-The PGA Tour
-The PGA of America
The PGA Tour runs the professional tour by its namesake (save for majors and the Ryder Cup).
The PGA of America is the larger body for club professionals and the like. The PGA of America runs two events- the USPGA Championship (one of four majors), and co-runs the Ryder Cup (picks the captain, venues when the US is host).
Neither body cares how good you are. The only thing the PGA Tour wants is your handicap (scratch or better) and your checque for $5000 to cover entry into Q-School, which doesn't cover your travel expenses.
If you're talking about being on the PGA Tour, your amateur record is largely inconsequential. Assuming you have no status (and odds are you don't), your have two tracks to making it on the PGA Tour:
1) Gain entry into an event via sponsor exemption (file under 'when pigs fly'), or Monday-qualify for a PGA Tour event (the Monday prior to every non-invitational tournament they hold a qualifier for four spots in the field). Make one of the four spots and you're in the field. Then all you need to do is win the tournament and presto, you get a PGA Tour card and a 2-year exemption. You're talking about beating out 150++ other players, all of whom have the same ambitions and goals.
2) Qualify for the PGA Tour through Q-school. Again, with no prior status you'll need to make it through a preliminary stage and three following stages (used to be just three but they have an added stage for the unknown entities such as yourself). The number of people who earn cards out of the first stage is a small handful (just to make it out of the first stage you'd need to finish in the Top 15 in a field of 100-115 other hopefuls and then repeat this at second stage, and at finals finish T25 in a field of 180++ over six days). Understand that when you get to second stage you're up against past Tour members, PGA Tour winners, and the odd past major champion. Third stage? The bar is even higher. In 2005, out of 1000 guys who entered at first stage, a small handful earned PGA Tour cards and probably 900-950 of them have the ability to play on the Tour (it comes down to being able to handle playing well under pressure...can you handle making a 6-foot sidehill putt when, if you make it you're playing on either the PGA or Nationwide Tour or you're essentially on your own for the next 12 months?).
As far as sponsors...if you're good enough, they will notice you. Trust me- if you're playing in third stage (finals), sponsors and agents will be all over you if you're in the mix.
Your first step would be to turn professional and forfeit your amateur status. Play mini-tours (the Hooters/NGA Tour and the Canadian Tour are probably the most well-known, but depending on where you live there might be regional tours; essentially you pony up large entry fees and try to win money back by winning). If you can handle paying $1000+ per week in entry fees (and more importantly learn how to score in tournament golf by finish top-10 (where you'll make money) that will help you more than playing in amateur events).
If you don't have the scratch for this, get some locals to invest in you (typically they invest to cover your fees/expenses, and you pay them back by giving them a cut of your prize money for the next "X" number of years). Here's a hypothetical:
-You find 10 local business types who know you, and think you can make it. You convince them to invest, let's say $10,000 each in you. That gives you $100K to cover entry fees, travel expenses, equipment, and the like (they might give you a "salary" once you earn prize money). You agree to give them (collectively) 25% of your prize money for the next three years (so if you earn a checque at a tournament for $10,000, you keep $7500 and give your investors $2500) regardless of where you play. Keep in mind that you are most likely paying taxes on the $10,000 in this example). If you go bust and don't make enough to cover their original investment, they lose and you are likely done. If you somehow hit it big, they more than recoup their investment. This example was from a proposal I was pitched in fall 2009 by a friend of a friend who played on the 2010 Canadian Tour.What amateur tournaments do i play in for golf to get noticed by the pga?the pga doesn't need to recruit players. by the size of q-school (pga membership tournament process) they have more people who want to play pga golf than the senior pga tour, pga tour, and nationwide (jr pga) tours can accommodate
for you to even consider getting noticed by sponsors, commercial or private, you need to be a scratch golfer just to start with. it would help if you have won or at least placed in the top 10 usga amateur tournaments
get your handicap down to zero or at least single digits, play usga and mini-tour tournaments. you can always try monday qualifying for those tournaments that allow it. and if you are good enough maybe you have a chance|||US Amateur or US Publinks - Win them and you get an invitation to the Masters and US Open
US Open qualifying is open to anyone
Q school is your other optionWhat amateur tournaments do i play in for golf to get noticed by the pga?US Amateur or US Publinks|||Unless you're Tiger Woods, you might be better off going to them. Any event sanctioned by the USGA would show you off, as would going to college.|||None
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