Professional golf is one of the more lucrative professional sports in the world for both men and women, but it is has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports. A large majority of professional golfers (at least 95%) make their main income as club or teaching professionals, rather than from competition. "Touring professionals", also known as "Tournament golfers", who make their income from prize money and endorsements, are a small elite within the profession. The very best golfers make seven and even eight figure incomes. Tiger Woods is one of the two highest earning sportsmen in the world according to Forbes Magazine. But for the less successful, tournament golf can be an unstable profession. It is also an expensive one to participate in, and after costs are taken into account, lesser known tournament golfers who do not have a steady income from endorsements, can make a large loss in a bad year.

Structure of tour golf

Professional golf is organised into a number of regional "tours", which stage a sequence of weekly tournaments. There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organisation, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. The larger tours have a tournament almost every week during a season that lasts for most of the year.

Each tour has "members" who are entitled to play in as many of its events as they wish. A golfer can become a member of a leading tour by succeeding in an entry tournament, usually called a "Qualifying School"; or by achieving a designated level of success in its tournaments when competing as an invited non-member; or much more rarely, by having notable achievements on other tours which make them a desirable member. Membership of some of the lesser tours is open to any registered professional who pays an entry fee.

There are enormous differences in the financial awards offered by the various golf tours, so players on one of the lesser tours always aspire to move up if they can. The PGA Tour, which is the first tier tour in the United States, offers nearly a hundred times as much prize money each season as the third tier NGA Hooters Tour. The hierarchy of tours in financial terms is as follows:

• Clear 1st: PGA Tour
• Clear 2nd: PGA European Tour
• Others in the top 5 (in alphabetical order): Champions Tour; Japan Golf Tour; LPGA Tour.

The last three have probably shuffled in the rankings, and this depends partly on exchange rates. The Japan Golf Tour was at its relative peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Japanese economy was also at its peak, the Champions Tour (then the PGA Senior Tour) reached a relative peak in the mid to late 1990s, and the LPGA Tour seems to have strengthened its relative position slightly since the turn of the Millenium.

With the partial exceptions of the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour, all of the other tours are effectively "feeder" tours: any player who succeeds on them will move to a higher ranked tour as soon he or she can.

Men's tours

International Federation of PGA Tours

The International Federation of PGA Tours is the trade body of the main men's professional golf tours. As at 2005, there are six members:

• Asian Tour (for Asia excluding Japan)
• Japan Golf Tour (ranks third by prize money)
• PGA European Tour (ranks second by prize money)
• PGA TOUR (based in the United States; ranks first by prize money)
• PGA Tour of Australasia
• Sunshine Tour (Southern Africa - mainly South Africa)

These six tours co-sanction the Official World Golf Rankings.

Other Men's Professional Tours

Official World Golf Ranking points are also awarded for good placings in events on three other tours:

• Canadian Tour
• Challenge Tour (second tier tour to the PGA European Tour)
• Nationwide Tour (second tier tour to the PGA Tour)

Below this level, the tours do not offer ranking points, and the prize money on offer will be at a level that allows only a few of the members, or perhaps none of them at all, to make their main income from playing on that tour alone. Some of the players will also play on other tours when they are able to and others will be club or teaching professionals who play tournament golf part time.

The next most important regional tour is the Tour de las Americas which aspires to gain world ranking points status. The third tier tour in the United States is the NGA Hooters Tour.

Men's senior tours

Male golfers over the age of fifty are eligible to compete in senior tournaments. Golf is unique among sports in having high profile and lucrative competitions for this age group. Nearly all of the famous golfers who are eligible to compete in these events choose to do so, unless they are unable to for health reasons. A number of players win more than a million dollars in prize money each season, and once endorsements and other business activities are taken into account, a few of the "legends of golf" in this age group earn more or less as much as any of the younger PGA Tour pros, other than Tiger Woods. The two main senior tours are:

• Champions Tour (based in the United States}
• European Seniors Tour

Women's Tours

Women's professional golf is also organised by independent regional tours. Leading women golfers make incomes well into seven figures, meaning that they are beaten in this regards by few other sportswomen apart from top tennis players. The women's tours include:

• LPGA Tour (based in the United States)
• Ladies European Tour
• LPGA of Japan Tour
• LPGA of Korea Tour
• ALPG Tour (based in Australia)

The second tier women's professional tour in the United States is called the Futures Tour.

A senior tour for women was founded in 2001:

• Women's Senior Golf Tour