Agony sometimes overtakes a golfer

On the final green of virtually every PGA Tour event, a golfer will stand over a routine short putt worth between $200,000 and $500,000. It might take one second for the ball to roll toward the hole, but if the result is a costly 4foot miss, it usually takes another minute for the enormity of the loss to sink in.

When their rounds are complete, golfers enter the privacy of a nearby scoring tent, which one player called “the loony bin.” It is there that players come face-to-face with the tournament’s prize money chart delineating the payouts for finishing first, second, third, and so on.

“Guys say, ‘I just cost myself 250 grand,’ ” said Jim Furyk, winner of 17 tour events. “I’m sure I’ve said it. It’s a really hard moment.”

Gary Woodland, the reigning U.S. Open champion, insisted the angst was worst at high-profile tournaments, where a final short putt can be worth $1 million.

“I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot of money,” Woodland said. “Maybe you weren’t thinking about the money before the putt, but if you miss you are.”

For the less accomplished players on tour, there is little humor in the situation. “Those short putts on 18 are terrifying,” said Martin Trainer, a second-year member of the tour who has one victory. “It’s part of the treacherous illusion of competence in golf.”

In interviews with dozens of tour veterans, a blueprint for overcoming the tension of a short, final putt emerged.

“At first, you probably let the dollars get into your head and you screw up and it costs you a lot of money,” said Kevin Streelman, who has been a tour regular since 2008. “You get tired of that happening and start treating the last putt of the day the same as your first putt of the day.

“And when the round’s over, you cannot tell yourself that a last putt cost you a certain amount. It’s what you do across an entire career.”

But for unproven players on tour, it’s difficult to focus on tour longevity when they are in a desperate, weekly struggle to finish near the top of the leader board so they will qualify for an invitation to return to the tour the following year.

“That stress and anxiety is constant,” Wyndham Clark, a second-year tour pro with four career top-10 finishes, said in recalling his first year on the tour. “It affects your sleep. I wasted so many nights worrying about it.”

The youngest golfers on the PGA Tour are also more aware of how much they earn because weekly travel expenses double from the roughly $1,700 they spend on the tour’s feeder circuit, the Korn Ferry Tour. They know that one top-five PGA Tour finish can solve their money woes for the rest of the year.

“A third-place finish payout on the PGA Tour is 10 times what you make on the Korn Ferry Tour,” said Matthew NeSmith, a tour rookie. “That stuff is always in the back of your mind.”

Then there are golfers who maintain that they have never considered how much money an individual putt might be worth, even as firstyear pros.

“You probably aren’t going to believe me, but I’ve never had a putt where I’ve thought, ‘if I miss this, I cost myself two-hundred or fourhundred thousand,’ ” Justin Thomas, the world’s fifthranked golfer and the 2017 PGA Championship winner, said. “A lot of people could tell you what a three-way tie for sixth is in a $9 million purse, whereas I have no clue.”

“Guys say, ‘I just cost myself 250 grand.’ I’m sure I’ve said it. It’s a really hard moment.”

— Jim Furyk, 17-time Tour winner