uh, no, they have relationships with the tour van guys who take care of them week-in week-out, if i were playing a tournament for millions of dollars, i wouldn’t want a new guy to suddenly be on my clubs this week
And they get those relationships, if they don’t have a deal, I presume by paying for the work to be done.
Again, the tour is about money.
ok 
thanks for your help here
The tour trucks would be salivating to help a top guy who is a free agent.
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It seems I read somewhere a couple years ago that there is a brand-agnostic guy that travels to a lot of the events and does work for a lot of the guys that don’t have deals
Edit: missed nandy’s comment about this abive
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Brooks getting serviced on his grips last year, for example. Guy in truck asks questions about his preference…
Brooks: I literally don’t give a fuck.
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also read this same story, can’t put my finger on where, yes
Tour van gui: “I feel bad for you”
Brooks “I don’t think about you at all”
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@BamaBearcat may be able to help out here. Don’t think there’s that much money outside of the top (most marketable) players. Lots of very incentive-heavy contracts I believe. I think there are three categories:
- Those who use the clubs with no affiliation
- Those with some sort of staffer relationship, (paid based on weekly tee-up and performance incentives)
- Full on Brand Ambassadors earning annual checks and used as the face of advertisements. Not a ton of Brand Ambassador spots out there, which are where the significant $$ comes into play.
As I understand it, typically most tour players will be able to get a club from pretty much any van if they want to test/use it. But usually not getting paid without some sore of deal in place.
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repeat: “there is not a lot of money in equipment outside the top top top guys” 
(and for those guys its not even in equipment, its in endorsements anyway)
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Scott Garrison might me the guy you’re thinking of. his Instagram account (scotteggolf) is a pretty interesting follow.
Listen to the recent Fried Egg podcast with Shackledord. He says many of the top sponsors are really tired of how badly the PGA Tour treats them.
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Must have missed that part, appreciate it
I can’t imagine really any sponsor other than FedEx is thrilled with the tour. Shout out Don Colleran in the top 5 again and blackmailing the tour into holding a playoff event at his home course, TPC Initech. You sponsor a tournament for $10 million and all they do on the broadcast is pummel FedEx standings in between Aon Risk Reward, Konica Minolta Nap Time and the Met Life Wish You Were Dead Moments.
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It really does suck.
Golf is my favorite sport by a MILE and it is the worst pro tour that I care about by a considerable amount. Product. Coverage. Etc.
We all have stockholm syndrome.
And they know it.
Are we almost at this moment? Let us eat cake, they say.
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off with Jay Monahan’s head
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Just watched the Explained was episode on cricket. Amazing parallel to golf really. Golf is only being saved by Tiger right now. It should do something while it has the chance.
If I were the PGL I would pitch it to Tiger as being the face of changing the game to bring it to the people…like your dad said all those years ago.
I agree golf needs to do something. But I really don’t want to see 48 guys in a tournament. Just my personal preference. I mean Tiger gets enough flak from @Tron for winning limited field events.
But if the only place to make a decent living is the PGL (assuming the PGA Tour goes away like in my example), how many kids are going to decide to stick to golf instead of a different sport or different career knowing that a handful of players will make mega millions and the rest will make nothing? And from the players who do stay with golf, where do you resupply top guys? It’s not like we have a current situation where players go from being top amateur to top pro. If you look at the winner and runner up of the US Amateur over the last 30 years, it’s not exactly a group with much pro success.
One other thing no one has really discussed, what happens to the Euro Tour? They are barely holding on with the middle east money, what happens when all of that money goes to the new tour?
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I’m not sure the amount of people who make millions has much to do with how many kids pick up a game. There aren’t many john mayers but that isn’t stopping people from picking up a guitar.
The current amount of professionals that actually make a living off golf is already minuscule when you consider how many mini tour pros there are living off their significant others/parents/family/sponsors or working as assistants somewhere for pennies.
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