In the week that hundreds of thousands of dollars will be dished out to the highest-ranked player on many tours, including the LPGA, it is sobering to read the latest interview from Golf Monthly.

Hannah Gregg, a second-year professional and rookie on the developmental Symetra Tour, opened up about the tribulations of those at the lower levels, looking ahead to their futures and yet wondering, quite simply, how they will afford to cope.

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“My annual expenses cost on average $50,000, and if you look at the purses on the development tours like the WAPT (Women’s All Pro Tour) – which is the highest paying feeder tour – the average winner walks away with $5-$7,000.” said Hannah.

“Expenses for a cheap tournament are generally $1,500-$2,000, so unless you finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in every single event, you’re not going to make a profit.”

• Related: Symetra Tour pro’s clubs stolen, South Bend community rallies around her

Put simply, “expecting to average top-three for an entire season is not feasible. Even the best players on tour miss cuts and have bad stretches.”

It’s not even a decent living if you do progress. Hannah explains, “…. when you do play well and start winning, you generally start moving up to the next level where travel and accommodation are even more expensive. Suddenly, you need to figure out how to pay a caddie”

The costs are, of course, not limited to the women’s game.

In March 2018, Hannah wrote for GolfWRX examining how much it costs to ‘chase the dream’ of professional golf and whilst nobody should ever deny that the elite players deserve every success, the warning signs are still there many months later.

Explaining in the more recent article how she has to use social media to obtain more sponsorship, Hannah freely discusses the main issues including getting that vital step onto the bigger platforms:

“Lots of girls stop playing because they can’t afford Q-School, which is the most expensive event of the year.” she says. “if you don’t play in that, then you have no Tour status and are left with very few events to play in. You get phased out and others just lap you.”

Last year, I spoke on my podcast to Hannah Holden of National Club Golfer (@HannahHoldenNCG) about the opening up of the women’s game and how attitudes are changing. Slowly, yes, but they are changing, and yet when I caught up with her today she again reiterated what she and many other prospective professionals have experienced.

“It is ridiculously expensive even for amateur golf. I can fork out over £6k to play a pretty small amateur schedule and have my golf lessons, S&C, physio etc… makes it very hard to keep playing if you don’t have anyone supporting you financially.

Even if you make a national team you are getting thousands of pounds of funding a year so people who just miss out on those spots are losing a great deal which is mad considering the last person in a squad and the first person to miss probably have very little splitting them.”

From a player that has been through the junior game and competes in various amateur events nowadays, as well as being involved with equipment manufacturers, this is another voice worth listening to.

“It is a lot more common for boys/men to get people sponsoring them just because the men’s tour game is more visible. Most top female amateur golfers don’t even give professional golf a try because it is so expensive yet so hard to make a living from.

It’s also a deep stem issue because from my experience with England development squads there is a noticeable difference in parents attitudes. Boys parents very much see it as a career and are more ingrained in it. For the girls, they see it as more of a hobby and not a viable career option, so even from a young age girls are disadvantaged in terms of buy in.”

It may be a coincidence that the Golf Monthly interview was published just days after the controversy surrounding the lack of coverage of the important and hugely exciting Pelican Women’s Championship, but I’ll leave it to Hannah Gregg to sum up.

“When it comes to making purses bigger and getting donations from sponsors, everyone has an excuse.

I always hear ‘well the women aren’t fun to watch’ but I’ve never understood that. The men weren’t popular to watch compared to the scale they are now. It takes years of marketing and people engaging with women’s sports for them to have a chance to succeed and grow. 

If people really want to help, we should start building up women’s sports and acknowledging that there is a quality product there. Help us raise money when you can, spread the word and find players that you like to watch and then follow their careers.

All of us love knowing that people out there are enjoying our journey and it makes even the struggles that much more enjoyable.”

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