Here’s how much cash the average PGA Tour pro carries (hint: a lot)

For most players on the PGA Tour, life is good. The best of the best have lucrative endorsements to accompany their gawdy earnings, and the majority of rank-and-file players aren’t exactly pinching pennies, either.

Sure, there are the struggling pros grinding to get into qualifiers and cash those life-changing checks, but most PGA Tour card-holders aren’t sweating their mortgage payments. For context, Pat Perez, who finished 125th in the FedEx Cup standings last season (the top 125 retain their cards for the following season), banked more than $1.1 million in 2019-20.

So for GOLF’s 2019 Anonymous Pro Survey, we decided to dig in. We asked 52 pros who were competing at last month’s Safeway Open how much cash they had on them at that very moment, and we received a wide range of answers.

One pro said he had $3,000, another said $2,000, while two more said $1,500. The smallest amount? One pro had just $7.

One player, in a sign of the times, said, “I’m young; we don’t carry cash.” Another pro, who had $500, said it was mostly in $5s for tipping (that’s also one thick wallet).

So, what was the average response from the 52 players? It worked out to $421! For context, a 2013 MONEY Magazine study revealed that 42 percent of the Average Joes they polled carry $40 or less.

No doubt, cash is king on the PGA Tour, especially when it comes to friendly money games and tipping out staffers or volunteers. (If you remember this classic Phil Mickelson gambling story, it also helps to mind the conversion rate of the country you are in.)

You can read the entire Anonymous Pro Survey here.

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