I didn’t know he had such an accomplished college career. Crazy to think someone can be this good at golf and still not be able to make it as a pro.
by ahammonds
I didn’t know he had such an accomplished college career. Crazy to think someone can be this good at golf and still not be able to make it as a pro.
by ahammonds
28 Comments
If you go to a us open qualifier, you’ll find 1,000s of guys that have super amount of talent but no where near tour level
He was an all American in 2009 but only second team all SEC? Damn
I mean look at Brad Dalke. Palmer Cup, NCAA champion, & only has a couple Korn Ferry & PGA Tour Starts.
Plenty of +7 handicaps out there who couldn’t even make a cut on a mini tour…
I forget who it was but I saw an interview from someone that was an elite golfer but not PGA tour. He said that there are plenty of guys that can go out and go low on any given day on a championship course. The difference between the top amateurs/mini tours and the PGA tour guys is being able to do it 4 consecutive days every single week.
There’s a video where he was talking about either leading the SEC Championship and his team was winning. He choked on the last hole and he lost individual championship and his team lost overall championship.
Playing a different course 35 weeks a year with your paycheck/life on the line does something to people.
It just goes to shoe you the difference in talent level on the PGA Tour and D1 golf.
Hi George
A guy at my club is just elite- good career at an arc school, many state titles, 15x club champion, almost made a few walker cup, etc. We have a few of a tour players at our club as well, and I asked one why the club champion never made it on tour. His response- “he’s not very good to be honest”.
Whit Merrifield mentioned
George never had the mental game. You can still see it in their videos. He gets super tight any time he is playing well and one error sends him spiraling.
He’s also not a good enough putter or chipper, but I think thats an extension of his mental
the most over looked thing about pro golf, a 4 day adventure. is you have 2 days to beat half the field. so you need to go low thursday and friday on command.
The difference between George and Wesley is simply that Wesley is a cocky bastard (complimentary) and George isn’t. I believe if George had a different mindset he could’ve also won a random PGA Tour event and had a pro career. There are a ton of talented golfers who don’t make it. Pro golf is one of the toughest mental games on the planet and that’s the difference at the highest level.
For anyone who actually gives a shit beyond speculation, The Golfers Journal literally just interviewed George and Wesley about how their careers developed.
There’s a lot of good comments here, but I haven’t seen anyone talking about age. There’s a big difference between being the one of the best 18 year old golfer, and being the best golfers in the world. It doesn’t matter how good you are at 20, I mean it gives you a good head start, but you can easily burn out or lose focus. Steve Stricker didn’t win his first professional tournament until he was almost 30 years old. Kenny Perry turned pro in 1982 and didn’t do shit until he was in his mid 30s.
So if you are this hotshot college golfer with a lot of talent, but you don’t have the drive to grind every day, you are going to get lapped by the guys like Kenny Perry who spend the next 10 years of their life busting their ass to get to the top. You see a lot of the best golfers who had great amateur, junior, and college careers, but it’s not a guarantee. In golf, there aren’t any shortcuts, and you have to be able to beat the hundred other guys who have been spending the last ten years giving it their all.
Did he try to go pro? How far didhe get?
Haven’t seen anyone talk about funding yet. Not only do you need to be an elite player but you need the funding (low six figures) just to go out there.
GB is probably the best example of how difficult it is to make it on tour. He 100% has the game to play on tour but seems to get in his own head a bit and also seems to play more conservatively than his brother.
People talk about the mental side of golf a lot, and IMO, this is really the only place it plays a significant difference. The skills are there to be a tour player, but the killer mindset doesn’t seem to be there.
I loved the 9 rule taco challenge vid. It showed who could focus and block out the white noise. George and Kwon were hopeless. Wesley was clearly the best at staying in the moment. These type of silly challenges are a great way to see who has the mental game for professional golf.
Buddy of mine played on the Asian tour back in the early – mid 90’s. When I asked him why he never went beyond that he said guys like Mike Weir would just beat him by 3 – 4 strokes every single round. Do that over 4-days and you don’t make a lot of money.
I love watching George. He’s such a great golfer and I find his neuroticism oddly endearing.
George had mid-tier PGA pro talent, but not the mentality. Wesley doesn’t have his talent, but the mental game (and short game that goes hand in hand) to do well at the right course/opposite field event.
I think one of the X factors is also how much someone loves to play golf. I love to play golf…but to be honest with myself…I’m not sure I’d love it if I played golf 5 days a week for 30 weeks a year
His record says he was good for that school, and that conference.
But no NCAA championship. No US Amateur title.
That means even as accomplished as he was for South Carolina, there were many other dudes doing better, even back then.
I’ve never thought less of him
Now think of the guys who turn pro and play on the Korn Ferry or play a split schedule on the PGA. Now think of some of those guys regaining their amateur status and playing the mid-am. It’s a fucking joke
A more impressive post would the no-name, short hitting player with an unimpressive background who makes it big on tour. Loren Roberts comes to mind.
Adda boy Whit! That’s cool