA for 10 years and then stop to have a family, King warned her that leaving wouldn’t be easy.
“No, no, I’m Mexican,” Ochoa said. “For Latins, it’s very important to stay home.”
Ochoa married in 2009 and abruptly quit the tour the next spring at age 28 after seven seasons, 27 victories and nearly $15 million in earnings.
Stacy Lewis, pictured above, thinks Ochoa’s example will be more model than one-off in the coming years.
“I know there are a lot of girls who can’t even imagine having kids out there and playing,” Lewis said.
Among the current players on tour, LPGA research shows only eight have competed for at least 20 years. Of the 30 players who earned exempt status at the 2004 LPGA Q-School, only medalist Paula Creamer and three others still compete on tour.
Compare that with the 35 men who earned US PGA Tour cards through Q-School that year: 14 are still on Tour.
Players compete for more money than ever before, but the fact remains that most women who earn tour cards go on to pursue second careers.
“There are very few players on the LPGA that can retire at age 30 and not think they’re ever going to work again,” said Aaron Barber, a former PGA Tour player who works as a financial planner.
Retirement plans are like snowflakes, Barber said. No two are alike.
Meaghan Francella thought she’d play forever. She beat Annika Sorenstam in a play-off during her first year on tour and imagined she’d compete on the LPGA until she could no longer walk.
“I thought I’d be on tour for 40 years,” Francella said.
Instead, the game only grew tougher. Golf brought Francella down so far that, in the end, she resented it. After making only $7,838 in 14 events last season, Francella sold her house and became a caddie with a guaranteed income. She had played seven full seasons on tour.
“For the first time in my life,” said Francella, 32, “I can actually say that I’m truly, truly happy.”
Like many twentysomething Americans, Nicole Hage grew up believing she’d be the next Juli Inkster. Yet she lasted only six seasons on tour.
“I woke up one morning last June and it was gone,” said Hage, 29, who oversees hospitality and event planning for Chisum Sports. “I haven’t thought about it since.”
Hage struggled to build a resume when she left the tour because, like many of her peers, golf had been her only job. She graduated from Auburn in 2007 with a communications degree and made $74,174 in six years on the LPGA. Hage had the talent but mentally never quite figured it out.
For 21 years, Hage dedicated her life to golf. Now she finds herself learning the most basic parts of the business world.
“Everything is just so foreign to me,” she said.
Plus, for the first time in her life, she has a boss.
“It’s not about you anymore,” Hage said. “It’s not your party.”
It’s another sun-splashed day in South Florida, and while the rest of the tour competes in South Korea, Lewis is sharing a bowl of chips and guacamole at Rocco’s Tacos with friends Alison Walshe and Cindy LaCrosse.
The frugal Lewis, who majored in finance and accounting at Arkansas, tracks her expenses monthly on an Excel file. She might rank first on the LPGA’s money list, but that doesn’t make her unaware of tourwide challenges.
Note: Information in the above chart was provided by each player.
Most LPGA players pay about 40 percent in taxes for on-course earnings
(does not include off-course income).
“So, over a stretch of 30 events, everybody is paying a total of at least $30,000 for a caddie,” Lewis said, “and that’s if you miss the cut and you’re not paying for their flights. So 40-50K right away for caddies.
"But then you add expenses (on the road), and you’ve got to make $100,000 to break even.”
And that’s not including bills at home. Or taxes.
“That’s why I hate putting all my expenses together,” said Lewis, shaking her head.
“Relax, multi-millionaire,” Walshe said jokingly from across the table.
Lewis watches successful friends buy houses and cars for their families, and she worries.
Professional athletes typically reach their peak earning potential well before age 35. It’s the reverse of most careers.
“I get that you want to take care of your family, but what are you going to do 10 years from now?” Lewis asked. “That 50K could mean a lot . . . But girls don’t think about that.”
Though golf, by its non-contact, low-impact nature, might offer pro athletes the potential of a long-lasting career, only 10 LPGA players 40 or older held active status in 2014.
Catriona Matthew, the 45-year-old marvel who, with two kids, is playing better than ever, isn’t surprised that many players her age have quit. Most practised all hours in the day, she said, and played golf year-round. Matthew, however, still lives near the course where she grew up – North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland – and recommends putting away the clubs for at least one month during the off-season. That’s easy to do while wintering along the Firth of Forth.
“I have a great balance between golf and family life,” Matthew said. “I sacrifice a lot.”
Leta Lindley can speak to those sacrifices. She and husband Matt Plagmann, her long-time caddie, left the LPGA in September 2012 after 18 seasons to be with their kids.
They went home to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and started Leta’s Home Team, a home-watching and handyman service for residents who leave their homes for extended periods.
