I am sure you’ve either heard it mentioned on a TV broadcast or been to a PGA Tour event on Wednesday and noticed the Pro-Am competition taking place. What is this event, and why do they have it? This event serves a few purposes, to give the Pros playing that week one last chance to see the course, to allow some amateurs to raise money for charity, and give you the experience of a lifetime!
I recently played in a Pro-Am on the Korn Ferry Tour, and I must say, it certainly lived up to the hype! Now I know what you must think, Korn Ferry; I don’t even know who most of those guys are… But I tell you, they are outstanding players! Most of them are just on the cusp of being on the PGA tour next year, and you can feel that in the air.
COVID-19 Impacts
Now living in the Covid era, we had to pass a Covid-19 test a couple of days before, temperature screenings upon arrival that day, facemasks, and practice social distancing for the safety of everyone. Like a well-oiled machine, everyone was doing their part to do the right thing. I felt very safe the entire time. Upon sign-in, we were each given a cooler bag and asked to fill them up with ice and drinks right there for our day. Brilliant idea, no one touches your drinks for the day but you. The little details like this they had all worked out, putting you at ease and making the day worry-free.
Pro-Am Prep
Not wanting to miss a single thing, I arrived two and a half hours early. I highly recommend this! Soak it all in; how often do you get to chip and putt next to touring pros? How often do you get to see up close how they practice, hit individual shots, or tinker with their game before they tee off? Every bit was interesting! I loved seeing all the putting drills. These guys work on their putting a lot, way more than the ten putts most of us take before a regular round. I saw lots of putting mirrors, chalk lines, gate drills, and distance drills by all the players. Everything they do has a specific purpose of keeping their stroke in check, dialed in, and ready to drop tons of birdies.
When we were all warmed up and off to the first tee, the nerves did settle in a bit. Then our pro and caddie walked up and introduced themselves. Now I can only imagine the extra pressure if you were doing this in a PGA tour event with fans, but trust me, you still do not want to embarrass yourself in front of these guys. That is all I kept thinking. The pros will play their super far back tees you would never dare play, probably 7200-7500 yards. You will most likely play two tees up; for us, it was around 6400 – 6500 yards. The event organizers want to make this fun, and they know not everyone is a single-digit young buck pounding long drives. They also set the day up as a team-best ball, typically designated as bogey as a max score. So, if you pump the first two shots OB on a hole, no big deal, you have other teammates to help you out, and one of the best players on the planet in your corner to lean on, trust me, it feels nice!
The PRO Experience
I watched the pro tee off, and of course, he bombed a drive super high and way down the middle of the fairway. I decided right there, “well damnit, let’s just have some fun,” and stepped up and hit a beauty down the middle. I heard the caddie say, “oh wow, that’s a great swing,” and it put my mind at ease. It was then all the nerves went away, and I started to realize how much fun this was going to be.
The first thing that I noticed is that these are just regular guys who happen to be extraordinary at playing golf. Both the caddie and the pro were extremely friendly and talkative the entire round. When they were ready to hit a shot, you could tell how they both would go into work mode and go through their shot preparations like an NFL quarterback reading the defense to decide what move to make next. They would lock-in, like the world around them falls away, and neither can see or hear anything else, like tunnel vision. As soon as the shot was hit, they would switch it off and start chatting again. It is fascinating to me and tells you that even these guys can’t stay that focused for four-plus hours. They know how to turn it on and then turn it off to stay mentally fresh and relaxed.
During the round, we talked about everything from “what do you eat during a competitive round,” “do you tinker with your club setups much” to “hey, look at this guitar I have,” and “this is my surfing buddy.” You must remember that these guys are supreme athletes, most of which were probably good or excellent at another sport, and they love to talk sports! When in doubt, all you have to do is ask them what their favorite sports team is, and you have something to talk about for the next 4-6 holes. Having a good down to earth pro is not always guaranteed from what I hear, but from my sample size of one, and all the other amateurs I spoke with after the round, everyone had a fantastic day with their pro.
