Does winning a tournament like the Heritage ease the pressure on a young professional, or does it increase the pressure to keep that momentum going?

I think it does both. It gets rid of a lot of the pressure, but I put a lot of pressure on myself to win. I got in the position to win a few times and let it get away. I felt like I had to win, and I let that get in the way of simply playing golf.

When I did win, I was just trying to play the golf course and finish in a position to win. But there’s also pressure if you try to hold that streak and play well the next week. When you get in that position, it’s easy to begin worrying about whether or not you can keep it going. So winning really does both. It relieved me for awhile, and I played well for awhile. Now I’m back to putting pressure on myself to win instead of just playing.

I see it just the opposite. I see the younger guys being less satisfied with just playing average golf. They’re out there working hard, and the guys who haven’t won are working even harder. I see some of the older guys coming out there and playing until they make a certain amount of money. They play a certain amount of tournaments where they know they can make $200,000 or $300,000 and then they lose that desire to play every week. If you say that the young guys don’t have the will to win, then why are they playing so many golf tournaments? Guys like Mike Hulbert and Joey Sindelar and Bob Tway are playing just about every week. If all they wanted to do was make a little money, they would just play in a few tournaments and get their cash and go do something else. These guys don’t have anything else that they want to do except play golf. They enjoy playing. The money is just an added bonus.

Well, I think the big thing especially for someone my age, is the outings and the pro-ams that you get into on Mondays and Tuesdays. There’s so much money there, and it’s hard to convince yourself that that Monday is going to hurt you for the tournament. People want me to play in this pro-am or that pro-am, and they’re getting so popular that you could play in every one and still play in every golf tournament and really get worn out.

As for endorsements, they ease my mind. I don’t have to worry about my bills not being paid. I can pay for my expenses for the year just off the extra stuff. Then you don’t have to worry about cashing a check. You don’t have to worry about shooting 68 on a particular day so you can make your mortgage payment or your car payment.

I think the money thing is blown out of proportion. Fifteen years ago, they weren’t making anything out there. Today, it’s grown so much. But still, if you look at what we’re making compared to some of the football players or basketball players, it’s not that much. Take the top ten basketball players and top ten golfers, and you’ll see that the basketball players are making a heck of a lot more money. And we’re not guaranteed anything. Curtis Strange made $1 million last year, but he’s not guaranteed anything this year. (Michael) Jordan is making the same thing for four or five years. It’s a different life out there. We don’t have the luxury of long-term contracts like you see in other professional sports. So we have to do those extra things just to keep up.