Mini-tour life isn't a glamorous, professional golf life. If you're not on the PGA Tour, it is very tough financially.
I felt I could play in maybe a dozen tournaments a year as an amateur.
The dream for me was always the Masters and after my freshman season on the Houston golf team I knew CBS was the only way I'd get there.
Amateur golf is so much fun.
Time management is probably the biggest thing I've had to learn to deal with being on the PGA Tour, whether it be media or figuring out how many weeks to play in a row. That's been the biggest adjustment, coming from amateur and college golf.
Two weeks ago at the U.S. Amateur, my mom caddied, and that is kind of a different feeling, because she's your mom and you have to listen to her. It was really comfortable having my mom there, but it's also really relieving and comfortable to have someone that knows the course off their hat, really.
Most nervous I've ever been is probably the 2007 Walker Cup. I was a little boy playing with these 8 or 9 other guys that were the best amateurs in the country.
I've worked so hard, I've won a lot in my junior career, did great things in my amateur career, was 6-0 in match play in NCAAs, won NCAAs two years in a row, got third individually one year, and now I have three wins out here on the PGA Tour.
First time I met Jack [Nicholas ] I had heard about his golf and prowess - I was playing in the Ohio amateur.
If you could just turn pro and go immediately to the PGA Tour, that would be one thing. But that's not how it works. And that's not the lifestyle I want.
You know what, I was one of the top 25 amateurs in the world. I had a pretty good college career.
I started playing golf after a broken knee led me to quit my career as an elite gymnast. It wasn't long before I became one of the world's top-ranked amateur players.
I play a lot of charity golf mainly. I'm a bandit 18 if I play two or three times a week.
The most satisfying accomplishment for me was winning the British Open in 1996. But the most rewarding times were the times on the mini tours.
Real golf is the 20 million people who play once a week or once a month.
I don't play anymore, because I know I'm not going to be a pro golfer. So there's no reason to golf.
Regardless of what the tour pros think, golf is a rich and varied game, and what all of us awkward fools do on weekends is what golf is truly all about.
In America, if you want to make it as a golfer, you go to college on a scholarship. In Australia, you go to the airport with a plane ticket. The competition just isn't there.
I played high school golf, I played amateur golf and I started getting officers. I was playing pretty good, won amateur tournaments as a junior, and the whole thing.
You count a man's U.S. Amateur titles after he starts winning professional majors. That's something any intelligent golf writer with a sense of history is supposed to know.
Some of us are fortunate enough to play championship golf, but this isn't essential in the enjoyment of the game.
