However, having said that, I still wasn’t sure that I was going to turn pro. I had a job. I was a manufacturer’s representative, selling tapping compounds and paint products for a man by the name of Bill Wehnes. He, being my boss, wanted me to keep working for him and play amateur golf. It took some mental work on my part to make the decision. And let’s say I gave both sides heavy thought. My job was fine, but it was never going to get to the point that I wanted to get to in life. So after about two or three months, I decided that I really wanted to spend my time on the course playing professionally.
That was the big decision. A lot of people didn’t make a living playing golf in those days. A lot of the people playing senior golf now–successfully–were guys that tried the tour and didn’t make it. When I started, the prize money was around $10,000 to $15,000. Total. That’s the whole purse. The last place you won money was if you came in 15th place. And that was $100. Today, there are hardly any purses on the regular tour less than $2 million. They pay at least 70 places, and generally the last place is over $2,000. They say it’s a lot tougher now, but I don’t know.
There was another thing affected my decision, of course. I won the Amateur on Labor Day, and the next day I met a gal. I met her on a Tuesday and asked her to marry me on Saturday. I won’t say that didn’t influence my decision to turn pro. I was broke.