Lindley, 42, is the face of the company, but Matt does most of the work. She’s too busy presiding over the PTA and running her charity.
“We’re by no means becoming millionaires through this business,” Lindley said, “but it gives purpose to the day and puts groceries on the table.”
The couple left the road to raise soccer-crazed Cole, 10, and Reese, 8, who loves the stage.
“I wanted to make memories with my kids,” Lindley said, “and I didn’t want those to be mommy’s backside walking out the door and us crying and saying goodbye.”
Lindley, who earned more than $3 million in her career, lives comfortably if not luxuriously.
“We laugh when we look at it and the skewed picture that’s presented to the public,” she said.
The desire to have a family – and be home – isn’t the only reason players leave the tour early. Paige Mackenzie points to better competition.
“It will be interesting to see the next five years,” Mackenzie said. “There will be no hangers-on.”
According to LPGA data from the past 10 years, the cutline has dropped two strokes on a par-71 course and 1.3 strokes on par 72s.
“You can’t slap it around and make a cut,” LaCrosse said.
The LPGA’s talent not only is deeper but younger, with four teenagers having won in 2014. Just days after Lydia Ko turned professional at 16, she wondered whether 30 might be a nice age to retire. She’s 17 and already a four-time winner on tour.
For many of the LPGA’s rising stars, burn-out could be as much of a threat as injury. With players specializing early, is 30 the new 40?
Inkster, for one, doesn’t envy the younger crowd.
“This is no lie: In the 1980s, on a Monday, you could blow a bomb off and no one was here,” Inkster said of old-school practice habits.
Now, every day is a grind.
Of the top 20 players in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings from 10 years ago, only three still play golf for a living: Brittany Lang, Hannah Jun Medlock and Mackenzie, who was out this season on medical leave.
“I think another reason people are retiring is, they’re terrified,” Walshe said. “They don’t have money.”
Some, Lewis said, don’t even carry health insurance.
“I think what people need to remember is that being a member of the LPGA doesn’t guarantee you a living,” Karrie Webb said, “but it provides you the opportunity to make a great living. I think that gets lost now.”
Jane Blalock quit the tour cold turkey in 1985. She knew she couldn’t keep the same intensity past 40 that she’d had in her younger days, so the 27-time winner dusted off an old business card she had collected at a pro-am and phoned the chief financial officer at Merrill Lynch.
Blalock soon found herself walking to work each morning on the cobblestone streets of Boston wearing a suit, briefcase in hand.
Wow, did your life just change, she told herself.
Blalock, 69, said for many players, particularly the successful ones, it’s difficult to abandon the quest to find the game’s secret.
“How much do you have to crash before you realize you have to move on?” she asks.
As co-founder of the Legends Tour, Blalock knows the difficulties that former players face in transitioning to life after the tour. Chief among them are finances. Blalock spent nearly 20 years on the LPGA and said she gets $262 per month from her pension.
Sheehan said the cheque she receives from the tour each month might not even cover what it costs to groom and feed her six dogs.
Rather it’s two investments Sheehan made in the 1980s that keep her afloat.
“Otherwise I’d be out there working in a pro shop somewhere or teaching,” she said.
Kathy Milthorpe, the LPGA’s chief financial officer, said the tour’s retirement program – 50 percent vesting after five years, with 100 percent after 10 – never was intended to be a sole source of income.
Though the PGA Tour and LPGA plans were drawn up by the same law firm and introduced within months of each other in 1982-83, the PGA Tour can line the pockets of players in a way the LPGA simply cannot afford.
At home in Mexico City, Ochoa tries not to spend more than one night per week on the road, raising money for her foundation and conducting exhibitions for sponsors. Those who know Ochoa believe the mother of two (and three stepchildren) when she says she does not judge players who raise kids on tour or delay their dream of starting a family.
But her advice carries a strong warning.
“Just be very careful and really open your eyes,” she said. “If there are other things in life that you love to do, life is too short.
“It’s very easy to forget, and the time will pass and then you probably will regret.”
Patty Sheehan was 42 years old when she adopted her second child. It was 1999, the year her father was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Many days, the fun-loving Sheehan would walk the fairway with tears streaming down her face. On the road, she thought about her family; at home, she felt guilty about not practising.
Sheehan played one more season on the LPGA and then quit.
“It was a really difficult time in my life,” she said. “I was home, but I don’t think I was really at home.”
Deep down, the LPGA Hall of Fame member thought she had left the tour too soon. Those feelings haven’t changed.
Knowing when to walk away is a complex decision that can jell in an instant or drag on for years. LPGA players generally avoid the “R” word.
“Nobody retired from golf,” said Jane Geddes, a major champion who works in talent relations for World Wrestling Entertainment. “People just faded away.”
