I am often asked by young amateurs what it’s like to be a professional golfer. After 16 years on the LPGA Tour, I’m getting pretty good at painting the picture…

Tour Week
A typical week for an LPGA player starts with a Pro-Am on Monday in some distant city. Sometimes it’s at the same course as the upcoming tournament, but quite often it is in a different city and probably even a different state. After playing the Pro-Am, players usually arrive at the tournament city on Monday night.

Tuesday is practice round day. Everyone has a different time they like to practice, but usually everyone plays at some point. Also, Tuesday is the busiest day in the Fitness Trailer. Some players try to get a work-out in, and others visit the physical therapists for nagging injuries. Wednesday is another Pro-Am day. About 50-60 pros are usually involved in this one and spend approximately five hours on the course with amateurs that have paid a lot of money for the opportunity. On Wednesday evening, many pros attend the Pro-Am party with their teams of amateurs.

Thursday the official tournament begins, and after Friday’s round, there’s a “cut.” The top 70 finishers and ties make it to the weekend. That’s about a 50% of the field. If you don’t make the cut, you don’t make a check. As you might imagine, the practice range is always filled with players trying to figure out their swings for the next week. When that tournament is over, players take off for the next Monday Pro-Am, and the week starts all over again. New city, new golf course, new opportunity.

My Start
To get to the LPGA Tour level, I took a less direct route than most. I played golf for the first time when I was about 8. It didn’t last very long because I became very involved with tennis and swimming at age 10. When I started playing the faster-paced tennis, I didn’t want anything to do with golf. After a 10-year career of tennis - two years playing varsity tennis at the University of Michigan - I became disenchanted with the game. I still loved to watch tennis, but I could see the writing on the wall that I had peaked. Tennis in college was virtually year-round, and I felt this was affecting my grades and my social life, so I decided after my sophomore year that I’d had enough.

About that time, I happened to be at a reception for all the women athletes at UM and started talking to the golf team. They were a very young team and were looking for more players. I made a decision that as soon as school was out in the spring, I would start learning golf and try to make the team in the fall. It seemed like a long shot, but my parents were very supportive, given they both were very passionate about golf. For four months at the age of 20, I hit golf balls, played up to 36 holes a day, and even competed in some local tournaments. I took at least one lesson a week, and tried to absorb as much information as possible about my new passion. As it turned out, I broke 80 for the first time just before heading to Michigan for tryouts. This gave me the added confidence I needed to try out, and my hard work paid off. I made the team.

As much as I played the game at that time, I really didn’t think I had a chance to become a professional. I started at such a late age. When I graduated, I was still not nearly good enough to consider playing professionally. I took a job as an assistant professional for a couple of summers, working for a boss that let me play quite a bit. He was a good player himself and helped mature my game. He is responsible for the encouragement I needed to give playing on Tour a try.

Making the Tour
To qualify for the LPGA, you must compete in the qualifying tournament. This is a two stage process. First, you enter the sectional tournament. There are two opportunities to qualify. If you don’t make it in the first one, you can try again at the second. The top 30 at each event qualify for the finals held in October. At the very final stage of competition, there are 60 players from these sectionals plus Tour players who either lost their cards or want to improve their standings to become exempt. The final tournament is held over four days in Florida, and can be the most stressful week of a professional’s career. If you happen to have a bad week, you must wait a whole year to have the opportunity again.

After I qualified and joined the Tour, I made the cut in the second tournament I played in, so at that time I thought I was off to a good start. But as the year went on, making cuts became a little more difficult. There are so many good players on Tour. However, at the end of the year, I did well enough to keep my card and escaped having to go back to the qualifying tournament. It took me about four years to really start to make some money. I learned a lot while playing on Tour. It is nothing like anything I have ever done. But with patience and hard work, I finally found myself out there, and in my fifth year, I won my first tournament.

I had a nice run on the Tour from 1989-1996. I won twice and finished 11^th on the money list in 1994. That same year, I also served as President of the LPGA. It was unexpected that this would be my best year on Tour. In retrospect, I think that I was so busy that I practiced with purpose and concentrated better on each task at hand.

Playing in Tournaments
While out on the course in competition, I tried to just focus on the shot in front of me. I tried not to think ahead, because, after so many years of tournament golf, I know what happens on the first hole has nothing to do with the outcome of the day. Many times I would birdie the first hole, only to go on to have one of my worst rounds. Conversely, I’d bogey the first couple of holes, and go on to shoot 68. I’ve always believed in one shot at a time, and it all starts with the first one.

