re: How good are mini tour players?

Very good. Normally some are just too short off the tee to make it or they can’t putt under pressure. Everything else they are normally equal to average tour players.

The grandfather of a PGA tour player told me it costs around $350K a year to be a full time player at that level.

Watched Jerry Kelly win the old Huntsville Open on the Nike tour and I agree he is a good guy.

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There was a guy at our club for a while that was a former college player. He had a +5 handicap. I never saw him shoot in the seventies. By his own admission he couldn’t come close to making it on the mini tours.

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If he's a legit +5, played the tips and never shot over 70, he could easily play on the mini-tours and make some cash.

The problem would've been he was mentally beat before he ever put the tee in the ground.

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better than anyone you have played golf with.

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Great insight, thanks and frick you

I use to play some golf with Tim Hobby that won the Publinks years ago. Tim was good off the tee and with his irons.

He went to Q School several times and actually lead a couple of days, but in the end the flat stick rules.

There is a guy here in Fort Bend that won the Texas State Amateur named Ryan Baca. From 130 yds in there is no one better, but he is a short hitter. Has to hit hybrids into Par 3s when others are hitting 7 irons, can't compete with that.

I’ve been fortunate enough to play a few scramble/pro-am rounds with web tour guys. There is a hospital foundation charity tournament every year in Lafayette before the chitimacha open and a few of the pros play with your group if you are a higher tier sponsor.
I’ve played with Scott Langley (still doing well on web tour), chase Wright (think he is still playing web), and joe affrunti (no longer on tour, had some bad wrist injuries)
First of all, they make your home course look like they are playing tiger woods on Xbox. You think your course is hard? These guys were barely trying and easily birdie or eagle every hole.
Second is they take most lateral obstacles out of the game like trees because they hit it so high and far off the tee. They just hit it OVER everything and shorten the holes.
Also their wedge play is immaculate. The joe affrunti guy holed out two wedge shots on par fours in the same round when we played with him.
And they are excellent green readers. They know what every putt is going to do, just a matter of executing it.
The chase Wright guy hit a punch 8 iron from under a tree canopy about 120 yards, off hard pan dirt. The ball probably got 15 feet off the ground max and stopped on a dime next to the hole. It was one of the greatest shots I’ve ever seen.

Ability to go low. Ability to switch gears. Tons of mental aspects.

Caddied for my dad in pro am years ago. Played with Martin Laird before he had really done anything on tour. I hadn’t heard of him before that day. Was constantly in awe of the sound and trajectory of his shots. I thought I could hit the crap out of the ball and it was just a totally different game. Realized then that I was probably going to be a casual golfer

My coworker played a round with Ross McGowan who was at one point on the tour and is now on the sunshine tour.

He said they went out the night before and had an early tee time. They wake up in the morning and start hitting balls and Ross is at the bar the whole time eating breakfast and drinking bloody Mary’s. Ross went out and shot a 66 hungover

He’s a single digit golfer and can pound the ball and said the difference between he and Ross is light years. The guys who play on these tours are absurdly good. And they’re not even the best.