I woke up that morning at my Extended Stay America in Springfield, and cleaned up the room I had made my home for a week. After making sure I didn't leave anything behind, I checked out and headed to the course - with the intention of watching Omar Uresti's round for a while. I planned to watch the whole round if he was playing well, but not if he struggled, as I didn't want to get home TOO late.
I was sort of expecting Uresti to make a Sunday charge, after finishing in such a disappointing fashion on Saturday. But it wasn't meant to be - Uresti made it through the first ten holes at just even par, on the eminently scoreable Highland Spings track.
When he hooked his drive into the trees on the par-5 11th - cursing to himself, 'Aaaah, Omar!' in the process - I noticed that we were relatively close to the parking lot. I took this as a subtle clue.
And so I hit the road.
Making the seemingly never-ending drive through St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Erie, and eventually back to Orchard Park, I got to thinking about all the time spent at these tournaments, and what I learned. With so much time spent watching golf over the years, I figured that I had a pretty good idea of life on tour, but I figured there was plenty more I could learn from experiencing it for myself.
Indeed there was. Through my travel patterns - making the drives as the players would, sleeping in the same low-budget motels, spending day after day at the course - I feel that I gained as much of a sense of the life as I possibly could, without actually playing myself. The week caddying was a culmination of sorts, finally getting inside the ropes to see what it's like for the players as they compete.
So after all that, what can I take away from the experience? For one thing, I had certainly glamorized life on tour before actually experiencing it. Despite the public spectrum that these guys find themselves in, they aren't really celebrities at all - they're far from it. True, they get to play a game for a living just like all the famous athletes, but they're doing it on a much smaller scale - and for much less money. The crowds are less, the star treatment is nonexistent, and they don't carry themselves like 'stars' at all. They aren't famous, most of them anyway, no matter what I may have thought growing up.
And just like thousands of people do every Saturday and Sunday across the country, they're just playing golf. They hit good shots, and they hit bad shots (albeit many more good shots than the average player) and live with the consequences. Unlike on the PGA Tour, they aren't necessarily living and dying with every shot from a monetary perspective - unless they're in contention on Sunday afternoon.
The PGA Tour is a show. The Web.com Tour is a workplace, where people grind every day to make a living. If you don't do well on the Web.com Tour, you have a hard time getting by.
One good week on the PGA Tour can be enough for a family to live for the year. On the Web.com Tour, you need sustained weeks of solid play to build up the money reserves. Not the same, by any stretch.
The Web.com Tour is real - not to say the PGA Tour isn't real - but truly authentic, a representation of the everyman's struggle. You don't get rich playing average golf on the Web.com Tour.
That's what makes it appealing, and a reason why these guys aren't stars. They're pro athletes, but they don't live the lives associated with the stereotype of a pro athlete. Some may have nice cars, some may have boats, sure. But the luxuries are associated with trade-offs. The money supply isn't endless.
They play because they love the game, and they stop when they realize they don't love it enough anymore. Bob Heintz has a Yale degree, but toiled in the minors for years because he knew of no other job that would make him as happy. And he still had that driving force, the belief that he had the ability - somewhere, deep down - to succeed in the big leagues.
But eventually, he ran out of gas. Heintz officially retired this summer after the Midwest Classic, taking the job as head coach at Penn. The travel will still exist - matches, recruiting, etc - but the income will be stable. With a family to support, that's the most important thing for Heintz.
Heintz is done, but there are plenty of new young golfers fresh out of college, eager and ready to take his place. The PGA Tour needs players for the future, and many of them will come from the Web.com Tour. Just like the minors produce the next wave of star hockey and baseball players, the Web.com Tour gets players ready for the life of a PGA Tour golfer, so they can handle the life once they get to the grand stage.
Maybe they'll make it to the top, maybe they won't. If they don't, they can keep toiling away on the Web.com Tour, waiting for their best golf to come to the surface.
And who knows? Maybe in a few years, Heintz will be back. The golf bug doesn't go away easily.
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