Touring Pros???

[wertyuio17]

Sorry if its a dumb question, But how much $ do touring pros make? do the make a living by tournaments/sponsors alone, or do they work part time also? I've been watching the past few years 'worlds'
on youtube at work and the question just crossed my mind...

 

[80playedin10states]

the top pros make like 30 grand tops...but they probably dont have to pay for equipment

 

[Woodpecker]

If disc golf is like other sports I've been associated with, it depends on a number of factors based mostly on player rankings.

A hundred years old (LOL), I played on the raquetball pro tour. I was an also-ran as far as the top pro rankings. Racquetball is similar to disc golf in the fact that it is not a main stream sport.

I had a contract with a major raquetball corporation for equipment and entry fees for tournaments. They supplied me with rackets, balls, clothing with their corporate logo which I was required to use at all events. If I won an event, they had the right to use my picture for advertising purposes. I paid my own traveling expenses.

I could do whatever I wanted to with the extra rackets, clothing, etc. they supplied me with as long as I had their logos displayed and used their equipment at the tour stops. That's how some of the other low level pros paid some of their expenses was by selling off their extra equipment.

The top pros were given monthly salaries for being on a corporate pro staff, advertising bonuses, all traveling and entry expenses paid. Basically, it was a regular job but they had to perform at the highest level to keep it.

Simply put, the higher your ranking, the more goodies you got.

Woodpecker

 

[_.-Dut-._]

Sorry if its a dumb question, But how much $ do touring pros make? do the make a living by tournaments/sponsors alone, or do they work part time also? I've been watching the past few years 'worlds'
on youtube at work and the question just crossed my mind...

Only a couple Pros are making a living doing this. Most of the money comes from Worlds and USDGC and obviously only one is really coming out great there. As mentioned before, the top earner this year will be in the ball park of 30k but obviously cant guarantee that annually. However, alot of the Pros are making money by playing disc golf even if it is just to pay for their hobby and have some spending money on the side. Pretty sweet gig.

 

[bazkitcase5]

don't forget sponsorship bonuses for winning tournaments, along with those like Geoff Bennet who is also a vendor for the company that sponsors him

so he gets free equipment, makes money off tournament winnings, selling plastic, and sponsorship bonuses - still not a great living, but better than nothing, and he's not even a top 10 pro

 

[atl scott]

Dave Feldberg led the money earnings last year with $38,929 in winnings. Most pros have jobs that supplement their touring. For instance Brian Schweberger (rated 1024, played 26 tournaments and ranked 19th in the world last year) made $12,753 last year and delivers pizzas to support himself (at least last I heard, and apparently makes decent $$ doing it).

 

[ERicJ]

The Innova Team Page lists players earnings in their profiles.

ERic

 

[scarpfish]

Here's where you can go to find PDGA money and point totals for 2008. You can even break it down to by classification, age bracket, gender, state, etc.

http://www.pdga.com/tour_stats

Here's some statistics you might find interesting:

298 PDGA pros (271 men and 27 women) made at least $1,000 playing disc golf last year.
144 of them (130 men and 14 women) made at least $2,000.
91 of them (84 men and 7 women) made at least $3,000.
65 of them (59 men and 6 women) made at least $4,000.
49 of them (44 men and 5 women) made at least $5,000.
31 of them (27 men and 4 women) made at least $7,500.
20 of them (18 men and 2 women) made at least $10,000.
8 of them (7 men and 1 woman) made at least $15,000.
5 of them (all men) made at least $20,000.
3 of them made at least $30,000.
None of them made $40,000.

And note, these are gross earnings, not net. I'm sure some of these people are getting some degree of tourney entries paid for by their sponsors (namely the people at the top of those lists), but as you get lower and lower down, those folks are more than likely paying a better percentage of their tourney expenses out of their own pockets.

You can probably count the number of people who play disc golf exclusively for a living on one hand, give or take a finger.

 

[Three Putt]

I remember back in '95. Climo KILLED in '95. He finished 1st in every event he entered except two. The two he didn't win, he finished 2nd. He won everything in sight. When the year was over and they listed his earnings, his winnings were less than $20,000. Add in travel expenses, and he was back in Florida hanging drywall at the end of the season.

There are better bonuses and such now, plus players like Climo have some guaranteed income from things like signature discs that didn't exist in '95. It is still not enough money to support more than a handful of players. The rest of them that are on tour depend on the kindness of the disc golf community. Touring players used to sack out in St. Louis from time to time. Dave McCormack had a construction company, and he would put guys to work and let them sleep at his house and eat his food for a couple of weeks. The players would make a couple hundred bucks and head back out on the road. That still goes on. When the A tier is in town, there are more "touring" guys sleeping on other players floors than staying in hotels.

 

[progprowl]

It's like anything else. Who is paying to see or sponser events. It's not like golf where you have companies like Callaway that sell drivers for $300 a pop. Innova sells most discs for around 10-15 bucks. No TV sponsorship. I'm surprised pros make that much. I think it's awesome that they can go pro.

 

[DWill]

Doing some research on the very slow pdga.com, here are the biggest winnings that I could find:

Barry Shultz, 2003 - $40,896
Ken Climo, 2007 - $40,210
Dave Feldberg, 2008 - $38,929

Each of these guys also had several years making half or less, dating back to 2001.

Here's a topic I found on the pdga forums, that might be of some interest. What are the top pro's day jobs?

I think, even with all their bonus's, and free stuff, I don't think, even the top guys can make much of a living at it. Too many expenses, from travel, paying own health insurance and threat of injury makes it unpractical at this time.

As said before, until they are playing for corporate money and not each others money, will they be able to make a true living out of dg.


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[biscoe]

dave also teaches disc golf classes at the university of oregon.

 

[80playedin10states]

nice to see disc golf getting into schools...the local colleges here are embracing it; offering classes and setting up tourneys between schools..still a young sport, so we have a lonnnnng way to go

 

[TalbotTrojan]

dave also teaches disc golf classes at the university of oregon.

That is amazingly cool. Might just have to move up to Oregon after all.

 

[Three Putt]

Tom Monroe was teaching Frisbee classes at the University of Alabama-Huntsville way back in the 80's. I think he still teaches a class at Samford or UAB.

 

[johnt1969]

Dave Feldberg led the money earnings last year with $38,929 in winnings. Most pros have jobs that supplement their touring. For instance Brian Schweberger (rated 1024, played 26 tournaments and ranked 19th in the world last year) made $12,753 last year and delivers pizzas to support himself (at least last I heard, and apparently makes decent $$ doing it).

So Feldberg brought home about $24-25000 last year after taxes.

Even with sponsorship... don't quit your day job. $39k/year and a basement full of frisbees isn't going to get you anywhere in the real world. That's for sure.

Well... it might get you an awesome adjustable rate mortgage.

When I toured heavily (10-15 years ago now) we were just happy to make enough money to pay for the hotel room and food for the weekend. If you actually brought anything home after a tournament you were lucky.