Life as a pro can be the slipperiest of slopes..

I CAN empathise with those players who missed out on the Fedex Cup playoffs because I know what uncertainty in golf feels like.

I know how slippery the slope can be and how debilitating it is on the mind.

I’m living proof that a golf career can be gone in three years.

Staring at oblivion is a scary experience and sometimes arresting the slide from golf ’s top table is an equation that cannot be solved.

Dark thoughts will stalk the minds of those players who missed out on the Fedex Cup playoffs following last week’s Wyndham Championship.

Only the top-125 progress to the lucrative four tournament climax to the PGA Tour.

The rest? Their careers hang in the balance as they bid to plot a route back to the big time via the Web.com Tour playoffs.

Players who finished 126th through to 200th in the Fedex Cup face off against regular Web.com money list players over a four tournament cycle.

The top-25 after the Web.com Tour finals will get their PGA Tour card for next season as well as those who finished top-25 on the regular Web.com Tour.

The stakes are high and how one reacts to that pressure over the course of the next month is critical.

Considering the money at stake on the PGA Tour, it’s a ticket you are desperate to punch.

Miss out and the flip side is awful. You fall back to the secondary tour and find yourself playing for 10 percent of the purses you once teed it up for.

The financial implications for you and your family are huge, but the biggest challenge is dealing with the sense of failure.

You beat yourself up, question your game and doubt can set in.

The quality of golf nowadays means no tour is easy – and it is sometimes simpler staying in a top tour than gaining promotion against lesser players.

Strange logic? No. Look at the clubs relegated from the Premier League.

It’s an entirely different test and very few come straight back up.

On paper you might have the best team, but the lesser finances have an impact, while the emotional rollercoaster of demotion presents a huge mental challenge.

Consider this. Since its inception in 2007, only 10 players have made the top-125 of the Fedex Cup every year. Just 10. Golf isn’t the prolonged career people think.

I earned a living from it for 17 years and I consider that above the norm – but I only had the security of full time status for eight of those years.

Scrapping for your future in golf is a road well travelled and dealing with the bumps along the way is the biggest challenge in the sport.

WATCH YOUR STEPI know from experience just how tough it is to remain sure-footed on Tour