Earning $800,000 might not be enough to keep his job
Patrick Sheehan has been a professional golfer since 1992 following his graduation from the University of Hartford. At Hartford he was on a pretty good golf team alongside talented teammates Jerry Kelly and Tim Petrovic. The 39-year-old spent a number of his formative golf years struggling on mini-tours and using his college degree to substitute teach. His big breakthrough came in the year 2004 when he pocketed $1.25 million in earnings and finished 63rd on the money list.
The next two years didn”t even come close to equaling the successes of 2004. In 2005, Sheehan banked $675,000 in winnings and barely kept his exempt status on tour, finishing in 118th place, a mere $49,000 away from the 125th and final spot on the tour. The 2006 season was even worse as Sheehan won just $387,000, finished in 165th place, lost his tour card, and had to return to Q School. In the end, Sheehan found himself relegated to the Nationwide Tour for 2007, light years away from Pebble Beach, Riviera and Wetschester.
A former Nationwide Tour player who won the Price Cutter Charity Classic on that circuit in 2002, Sheehan made the best of a tough situation, finishing ninth on the money list and re-qualifying for the 2008 version of the PGA Tour. Back on golf”s center stage this year, it has been a lot like 2005 for the career journeyman golfer.
During the first part of the year, Sheehan was barely making cuts and barely making expenses. He came in 50th at the Hawaiian Open, 62nd at the Bob Hope, missed the cut at Torrey Pines in San Diego, and came in 61st at Pebble Beach. The week of the World Match Play, Sheehan played in the PGA Tour”s secondary field event, the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico, and came in sixth place, adding $126,000 to his bank account.
Sheehan”s season continued as it started, with a 66th at the Honda, a 47th at the PODS in Florida, a 73rd in Puerto Rico, a 42nd in New Orleans, a 64th at the Verizon, and a 61st at the Byron Nelson. There were more missed cuts and more back-in-the-pack finishes. Sheehan qualified for the United States Open, and this time he had better luck at Torrey Pines, finishing 29th. He missed a couple more cuts, then had a solid 12th-place finish at Congressional. Sheehan followed it up with a 62nd at the Quad Cities, and then when the top guns crossed the pond to play in the British Open, Sheehan went to the secondary field event at Milwaukee. Similar to his experience in Mexico, Sheehan finished sixth and earned $125,000.
Sheehan has continued to make cuts, and while a 20th at the Wyndham and a 24th at the Barclays have helped him to jump many spaces on the money list, he”s also had a 63rd at the Canadian Open, and a 53rd in Reno. With the start of the Fall Finish tournaments against weaker fields, he”s had a 32nd, a 38th, a 44th and a 67th in the first four of the seven tournaments.
Earlier this week, Sheehan was quoted as saying that although he”s made almost $800,000 on the PGA Tour this year, he”s on the verge of losing his job. To put it more succinctly, Sheehan has made $771,662 and he is 124th on the money list. The bad news for Sheehan is that the PGA Tour”s season still has three weeks to run, namely this week”s Frys.com Open in Scottsdale, the Ginn in Palm Coast, Florida, followed by the season-ending tourney at Walt Disney World.
Patrick Sheehan is the poster boy of the Fall Finish, playing for a spot on the 2009 PGA Tour. If he can keep his tour card by placing in the top 125, he plays on the world”s top professional golf circuit with the chance to make millions. Should he come in 126th or worse, he will be relegated to a minor league circuit where the leading money winner tops out at just more than $400,000 and the 126th-leading money winner has made $32,000.
Of course, Sheehan is not alone. It”s just that his story is more glaring because he”s a career journeyman. Also, unlike some of the more famous bubble boys such as Davis Love III (125th), Mark Calcavecchia (123rd) and David Toms (120th), Sheehan won”t be getting any sponsor exemptions or past champions exemptions into PGA Tour events.
When it all shakes out in three weeks, it will probably take $850,000 in earnings to make the top 125. At this moment, San Francisco”s Michael Allen is 117th. Sheehan”s college teammate, Tim Petrovic, is 118th. Two-time Reno Open champion Vaughn Taylor is 126th. Rags-to-riches pro Jason Gore, who was a folk hero when he played in the final round of the U.S. Open with Retief Goosen, is 130th. Former PGA champion Rich Beam is 133rd. Past Ryder Cupper Chris DiMarco, who lost a Masters playoff to Tiger Woods, is 141st, and one place farther back is former European Ryder Cupper Jasper Parnevik. Not wanting or needing a PGA Tour card for 2009, Greg Norman is 146th with just over $500,000 in four events.
Several strong finishes are of necessity to a handful of well-known pros that are well beyond the bubble. Billy Andrade is 190th with just $224,000 won in 22 tournaments. Robert Gamez is 193rd. Shigeki Maruyama is 202nd and Paul Stankowski is 205th. Bobby May, who lost to Tiger at the PGA at Valhalla in a playoff, is 216th, and Tommy Gainey, the guy from the Golf Channel who wears two golf gloves, is 232nd.
On the far-from-the-bubble list are such well-known professionals as David Duval, who is 222nd with $92,000 won in 19 tourneys, Long John Daly, sitting in 231st place with $56,000 in 17 events, and Notah Begay III with $28,000 in eight tournaments and currently ranked 241st.
It is the ho-hum time on the PGA Tour when Phil Mickelson is preparing to go to China and Tiger Woods is caddying and rehabilitating his knee. It”s also the life-and-death time of the year for about 60 bubble boys. One good week can get you a tour card for 2009 and the chance to make millions. Three bad weeks and you”re on the mini-tour going from Wichita to Boise to Topeka. As Patrick Sheehan said, you could earn $800,000 and find out you”ve lost your job.
