Quote:
Originally Posted by jebartle
Good post Boogie but wondering why our American players are less, do we have a lot of "fat cats" (especially on pga) because of prizes that retirement is the next option, and for the lpga, raising a family.
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I don't know that retiring to raise a family is an American thing. Annika Sorenstam retired at the peak of her career to raise a family. Many of the women on the tour today have had children and still play. Stacey Lewis recently took time off to have a baby as did Gerina Piller and both are back playing the tour. Julie Inkster and Angela Stanford and many others have kids.
I think that they amount of money they make and ease of transportation allows them to do that. It's more of a choice now than it was in the past.
I don't know about "fat cats". I suppose what you mean by that is that they make a lot of money so they don't have the incentive to work hard. IMHO, the large amounts of money for most players creates just the opposite mindset. Most of the better players have so much money that it's not a motivating factor. These are very competitive type A personalities and what they want is to compete, win and be the best in the world. The money is not an issue. Once they don't have to worry about money, they can focus on being the best in the world.
If money and retirement was such a huge factor a lot of them would make play until they have a net worth of $10 million or so (and with endorsements, appearance money and winning, that's not that far fetched for a good player) and then retire. You don't see many doing that.
I think that American women are just as competitive. What has happened is that golf was once primarily played in the US and UK with a bit in Europe. Now it's become a much more international game with players from all over the world.
There are a lot more international players on the PGA tour as well. It used to be unusual to see a European or Asian on the PGA tour but now there are a lot of them. Again ease of travel is a contributing factor as is the amount of money to be made. Until recently, Asian players played on the Asian tour. Now it's much easier to come here and play for a lot more money than they would in their home countries.. In addition, the PGA tour is making more international stops along with the World Golf Championships.
Golf has simply become a much more international game so we're seeing more international players on all of our tours.