When Lorena Ochoa told Betsy King that she wanted to play on the LPGA for 10 years and then stop to have a family, King warned her that leaving wouldn’t be easy.
“No, no, I’m Mexican,” Ochoa said. “For Latins, it’s very important to stay home.”
Ochoa married in 2009 and abruptly quit the tour the next spring at age 28 after seven seasons, 27 victories and nearly $15 million in earnings.
Stacy Lewis, pictured above, thinks Ochoa’s example will be more model than one-off in the coming years.
“I know there are a lot of girls who can’t even imagine having kids out there and playing,” Lewis said.
Among the current players on tour, LPGA research shows only eight have competed for at least 20 years. Of the 30 players who earned exempt status at the 2004 LPGA Q-School, only medalist Paula Creamer and three others still compete on tour.
Compare that with the 35 men who earned US PGA Tour cards through Q-School that year: 14 are still on Tour.
Players compete for more money than ever before, but the fact remains that most women who earn tour cards go on to pursue second careers.
“There are very few players on the LPGA that can retire at age 30 and not think they’re ever going to work again,” said Aaron Barber, a former PGA Tour player who works as a financial planner.
Retirement plans are like snowflakes, Barber said. No two are alike.
“I thought I’d be on tour for 40 years,” Francella said.
Instead, the game only grew tougher. Golf brought Francella down so far that, in the end, she resented it. After making only $7,838 in 14 events last season, Francella sold her house and became a caddie with a guaranteed income. She had played seven full seasons on tour.
“For the first time in my life,” said Francella, 32, “I can actually say that I’m truly, truly happy.”
Like many twentysomething Americans, Nicole Hage grew up believing she’d be the next Juli Inkster. Yet she lasted only six seasons on tour.
“I woke up one morning last June and it was gone,” said Hage, 29, who oversees hospitality and event planning for Chisum Sports. “I haven’t thought about it since.”
Hage struggled to build a resume when she left the tour because, like many of her peers, golf had been her only job. She graduated from Auburn in 2007 with a communications degree and made $74,174 in six years on the LPGA. Hage had the talent but mentally never quite figured it out.
For 21 years, Hage dedicated her life to golf. Now she finds herself learning the most basic parts of the business world.
“Everything is just so foreign to me,” she said.
Plus, for the first time in her life, she has a boss.
“It’s not about you anymore,” Hage said. “It’s not your party.”
It’s another sun-splashed day in South Florida, and while the rest of the tour competes in South Korea, Lewis is sharing a bowl of chips and guacamole at Rocco’s Tacos with friends Alison Walshe and Cindy LaCrosse.
The frugal Lewis, who majored in finance and accounting at Arkansas, tracks her expenses monthly on an Excel file. She might rank first on the LPGA’s money list, but that doesn’t make her unaware of tourwide challenges.
| Player (Events) | 2013 money (rank) | Caddie | Team | Travel | Course membership | Entry fees/dues | Home Expenses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stacy Lewis (26) | $2,158,573 (3) | $242,000 | $75,500 | $64,375 | $15,000 | $5,500 | $46,050 |
| Gerina Piller (26) | $572,690 (26) | $75,517 | $7,735 | $30,114 | $0 | $5,031 | $26,000 |
| Alison Walshe (24) | $245,515 (53) | $48,193 | $13,000 | $44,605 | $8,600 | $4,926 | $33,346 |
| Kristy McPherson (19) | $108,615 (83) | $28,970 | n/a | $25,148 | $5,000 | $4,050 | $26,500 |
| Brooke Pancake (17) | $63,647 (98) | $20,876 | $10,500 | $18,785 | $7,000 | $3,675 | $17,137 |
| Julia Boland (15) | $22,714 (122) | $32,128 | $15,505 | $28,534 | $0 | $3,475 | $14,000 |
“So, over a stretch of 30 events, everybody is paying a total of at least $30,000 for a caddie,” Lewis said, “and that’s if you miss the cut and you’re not paying for their flights. So 40-50K right away for caddies.
"But then you add expenses (on the road), and you’ve got to make $100,000 to break even.”
And that’s not including bills at home. Or taxes.
“That’s why I hate putting all my expenses together,” said Lewis, shaking her head.
“Relax, multi-millionaire,” Walshe said jokingly from across the table.
Lewis watches successful friends buy houses and cars for their families, and she worries.
Professional athletes typically reach their peak earning potential well before age 35. It’s the reverse of most careers.
“I get that you want to take care of your family, but what are you going to do 10 years from now?” Lewis asked. “That 50K could mean a lot . . . But girls don’t think about that.”
Though golf, by its non-contact, low-impact nature, might offer pro athletes the potential of a long-lasting career, only 10 LPGA players 40 or older held active status in 2014.
