Why The World's Top Golfers Deserve a Break

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

It is not easy to feel a great deal of sympathy for the multi-millionaire stars of the PGA Tour and, to a lesser extent, the leading lights on the DP World Tour. The top players earn vast amounts of money for doing something they love.

Week in, week out they compete for huge first prizes. And to the outside world they may appear to be largely spoilt individuals.

But a strange thing is happening this week. Both tours have given their players a week off.

Most of the superstars of the PGA Tour have not been seen in tournament action since the Tour Championship, which was played at East Lake at the end of August, although 12 of them competed for the USA at the Presidents Cup with a further 12 representing the Internationals in Canada.

This weekend the PGA Tour rolled up in Japan, while the DP World Tour stars have been competing in Korea. Tom Kim, one of the leading young players in the world, turned up to defend his Shriners Children’s Open title and then boarded a plane to compete in Korea. Jorge Campillo and Julien Guerrier completed a nine-hole playoff at the Andalucia Masters before also boarding a flight for Korea.

They may lead a pampered life and those at the top of the tree are handsomely rewarded but the schedule they follow is utterly exhausting.

Scottie Scheffler is on an extended break from the game, safe in the knowledge that after winning EIGHT times this season, nobody is coming close to him at the top of the world rankings.

Rory McIlroy knows that he has a duty to support the DP World Tour and headed home to play in the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship, both of which he could have won. The Northern Irishman added to both his bank balance and lead in the Race to Dubai in the process, and won himself yet more admirers.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

We saw Tyrrell Hatton, who has appealed against his DP World Tour suspension, winning the Dunhill Links Championship, pocketing a huge cheque and securing his place in the end-of-season playoffs.

But not everybody finds themselves in such a comfortable position. 

On the DP World Tour many players who would not otherwise have chosen to travel to Korea found themselves scrambling for places in the field as they desperately attempted to end the regular season in the top 114 in the Race to Dubai - failure to do so means either heading back to the Challenge Tour, qualifying school or praying they will get some invitations for the 2025 season, which begins in the blink of an eye.

And on the PGA Tour there is a scramble to complete the FedEx Cup Fall season to claim a place in the top 125 If they don’t manage it, they are heading to the Korn Ferry Tour in the hope of battling their way back to the top.

It can be a brutal existence. It is well recorded that the DP World Tour is a far friendlier circuit than its American equivalent, with players mixing socially at tournament venues.

Before winning the Canadian Open, Robert MacIntyre spoke of how difficult he had found life in America, thousands of miles from his friends and family. Victory in Canada, followed by another at the Scottish Open, changed everything for the Scot because it meant he could relax and pick and choose the events in which he wanted to play. Ryan Fox, who enjoyed a sensational year in Europe in 2023 has also struggled with the schedule in America.

Life on tour means constant travel, staying in hotels, heading to the practice ground, competing in an eve-of-tournament pro-am and then grinding it out over 72 holes. And for those on the cusp, success may simply mean making the cut and playing at the weekend. 

Many players have struggled with their mental health. Grayson Murray, whose issues with drink and drugs were well documented, appeared to have turned a corner when he won the Sony Open at the start of the year. Within weeks, he had taken his own life. Chris Kirk is another who has had his battles with alcohol. And there are many others. The pressure to succeed at this level is constant, the fear of failure ever present. And the tours have a duty of care.

Reputations mean nothing. We have seen a host of first-time winners on both tours this year - Scott Dunlap, Harry Hall, Matthieu Pavon, Taylor Pendrith, Stephan Jaeger, Jake Knapp, Austin Eckroat, Laurie Canter, Angel Hidalgo, Julien Guerrier, David Ravetto, Niklas Norgaard - the list goes on and on. All of these golfers set out with dreams of glory but they all knew only too well that there were no guarantees.

And nobody knows how long it will last - or if victory number two will ever happen.

A look at the FedEx Cup standings reveals that some very well-known golfers will be playing elsewhere or depending on sponsor exemptions in 2025. They include Brandt Snedeker,  Zach Johnson, Martin Laird, Webb Simpson, Cameron Champ, Ryan Palmer, Sean O’Hair, Kevin Kisner and Russell Knox.

So applaud both tours for giving their players the chance to draw breath this week.