$169k in 26 years is $6,500 per year. If disc golf is his profession then he is living way below the poverty line.
I've never sat down to think about how many disc golfers all-time have been fortunate enough to make disc golf their profession. 24 is as good of a guess as any, so we'll go with your number. You state that like it's inconceivable that there have been so few professionals in the sport. Not sure why that is hard to believe, unless you're conflating talent with a paycheck. Let me give you a personal example.
In high school, I was the #1 trombone player in the state three years in a row (super cool, I know). That's pretty rare. But for a variety of reasons, I decided to get finance and econ degrees instead and follow down that career path. Meanwhile, a guy I went to school with that was a far less talented trombonist became a music major in college. He is now a high school band director and plays gigs part time to supplement. Which of us is the professional? The one who is talented but plays music periodically on a volunteer non-paid basis, or the less talented musician who gets his primary paycheck from teaching music and secondary one from performing it? I'll give you a hint: I'm not the pro.
I think the PDGA's use of the terms "pro" and "am" is what causes the confusion. The rest of the English language doesn't work that way. Go up to any single person on the street and ask them what it means to be a professional baseball player. They'll say that means a guy who earns his living playing baseball. As disc golfers, we don't have the liberty of redefining pro and am to make ourselves feel better. The words already have commonly accepted meaning.