When looking back on my LPGA career, I don’t think I did as well as I could have whenever I was in a position to win. Otherwise, I believe I would have won more tournaments. I think I got caught up too much with the leader board. It’s really hard not to look up there and see what everyone else is doing. What happens is your focus turns away from what you are doing to what they are doing. Some players are really good about not looking until the end. They will ask their caddies on the last couple of holes, but not start looking early in the round.

Among the tournaments I did win, I remember one in which I had a pretty good lead, coming down the stretch. I was playing a few groups ahead of the day’s leaders, so I concentrated on being the first to post a low number. And it held up. Maybe the others were looking at the board too much, and put pressure on themselves to birdie the finishing holes.

In any given year there are about 220 players who play in tournaments. I am ranked in the Top 50 in LPGA careers earning this year. That number changes quite a bit since the purses are so much higher now. I don’t put a lot of stock into that ranking. It doesn’t take into account the purses, and I am ahead of players like Patty Berg, who won dozens of tournaments in her time. I would never compare myself to those players.

Changes in the Tour
The Tour has changed in a few ways since it first began. First, the quality of play is deeper. By this I mean that the 125^th player on the money list is a much better player than ten years ago. Anyone out there has the ability to win now. That is why you see so many first-time winners. Second, the purses have increased dramatically. When I started on the Tour, the entire purse for the year was about $8 million. This year, the total purse was over $42 million.

A third way in which the Tour has changed is the atmosphere among the players. They are much more business-like in their approach to the game. They have agents, sports psychologists, short game instructors, swing instructors and fitness experts guiding them along the way. Unfortunately, the downside of all this mentoring is that the players seem like robots at times. Their true personalities, which are very appealing, are masked by their game faces. The viewing public is not getting the opportunity to see what interesting people these players are because so much money is at stake.

A New Tour
The Women’s Senior Golf Tour, founded in 2000, has an opportunity to bring those old personalities that fans have enjoyed for so long back into the game. In a way, it is an extension of the LPGA Tour, but it is also almost a new kind of Tour. Of course, it is made up of the same players who have been around for so long, so the camaraderie is great. But how we go about selling the Tour, and running tournaments is different. The WSGT sells the Tour on its players’ personalities, not just on their ability to hit the ball. Players have fun, and show it; spectators, sponsors, and Pro-Am participants feel the energy and feel a part of everything. Players interact with each other and with the crowd to show how fun golf can be. Everyone makes a check, so it’s all right to talk and joke around. Crowds can get a little closer, in some cases, almost inside the ropes. Pro-Am parties are attended by all the players and are just as important as the golf tournament itself.

Playing professional golf on the LPGA Tour allowed me to do what I loved with people that had the same passion, and make a living doing it. I look forward to teeing it up on the WSGT to re-capture some of that old spirit without feeling the heightened pressure of competition now prevalent in LPGA events. The WSGT’s schedule is much lighter, freeing me up to do other things and pursue interests and talents I have outside of the game of golf. Being on the LPGA Tour was exciting and frustrating all at the same time. I am proud to have played as long as I have, but I won’t miss all that traveling!

Summary
Golf is a different kind of athletic profession. You can realistically be a professional golfer your whole life. Most people peak at golf in their mid-thirties. Of course there are exceptions like Tiger, Annika and Karrie. But, have they peaked? Only the future will answer that. For most young golfers, I recommend first getting your education. You never know what life will bring you. What better way to improve you game than to have someone pay for your education, and pay for your expenses to travel around and play tournaments? There are so many scholarships out there for golf, it seems a shame for young golfers not to take advantage of them. If I were getting started on a professional golf career today, that’s the approach I would take.

If I hadn’t made the Tour, maybe by now I would be the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. There’s still time . . . after all, I did earn my BBA from the University of Michigan Business School. It wasn’t all fun and games, building a career in golf, but it was a tremendous opportunity to test my skills, prove my talents and meet so many wonderful people along the way.

Elaine Crosby is a 16-year veteran of the LPGA Tournament Division and Founder & CEO of FINDaLESSON.com, a web site directory of 1,600 PGA/LPGA teaching professionals in 50 states.