By Jack Munro
A little more two years ago, I quit my job in a private heart clinic working as a cardiac technician.
I had just started a postgraduate course in cardiac sonography, had a long time girlfriend and money in the bank. Two years later, I have none of that. I’m living on the financial edge with no sponsor this year, I’ve given up a steady – and in my case lucrative – career. In a lot of cases, including mine, you break up with your partner, which can affect you more than you initially think.
However, travelling – especially to third world countries – definitely grounds you and helps you understand the world and gain perspective. A found myself sitting in a 4-star hotel lobby in the middle of New Delhi a few weeks ago, and writing this made me wonder: What could have been if I didn’t fill out the entry form for Asian Tour Qualifying School back in 2013?
After our driver picked us up from the airport, we drove through some of the poorest parts of New Delhi on the way to our hotel. These are the times you realise, quite quickly, you’re doing well relative to others in this world. Before I started travelling to Asia playing golf, I really had no idea about the world. I thought everywhere was like Australia, only that others spoke a foreign language and looked a little different. My opinion has changed drastically after spending so much time travelling and competing in foreign countries. You see that a lot of people are born into poverty, where everyday it’s a fight just to survive.
Earlier this month, I was playing the Panasonic Open in India on the Asian Tour, an event where the winner banked approximately $US 70,000 – quite lucrative if you can manage to come out on top. My caddie this week is a man named Rajesh. He is in his mid 40s, has a wife and three children and lives more than two hours from the golf course. He has to travel by train and then a tuk tuk just to get to the course. He makes the trip with his brother, who is also carrying a bag this week. Rajesh is one of the most polite people I have ever met – and probably the best caddie I’ve ever had. He does everything for me; sometimes to the point where I feel guilty. He is just so appreciative that I have given him the chance to work – even more so for the second consecutive year at the same tournament. He does all this for around $INR1500, or $AU 30 a day. It really makes me think how myself and others at home take so much for granted.
In golfing terms, I’m still a rookie professional. However, I’ve seen so many countries during the past two years and experienced so many different cultures. I feel like I keep my eyes open when I’m away and try to take in everything around me. On one hand, I’m so fortunate; travelling around playing golf and getting paid to do something I enjoy. On the other hand, I have moments where I think, Why am I doing this and sacrificing so many things important to most people in life? I’ve missed countless friends’ weddings, engagement parties, birthdays, and opportunities to set up a home and family early in my life. That could have been achieved if I was working a so called “normal job” and living in our great country.
I’ve became estranged from many friends because I’m away so much and I’m now single because I couldn’t juggle both golf and my partner. All this negative thinking is quickly removed from my mind when I see things like the poverty here in India, or Rajesh’s attitude towards being given the chance to carry a heavy golf bag around for six days. A lot of the time I wish I could pay him more – or help in some other way.
Travelling in Asia can be very tough. The culture and way of living is so different to the western world. The food is tough to deal with in some places, but in others it’s amazing. The general hygiene and smells take some getting used to. The flights and hotels are a novelty in the beginning, however this quickly wears off and it really starts to feel like hard work when you’re forever waiting in airport queues or trying to communicate with hand signals and maps to a taxi driver just to arrive at a hotel, where hopefully the bed is not rock hard and you have working wifi to connect with family and friends in Australia. I took so many things for granted at home, but after meeting many people like Rajesh and travelling to countries such as India, the Philippines and China, I have come to realise that I really am quite fortunate to have the opportunity to live the life I am living.
However, it really is frustrating coming home and having others question your work ethic, or how hard it actually is to get by being a professional golfer. To some, being a pro golfer means being sponsored by Rolex and jetting around in private planes while getting paid millions of dollars. I’ve worked as a cardiac technician in a busy hospital and had many jobs while I was studying at university. I worked as a brickie’s labourer, fence installer, bartender and golf shop assistant, which taught me the value of hard work. I also see everyday how hard people are working in Asia just to survive.
Playing golf – especially in Asia – is far from a walk in the park. There are things I didn’t realise were hard to do in foreign countries but are a necessity if you’re travelling consecutive weeks. Laundry and finding decent meals is really quite tough. I miss socialising with friends and even sitting down at home breathing fresh air. It’s such a far cry from the US PGA and European Tour’s glitz and glamour. I’ve asked myself why do we all do it? Why do we all work so hard at it and put up with life far from what life at home can offer? I’m still yet to figure it out. There is just something inside you that drives you to keep practising and brush aside all the small things that can bother you.
Golf is a funny profession. You can spend years grinding away, barely making enough money to survive while still thinking you’re going to be the next Jason Day. I think it’s how a gambling addiction must feel to a certain extent; thinking your next break is just around the corner and having some control of the outcome of your bet. I stood on the 16th tee during the last round of a PGA Tour China event two weeks ago, thinking to myself, Here we go, Jack. Each shot either way can mean $1000 or more. I had a little laugh to myself then got back to focussing on my routine to try and hit the best shot possible.
The money can mean so much at the level I’m competing at. For me, it’s the difference between being able to continue playing on or not. I don’t think the players in the lower tours get enough credit for the work they put in. Especially the Australians – we always seem to be the first on the range, last off the putting green and working the hardest in the gym, all for minimum reward financially.
I read the other day that Jarryd Hayne was homesick in the US playing NFL. Straight away, I thought, How would he be if he was travelling in Asia trying to compete, living in sub-standard accommodation, getting food poisoning every other week, breathing ridiculously polluted air and not being able to get any everyday job done such as laundry – all while earning minimal money?
These are just some of the things the non-financially elite golfers deal with when grinding away for their career in Asia. I say ‘financially elite’ because I believe that everyone out here is extremely talented and so close to breaking onto the US PGA or European Tour.
In writing this, I really didn’t want to sound like I’m ungrateful for what I have and for having the opportunity to play golf for a living. My eyes have been opened from this experience during the last two years and I’ve learned that anything that feels like a problem to me, in the scheme of things to the less fortunate, is nothing. I’ve met so many great people and made many new friends from all over the world, particularly Asia. I wanted to point out that it definitely isn’t as glamorous as most people at home think and that as golfers we actually do work really hard.
I’m looking forward to the adventure continuing and not taking anything I have for granted in the future.
