Professional bowlers and golfers have one thing in common: The elite players have lucrative contracts with major manufacturers. These contracts assure players sufficient income, thereby easing the pressure of performing at top level for survival.
However, both sports feature individuals with no guarantees for income other than their ability to perform better than their competitors. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and other team sports sign players to contracts with assured incomes from one to seven years, plus all travel expenses—salaries that often are guaranteed, regardless of how players perform.
Conversely, golfers and bowlers who are not under contract to major manufacturers can hardly overcome mediocre performances. They cannot, by any means, afford prolonged slumps. The ever-increasing travel expenses are a major detriment for self-sustenance on the grueling tournament trails.
Unfortunately, there is a great discrepancy in the earning power of a bowler and a golfer.
For example, Walter Ray Williams Jr. earned between $350,000 and $500,000 in 1998 from his Brunswick contract, prize money, bonuses, and incentives. He was bowling's leading money-winner for the 1998 season. Nonetheless, he would have been among the lowest list of money earners on the golf tour.
The average earnings of a professional golfer is about $400,000 a year in prize money. The top 25 PGA Tour members all earned more than $1 million last year, plus endorsements. David Duval and Tiger Woods earned more in one year than Williams and Pete Weber, the only PBA players who have attained the $2 million mark in careers that have spanned over 15 years. Even more exasperating to bowlers, Hale Irwin earned $2.8 million on the Senior Tour last year.
Surprisingly, one area is currently shared by both pro groups. In a recent Wall Street Journal column, writer Sam Walker describes the lifestyle of many professional golfers who, like many PBA members, skimp and save on road expenses.
For example, Walker quotes Mark O'Meara, last year's Masters champion who stayed at a Marriott Courtyard for $90, dined on Snackwell cookies and Pepsi-Cola, and read his complimentary morning newspaper over breakfast at McDonalds.
"Why should I spend $250 a night at the Ritz-Carlton?" asks the 42-year-old, who earned $1.8 million on the PGA Tour last season. "I'd rather go to Wal-Mart and buy my own chocolates for my pillow."
Some of the world's top golfers go to hilarious heights to economize on the road, from fixing their own waffles at the Hampton Inn, to divvying up bills at Chili's, to plunking down quarters at the local laundermat.
Such behavior has been no trifling matter to caddies. They rely on handshake deals with pros based on a custom that a caddy gets 10 percent, no matter where the golfer finishes, as long as he cashes. But with total purses up 40 percent this year, influential golfers like O'Meara and Tiger Woods have let their caddies go. One rising star, Fred Funk unveiled a temporary replacement at one recent tournament: his wife, Sharon.
The majority of PBA bowlers share room and travel expenses. The average expenses for pro bowlers is approximately $800 to $1,000 a week, depending on the locality of the tournament. This rougly translates into yearly expenses of about $25,000.
A number of PBA players travel with their wives, particularly those in motor homes. The majority of players shuns the cheap motels and prefer nicer living quarters, higher rates notwithstanding. McDonald’s and Burger King are not a priority on PBA players’ dining lists—and most PBA players are rather liberal in tipping practices.
Dick Evans, noted bowling writer for the Miami Herald, recalls a story he wrote about Tommy Tuttle about 30 years ago. Tuttle, says Evans, stated, "It doesn't matter what you really earn. It's what you spend that determines if you have a successful season."
Tuttle's philosophy may have a lot of merit. Non-staff players have to perform well enough to overcome expenses, but to salt away a few bucks, they must perform especially well.
Golf may be the elite game among the affluent, and while professional golfers’ earnings completely overwhelm those of professional bowlers, one thing is certain: Revelations by Sam Walker in the Wall Street Journal clearly can lead one to believe that professional golfers, despite their tremendous earning advantages, are cheapskates compared to professional bowlers.
PBA Hall of Famer John Jowdy is a past president of the Bowling Writers Association of America.