Professional athletes typically receive checks, not write them to keep careers going and dreams alive.
Golf, though, is different. With no draft or signing bonuses, paying your dues can take on a whole new meaning for players who are good but on the outside looking in.
“People don’t understand what it takes,” said Ani Gulugian, a native of Irvine and Pac-12 honorable mention golfer her final two seasons at UCLA. “Here … you have to make it yourself.”
But even though Gulugian has technically made it, earning an LPGA Tour card this year after finishing 36th in the final stage of Q-School, she doesn’t have a lot to show for it. Basically, she’s broke.
“Some days are worse than others where you are frustrated,” she said. “But I feel like I have worked so hard to get to this point that I have to keep going.”
Several things point to Gulugian having what it takes to make it. In 2009, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and earned a spot on the U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team after finishing her junior year at University High in Irvine. Two years later, she helped UCLA win the NCAA national championship.
All the money she has spent since turning pro is considered an investment in her future, but she needs much more to keep the business going. To make ends meet, Gulugian has turned to her family and friends, but most have given all they can, so she started a GoFundMe page last season hoping to pick up extra cash. Her goal was to raise $25,000, but so far only a small portion of that has been raised.
Gulugian estimates that it cost her close to $75,000 to play in her rookie season last year on the Symetra Tour, and she occasionally didn’t make enough money to cover her entry fee in 2015. Her tie for 47th, for example, at the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Michigan earned her $408, but it cost $500 to enter the event. Add in what was spent on airfare, food, a rental car and hotel and she was quickly heading toward the red numbers she didn’t want to see.
She also has occasionally carried her own clubs, which is allowed on the Symetra Tour, because she couldn’t afford to pay her caddie, and she sometimes has used a volunteer provided at tournaments to tote her bag. It’s all being done with the dreams of better days ahead.
“Once you make it (on the LPGA), you begin to see a bit of a return,” said Gulugian, who last year finished in the top 10 three times and ended the season 34th on the Symetra Tour money list, with $23,846. Compare that to Angela Stanford, who was 34th on the LPGA Tour list, which earned her $491,777.
Even though Gulugian can play on the LPGA Tour this season, the Symetra Tour will remain her focus. She wants to finish in the top 10 on the money list to improve her LPGA status and fine-tune her game so that if and when she becomes an LPGA regular she never has to fight to get her card back.
But she won’t completely ignore the LPGA Tour, since her conditional status gives her a shot to make fields through Monday qualifiers. She plans on doing that several times this season, including the Monday before the Kia Classic in Carlsbad in March.
“Every day, I am working, working and working (on her game), tinkering and grinding,” Gulugian said. “I just feel like I have so much to do and accomplish that I just keep going.”
No matter the cost.
