Green faces make or break year on Champions Tour
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Ken Green can't help but smile when reminded of how most pros are thrilled to reach the Champions Tour.
"Most guys always call the Champions Tour the ultimate mulligan," Green says. "But a lot of these players already are financially set for life. I'm calling this my monster mulligan because this gives me the potential to get out of the financial mess I've been in for a long time."
Yes, the Champions Tour provides Green, who turned 50 last July, a second chance. But, the five-time winner on the PGA TOUR readily admits, it's likely his last chance.
"This year is make or break for me," Green said.
Green, who makes his season debut Friday in the Allianz Championship at Broken Sound Club, has more to worry about than getting rid of the off-season rust. There's also the baggage and mental demons he's carried around for the last two decades, not to mention a chronic "financial mess," as he put it, that has been worsened by the slumping economy.
Ken Green is not -- and never has been -- your ordinary golf professional.
Most pros who won five PGA TOUR titles have palatial homes (or two) by the time they reach 50; Green lives in an RV parked adjacent to a car dealership in West Palm Beach.
Most pros who spent 20 years on the PGA TOUR reach 50 having banked millions of dollars during the go-go Tiger Woods era; Green has made roughly $240,000 in the last 12 years.
Green knows what it's like to be broke -- and broken.
Half his live ago, Green seemed to be on top of the world. He won all five of his PGA TOUR titles in a four-year span from 1985-89, when he also made his only Ryder Cup team, and ranked as high as No. 4 on the money list in 1988. He made $2 million during this period, which is like $15 million these days.
There wasn't a pin he wouldn't aim at, a player he didn't mind offending. His fellow pros didn't like the way he threw his driver to his caddy after every tee shot. Heck, they didn't like his lime-green shoes. Green didn't care if he was making friends; he was too busy making money -- and spending it.
But his career soon came crashing down in the late-1980s and early-1990s. His marriage ended in a nasty divorce, he suffered serious injuries to his shoulder and neck and went through long periods of depression. The game that seemed so easy to him now resembled a Calculus exam.
"It was sad to see what Ken went through," said his close buddy, Mark Calcavecchia. "Anything that could go wrong for him, did."
Green lost his card after the 1996 season and, except for making it through q-school in 2003, has watched on the sidelines as TOUR purses skyrocketed. His home was foreclosed, and he was forced to borrow money from friends to subsist. His financial burdens made golf even more difficult.
"It's hard to play well when you're constantly thinking of how badly you need the money," Green said. "I don't care what anyone says: Your finances play a huge role in how you can live your life."
When Green turned 50 last year, he felt like he had been released from prison. But his game wasn't ready. In seven starts, he finished in the top 50 just once (47th at the Administaff Small Business Classic) and his earnings of $22,911 didn't cover his expenses.
That's why this year is so vitally important. With his five wins, Green figures his status will get him close to a full playing schedule this year. But only this year. "It's up to me," he says.
And if doesn't perform?
"Then I'm looking at getting a job for the first time in my life at 52 or 53," he says. "Not real encouraging."
Green knows he's not a sentimental favorite on the Champions Tour. His cocksure attitude rubbed a lot of players the wrong way.
"I wasn't great friends with a lot of these guys before," he says, "so I don't expect that to change now."
He has bigger concerns than mending broken friendships. This week, he will make the 25-mile commute from his RV to Broken Sound for his only "home game" of the year. He says his back feels as good as it has in years and he believes new medications he's been put on have improved his mental outlook.
But can he find his game that's been AWOL for almost two decades? If so, this would be the monster comeback of all time.
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