How Young Guns Can Think Backwards: Cash Before Titles

In this week's Global Golf Post, Lewine Mair details a recent interview she had with legendary troubadour golfer Gary Player.  The interview is worth a full read, but one paragraph stood out for me in particular.

When Player was asked about what he did with his winnings when he was in his 20s, he told a cautionary anecdote about today's players.

"I remember one day about five or so years ago, I was playing with one of the hot young stars dubbed the next challenger to Tiger. He asked me if I had my own plane and what kind it was because he was looking into buying one for himself," Player said. 

"Now here was a guy who had never won any kind of professional tournament and he was thinking about buying his own private jet."

That puts several posts here in the last several months into perspective.  It puts Rory McIlroy's decision to accept PGA Tour membership into clearer view.  Camilo Villegas' comments on Twitter last year - and my subsequent rant - make more sense.  The bird flipping incident from in the skies, broadcast on Twitter also, make sense.

A lot of young guys come out on the PGA Tour (or European Tour) with a ton of hype.  They get big endorsement contracts on the basis of their potential, not their professional performance.  The term "upside" has crept into PGA Tour lingo when talking prospective future number one golfers.  Sizable investments are being made in players before they break through on the course because they are marketable.

It seems that the players whose hype has fallen, but talent clearly remains, are the ones that are finally seeing their potential come to fruition.  Michelle Wie had to hit rock bottom, lose her sponsorship deals and go through Q-School in order to be humbled into winning.  Ian Poulter had to have an opportunity on the Ryder Cup stage at Valhalla before he realized that he will be an even bigger star when he wins wearing Union Jack pants.  Even Camilo Villegas said at the Accenture Match Play that his recent good form started from an appreciation of being able to play golf as his very lucrative profession.

At some point, a player becomes great when they fall in love with winning.  Maybe it is because of the drive to finally fulfill expectations placed on a player by themselves, their parents, the public, their sponsors, or whatever other antagonizing audience.  Perhaps it is just a drive to be remembered in history.  It could be that they're simply sick of losing.  Whatever the reason, that spark has to be lit, and the bulb has to be bright enough to eclipse the glow of that wheelbarrow full of money within plain sight of today's modern player.

Coming from a guy with the last name Player, it would seem logical to take the advice of a man who has been an awfully strong bearer of his surname.