Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
At first glance, making over $250,000 in a year to play golf for a living seems like a pretty sweet gig. That’s the reality that Korn Ferry Tour player Joe Nicholas found himself inhabiting thanks to his play in 2025, although he acknowledged that number didn’t reflect what he ended up taking home while breaking down the many expenses he also had to take care of.
Most golfers will never come close to sniffing the amount of talent you need to turn the game into a feasible career, and most people who play the sport on a regular basis would kill to get the chance to abandon their run-of-the-mill job in favor of a life where they get paid for doing exactly that.
That can be a very lucrative pursuit if you’re one of the best players on the planet—or, in the case of Scottie Scheffler, the best player on the planet when you consider he raked in $27,659,550 in earnings alone thanks to his play on the PGA Tour during the most recent season.
There were 120 guys on that particular circuit who took home at least seven figures in tournaments over the course of 2025. However, the same cannot be said for the Korn Ferry Tour, the feeder league where Johnny Keefer “only” made $831,686 as its top earner while becoming one of the 20 players who earned their PGA Tour card this season.
James Nicholas, a 28-year-old Yale product who turned pro in 2025, found himself on the outside looking in during a season where he finished 63rd on the Korn Ferry money list with $173,507 while also earning $62,679 in the six PGA Tour events he qualified for.
That’s certainly not too shabby, although that sum was offset by more than a few expenditures.
Korn Ferry Tour player James Nicholas revealed how much he really earned after making around $255,000 in 2025
Most professional athletes don’t have to worry about footing the bill for travel, lodging, and meals when they’re on the road. However, that’s not the case for most professional golfers, who are usually burdened with those expenses and plenty of others while roaming the United States (and, in many cases, the entire world) in search of their next paycheck.
They can ease the burden with the help of the sponsorship deals they can use to supplement their tournament earnings, and while James Nicholas declined to address the endorsements he harnessed to support himself during this year’s Korn Ferry Tour season, he did provide a peek behind the curtain when it comes to the costs they helped cancel out.
Nicholas may not be the biggest name in golf, but he’s amassed a sizeable social media following thanks to his willingness to offer some transparency concerning some overlooked aspects of the lives of professional golfers who are continually grinding to keep their dream alive.
Over the summer, he broke down how much he really made after getting $43,445 for tying for 61st at the U.S. Open, and he recently took the time to analyze his entire year in the same fashion.
Nicholas made a grand total of $255,058 in tournament earnings, but his take-home was a bit lower thanks to expenses that included:
Caddie: $58,340
Lodging: $27,747
Flights: $17,036
YouTube Team: $13,100
Groceries and Meals: $12,809
Coaches: $5,855
Rental Cars: $4,661
Tournament Entry Fees: $4,600
Personal Trainer: $2,650
Miscellaneous: $3,601
Locker Room and Club Repair Fees: $800
According to the spreadsheet he uses to keep track of what’s coming in and out, those expenses ended up totaling $151,249, meaning his net earnings came to $103,808. That’s certainly not a tiny number, but it’s still a far cry from what you might have assumed he really made.