Catriona Matthew, the 45-year-old marvel who, with two kids, is playing better than ever, isn’t surprised that many players her age have quit. Most practised all hours in the day, she said, and played golf year-round. Matthew, however, still lives near the course where she grew up – North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland – and recommends putting away the clubs for at least one month during the off-season. That’s easy to do while wintering along the Firth of Forth.
“I have a great balance between golf and family life,” Matthew said. “I sacrifice a lot.”
Leta Lindley can speak to those sacrifices. She and husband Matt Plagmann, her long-time caddie, left the LPGA in September 2012 after 18 seasons to be with their kids.
They went home to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and started Leta’s Home Team, a home-watching and handyman service for residents who leave their homes for extended periods.
Lindley, 42, is the face of the company, but Matt does most of the work. She’s too busy presiding over the PTA and running her charity.
“We’re by no means becoming millionaires through this business,” Lindley said, “but it gives purpose to the day and puts groceries on the table.”
The couple left the road to raise soccer-crazed Cole, 10, and Reese, 8, who loves the stage.
“I wanted to make memories with my kids,” Lindley said, “and I didn’t want those to be mommy’s backside walking out the door and us crying and saying goodbye.”
Lindley, who earned more than $3 million in her career, lives comfortably if not luxuriously.
“We laugh when we look at it and the skewed picture that’s presented to the public,” she said.
The desire to have a family – and be home – isn’t the only reason players leave the tour early. Paige Mackenzie points to better competition.
“It will be interesting to see the next five years,” Mackenzie said. “There will be no hangers-on.”
According to LPGA data from the past 10 years, the cutline has dropped two strokes on a par-71 course and 1.3 strokes on par 72s.
“You can’t slap it around and make a cut,” LaCrosse said.
The LPGA’s talent not only is deeper but younger, with four teenagers having won in 2014. Just days after Lydia Ko turned professional at 16, she wondered whether 30 might be a nice age to retire. She’s 17 and already a four-time winner on tour.
For many of the LPGA’s rising stars, burn-out could be as much of a threat as injury. With players specializing early, is 30 the new 40?
Inkster, for one, doesn’t envy the younger crowd.
“This is no lie: In the 1980s, on a Monday, you could blow a bomb off and no one was here,” Inkster said of old-school practice habits.
Now, every day is a grind.
Of the top 20 players in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings from 10 years ago, only three still play golf for a living: Brittany Lang, Hannah Jun Medlock and Mackenzie, who was out this season on medical leave.
“I think another reason people are retiring is, they’re terrified,” Walshe said. “They don’t have money.”
Some, Lewis said, don’t even carry health insurance.
“I think what people need to remember is that being a member of the LPGA doesn’t guarantee you a living,” Karrie Webb said, “but it provides you the opportunity to make a great living. I think that gets lost now.”
Jane Blalock quit the tour cold turkey in 1985. She knew she couldn’t keep the same intensity past 40 that she’d had in her younger days, so the 27-time winner dusted off an old business card she had collected at a pro-am and phoned the chief financial officer at Merrill Lynch.
Blalock soon found herself walking to work each morning on the cobblestone streets of Boston wearing a suit, briefcase in hand.
Wow, did your life just change, she told herself.
Blalock, 69, said for many players, particularly the successful ones, it’s difficult to abandon the quest to find the game’s secret.
“How much do you have to crash before you realize you have to move on?” she asks.
As co-founder of the Legends Tour, Blalock knows the difficulties that former players face in transitioning to life after the tour. Chief among them are finances. Blalock spent nearly 20 years on the LPGA and said she gets $262 per month from her pension.
Sheehan said the cheque she receives from the tour each month might not even cover what it costs to groom and feed her six dogs.
Rather it’s two investments Sheehan made in the 1980s that keep her afloat.
“Otherwise I’d be out there working in a pro shop somewhere or teaching,” she said.
Kathy Milthorpe, the LPGA’s chief financial officer, said the tour’s retirement program – 50 percent vesting after five years, with 100 percent after 10 – never was intended to be a sole source of income.
Though the PGA Tour and LPGA plans were drawn up by the same law firm and introduced within months of each other in 1982-83, the PGA Tour can line the pockets of players in a way the LPGA simply cannot afford.
At home in Mexico City, Ochoa tries not to spend more than one night per week on the road, raising money for her foundation and conducting exhibitions for sponsors. Those who know Ochoa believe the mother of two (and three stepchildren) when she says she does not judge players who raise kids on tour or delay their dream of starting a family.
But her advice carries a strong warning.
“Just be very careful and really open your eyes,” she said. “If there are other things in life that you love to do, life is too short.
“It’s very easy to forget, and the time will pass and then you probably will regret.”
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | 9:05:00 am
<< Home