I also learned a bit about what it is like for these guys on tour. As a pro, they have to consider travel arrangements, housing for the week, and a lot of logistics, not just playing golf. Also, since not yet on the PGA tour, most of these guys are on minimal travel budgets, still driving from site to site each week unless it is a very far destination from one week to the next, in which case they splurge on a coach seat on an airplane. They talk amongst the other pros a lot about where they are staying that week, who they are sharing a rental Air-BNB with, and how they are getting to the next tournament. Plus, they may think they have one set of plans, then do well in a tournament, and it opens the door into some other more prestigious event, in which all plans must be re-done all over again. They genuinely live like road warriors out of their suitcases.
With all that said about their travel, these guys are in fantastic shape. They play in 2-3 practice rounds, grinding long range sessions before and sometimes after rounds, then four days of tournament conditions golf is impressive. I now see why the guys that can afford to take weeks off do it; this takes a significant toll on your body. The course we were playing was not kind to a walking player, having all kinds of real estate between holes. The player and caddie must have walked eight-plus miles up and down hills. I now understand why all these pros and caddies have giant calves and are rail skinny. Most are built more like cross country runners than linebackers, and I know why Bryson Dechambeau is drinking eight protein shakes a day to gain weight to put on muscle. Our pro mentioned he was looking forward to a nice ice bath at the end of the day. An old veteran on the PGA tour once told me, “it’s all the walking that gets most guys on tour, needing knee replacements or having foot problems, not to mention all the swings you take each week.”
The AM Experience
Another thing I noticed quickly is how the course is set up for these guys. This is not your ordinary home course, the rough is thick, and the greens are fast. I highly recommend you practice putting at home on your hardwood floors for a couple of days before the round because that’s what it will most closely resemble. Our greens for the event were running around 13 on the stimp meter and smooth as silk. If you executed your putt with the speed and line right, it was going in, with no bumps or green imperfections to knock the ball offline, which was nice. Getting used to that speed, however, was not. Everything from landing spots on chips to approach shots that hit a slight slope and suddenly were 30 feet away instead of 10. You have to be aware of it, expect it, and respect it. These pros are so good at it and deal with it week in and week out that it doesn’t even phase them, but for the amateurs, it can be shocking and throw you off if you aren’t ready for it.
The tournament officials know how to set these courses up to make them challenging but fair, which was my impression at the end of the day. You weren’t upset; you had a newfound respect for how good these pros must be to shoot these low scores, from the long tees, on those fast greens, in competition, while walking eight-plus miles on some courses. Trust me, the 69 a good golfer shoots on their home course is not the same thing as a 69 that a touring pro shoots. There is a reason why touring pros have so many course records; at my home club, the course record is held by Chris DiMarco, who shot a 60 when he was in his prime. These guys have another two gears past your reigning club champion. Playing next to one for a day just showed you how awe-inspiring they are.
I think my pro missed one fairway for the day, and he was off in the rough by about 3 yards on the last hole, where his landing spot was about 18 yards wide. His average drive carry was 305 (I asked, and he knew the number immediately). I can only remember about one or two greens he might have missed in regulation, and I think he was on the fringe one time, which these guys do not count. His putting was superb, and everything looked like it was about to go in. He was human, I did see him misjudge one tricky putt down a nasty slope, and he three-putted, but that was it, one minor blemish the entire day. These guys are GOOD! The other amateurs I spoke to after the round mentioned the same thing, their pros might have pulled one drive or had one lousy chip causing a bogey, but that was about it. What makes them very different from us is the number of birdies they make, which makes up for any blemish. They all were almost on every par 5 in two, and if they weren’t on the green, it was barely off, and a simple chip gave them an easy tap in birdie.
Yea or Nay
All in all, as a golf junkie like many of you, it was a fantastic experience I will never forget. I ended the day with tremendous respect for what I watch on TV every weekend and a new favorite player to cheer! I highly recommend you add it to your bucket list and find a way to check It off one day soon!