Marchand gets a taste of LPGA life
It’s the third round of the Manulife LPGA Classic and Brittany Marchand is facing a tough downhill approach shot out of the rough and through a crosswind.
There is some debate as to what iron the 24- year- old golfer from Orangeville, Ont., should use. After some back and forth with her caddie, a club is selected and Marchand hits a perfect shot, tracking it as it lands and releases to roll within a birdie putt distance of the cup.
The 20 or so fans following her along the 11th fairway of Whistle Bear Golf Club break out into applause with calls of “great shot Brittany” as she turns and pats her caddie on the back.
Seems l i ke a pretty normal scene for a golf tournament, but it’s something Marchand, who usually plies her trade on the Symetra Tour and was given a sponsor’s exemption to the event, doesn’t experience often.
A quick chat with the former Team Canada member, who rocketed up the scoreboard at the justcompleted LPGA event and stole the spotlight — for a little while at least — from compatriots Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp after a 7-under 65 to get her into contention, reveals that life on the feeder tour is anything but glamorous.
“Oh, there are a lot,” Marchand says with a laugh when asked if there are many differences between the two tours.
“For one, people are watching. It’s kind of nice, actually, to have somebody cheering for you.
“The conditions of the course ( are different, too). They’re just a lot firmer, faster, so you can’t pin hunt out here the way you can on the Symetra Tour.”
Money is an even greater difference.
“If you saw my car right now, you’d be shocked. I live out of it,” the outgoing Marchand says.
Prize money on the Symetra Tour is almost non- existent if you finish out of the top-10 at an event. In eight tournaments this season, Marchand has made a grand total of US$ 7,510 — and that includes a US$ 1,749 payday for a tie for 15th, not her best finish, but her biggest cheque.
Subtract the $ 500 entry fee for each tournament and Marchand is down to $ 3,510 in earnings, and that doesn’t take into account expenses such as food and gas.
“Some of the smaller purses, like $100,000, you might make the cut and still not make your $ 500 back,” Marchand says. “I have host families. Your host family cooks you dinner. You cut costs as much as possible. Like last year I had an OK year ($34,000) and I profited a little bit because I tried to cut my costs really low. So it’s possible, but it’s not a great living.”
Marchand had a chance to considerably up her career earnings on the weekend after climbing into a ninth- place tie heading into Sunday at Whistle Bear, but a final- round 81 dropped her all the way down to a tie for 46th and she settled for $ 6,450. Still, not bad considering it’s not far off what she has made all season on the Symetra Tour.
“It’s pretty much just trying to get your card out here ( the Symetra’s top-10 players earn their way to the LPGA Tour),” says Marchand, who moved up 52 spots in the world rankings to No. 506 after her finish in Cambridge. “You kind of have to expect that you’re not going to be going out there to make money.”
Most players earn so little they can’t even afford their own caddie.
The one Marchand thanked on the 11th hole is a friend from Brampton Golf Club. She usually just pulls her own bag or uses a volunteer caddie if the course is too hilly.
“It’s tough with volunteer caddies because you really don’t know what you’re going to get,” she says. “There are times you get somebody who doesn’t really know what to do so they’re nervous. It can be a hard experience because you have to tell them what to do. It’s just more work than it needs to be.”
Work is what the Symetra Tour seems to be all about: a grind to get to the LPGA Tour. If Marchand continues to perform the way she did at Whistle Bear, she has a shot at getting there.
“I’m happy with how I played in general and how I feel like I compared to the field,” she says. “It makes me feel like I belong out here. I’m going straight back out to the Decatur-Forsyth Classic and play the rest of the Symetra season.”