Dollars gain value as tour winds down

Adam Candee

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

It's desperation born of passion, even if not of money.

With combined 2004 earnings of more than $900,000, professional golfers Olin Browne and Chris Smith are not scrounging for wadded bills in laundry pockets or scooping up stray quarters on the sidewalk.

Make no mistake, though, that there are jobs and livelihoods at stake in the final weeks of every PGA Tour season.

As the schedule winds down its final five weeks beginning Thursday in Las Vegas, every dollar is golden to Browne, Smith and other players trying to keep a tour card for next season by finishing in the top 125 on the official money list. Theirs are not the 5-foot putts that win championships, but rather the ones that save them from a year of uncertainty and panic.

Making that money list cut guarantees an exemption, granting entry into every tournament for the next season. Players who win an event earn a two-year pass, with longer exemptions given to winners of major tournaments.

"If you haven't won a tournament and you're trying to finish in the top 125, if you don't keep your card -- or in the top 150 at least -- you don't have anything," Smith said.

Players 126 through 150 on the money list are still eligible to play on an essentially part-time basis in the coming year, and they receive a pass to the final stage of qualifying school. The top 30 finishers from Q-school -- where every young stud and hopeful veteran is clawing to earn a card -- gain entry priority below money list qualifiers but above most others.

Without a top 125 finish, a tournament win or a Q-school reprieve, players generally must wait each week to see if they can grab an alternate slot or a sponsor's exemption. It can work in an age where top golfers play fewer events for bigger money: Browne, who finished 130th in 2003 and tenuously sits in 120th this season, has managed entry into 27 tournaments.

But he still arrives each week with no idea if he will play.

"That ball is in my court depending on how I play," Browne said. "If I'm exempt, I'm exempt. If I'm not, then I'm beholden to the vagaries of the money list, to the access process. The worst thing in the world is to be at home when you're playing well."

For those chasing the end of the money list, the pressure of scrambling for a card this month is immense. Smith, 35, is a married father of two playing his eighth season on the tour. His earnings put him in a luxurious tax bracket, but give him little job stability.

"It's hard, you know," Smith said. "It's something that's always in the back of your mind when you do this, unfortunately. I haven't had to worry about it for four or five years."

Smith won the Buick Classic in 2002 and then finished 131st on the money list in 2003 with $479,523. His exemption runs out this year and Smith sits in 149th with $363,185 and little time to do much about it.

"It's something you try to put out of your mind that's really something you can't put out of your mind," Smith said.

Money list fortunes can undergo mercurial changes at the end of a season. Per-Ulrik Johansson held the 125th and final exempt position heading into the final two weeks of 2003. He ultimately lost that spot to Esteban Toledo by less than $3,000 and has spent much of this year battling a hip injury as he works to regain his card.

"It's not a fun situation, obviously," Johansson said. "You've just got to deal with it and try to look at it positively."

It can become positive in a hurry. The winner of this week's Michelin Championship at Las Vegas earns $720,000, and just making the cut guarantees at least $8,000.

"The way the money is out here now, you only need two good weeks and you make a year," Smith said.

The top 67 players on this year's money list have earned more than $1 million. But both Smith and Browne said there is danger in allowing money to become the goal.

"I don't think anybody's focused on money," Browne said. "I think people are focused on playing. When you're focused on playing, then the other stuff falls into line. If you focus on money, you're focusing on the wrong thing. The money doesn't have anything to do with it because the money is a result."

Smith mentally struggled after winning in 2002, considering a tournament to be lost if he did not contend to win it. That struggle gave way to the cash grab idea of just making enough to keep moving into safe harbor on the money list. Only now that he is focusing solely on his game does Smith feel ready to break through again.

"Probably one of the reasons I'm playing better is now I'm not playing for the cut," Smith said. "Making the cut doesn't mean much to me right now. I need good tournaments."

The same goes for everyone at the back of the money list.

"I'd like to be in a little different position -- could be worse, could be better," Johansson said. "I still look at it as a long career in golf. If this year doesn't go the way I want, there's always a new chance somewhere."