Michael Kim has just wrapped up one of his best seasons on the PGA Tour, narrowly missing a spot at the Tour Championship after finishing 31st in the FedEx Cup standings.

Known for his candid “behind-the-ropes” insights on social media, the world No. 62 sat down with me, Gianni Magliocco, to lift the lid on life as a tour pro — from how players really test equipment in the off-season, to the realities of club deals, and the financial pressures rookies face on their way up.

Read the full Q&A below.

Off-Season Testing & Club Selection

Gianni: Congratulations on the excellent season. You mentioned recently that driving and putting held you back from cracking the top 50 this year. In the off-season, how do you balance grinding on those areas and experimenting with equipment or setup?

Michael: Every off-season, I’ll spend a few days doing a bunch of testing. I don’t do a ton of testing during the season unless I really feel like a certain club or clubs aren’t performing. I’ve been happy with my clubs this year, so I’m not sure how much testing I’ll do, but I have some things I want to try.

Mainly with the length of my driver. I’ve used a slightly shorter driver, 44.5 inches, to try and get my accuracy up, but I’d like to try some other options this year.

As for the putter, I’m a big fan of the zero torque putters, so if I do try anything, it’ll be along those lines, I think.

Gianni: If fans could sit in on a real off-season testing session, what would surprise them most about how pros actually decide what goes in the bag?

Michael: Mainly, how important I consider the first few shots. Any shots after the first couple, I’ve subconsciously adjusted to try to make the golf ball go straighter. More often than not, after two shots, I’ll hand the club back to the fitter, telling him it’s no good if it’s not what I’m looking for.

Gianni: When your monitor numbers don’t match what you initially feel on the course, which do you trust more—and has that ever backfired?

Michael: In general, the on-course stuff is the most important. I can make almost any club work on the range. It does happen once in a while where the club feels great on the range, even on the golf course during the practice rounds, and then at the tournament, I hit it awful.

It’s happened to me twice this year, once at the WM Phoenix Open, where I had a new driver setting. I really liked it all the way to the tournament, but I hit it badly on Thursday, and I ended up switching it back to where I had it on Friday morning, right before my round.

The other time was at the Open Championship, where I added a 3-iron instead of my 7-wood on Thursday and hit one really bad shot, and went back to the 7-wood on Friday.

Gianni: How often does pure confidence at address—just liking how a club looks—override the launch monitor data?

Michael: I used to be really picky about how a club looked early in my career. Now, as I’ve gotten older, I don’t care how a club looks, and it’s only about performance. Now, club companies have become so good at ‘hiding’ the technology that it rarely looks really weird like in the way past, like a square driver or something. If the club performs, I couldn’t care less.

Equipment Deals & The Business Side

Gianni: On the business side, how common is it for agents to play OEMs against each other when it comes to equipment deals—and what’s that experience like from your side of the table?

Michael: I don’t take part in the actual negotiations between the agent and the companies. My agent, more or less, will let me know when we’re almost 90 percent to the finish line. Also, when I’ve done deals with club companies, I’m pretty committed to signing with a certain company because I really want to use their clubs.

The deal and the money are very secondary. When I’ve been a free agent, I do a lot of testing with companies that I know are interested, and out of all the ones I test, I tell my agent which one I like best, and he negotiates from there.

Gianni: Beyond the paycheck, what part of an equipment deal makes the biggest difference for you?

Michael: The driver is the most important. It has the most technology, and the driver is always a must in basically every deal these days. Most companies allow some flexibility on using other clubs, but not the driver, so you have to get that one right before signing.

Gianni: How did the equipment offers you saw as a rookie compare to what you see now, and what’s been the biggest surprise about how those deals evolve over a career?

Michael: I got a very nice deal from Titleist when I first signed. I was coming off player of the year in college, and I showed lots of promise.

There are, of course, unicorn deals that you hear rumors about, like Jordan Spieth and Bryson when they first turned pro. I obviously don’t know exactly how much they signed for, but those deals always happen every few years as companies want to be a part of the next big thing.

Money Pressures on Tour

Gianni: At what point do you think the financial strain of missed cuts starts to affect confidence or performance for players on tour, particularly for rookies?

Michael: The financial strain is a big part of 99 percent of golfers who first turn pro. I’d say trying to gain and/or keep status on tour is the number one thing on every rookie’s mind, but if a player is missing cuts, he’s losing money no matter what tour he’s on.

I had success decently early in my career, so I haven’t had to worry too much about running out of money, but many fellow players who were journeymen even on the Korn Ferry Tour were really under a lot of financial pressure.

It can make players play more conservatively when in contention and not try to lose money instead of trying to really go for the win.

Gianni: When you’ve had dips in form in the past and the money isn’t coming in, what’s the first budget line you cut?

Michael: I don’t have a big team and never did. The only one that I ended up cutting was the private physio. That was an additional cost, and with the physios who are hired by the tour that travel each week, it wasn’t too big of a change.

I was also playing both the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour, so it didn’t make sense paying for a private physio. Having a private physio is great because the attention to detail changes for the better, but it is an investment.

Gianni: Looking back at your rookie year, what was the biggest financial shock that nobody warned you about?

Michael: Very early in my career, I didn’t have that many friends as I turned pro early, and I stayed at hotels by myself. I remember this crappy hotel I stayed at for the Puerto Rico Monday qualifier, and it was like $300 per day, but the guy I played with in the practice round was splitting an Airbnb with four other guys and paid less than $300 for the entire trip.

Gianni: If endorsement money vanished tomorrow, how many pros do you think could still turn a profit just on prize money alone?

Michael: The question should be whether you could be profitable if you took away prize money. The answer would be maybe the top 50 percent. No player makes more money off the course than on the course, especially with how high the prize money is these days. Endorsement deals are nice, but for the most part, they’ll cover a little more than the expenses for the year.