Professional golfers don’t just play; they also need to manage their finances, travel, lodging, and much more. The difference between a player fighting to retain his card and one earning millions can be deceptively small. It could be just one putt per round, one fewer double bogey, or a better decision from a difficult lie. Beau Hossler has faced this grind of professional golf since 2016 and continues to do so even today.

He has had 252 starts on the PGA Tour without a victory. Therefore, when Trey Wingo asked him on The Wingo Network about near misses, he opened up about how brutal the game could be.

“That particular day I performed incredibly well under obviously unprecedented pressure for me at that time. I had never been in that situation. And I was really proud of the way that I handled it, the execution under the gun. And unfortunately, it just was not quite enough. And more than likely, if I played that level of play 90% of the weeks, it is a win. But that 10% it wasn’t,” Beau Hossler said about his playoff loss against Ian Poulter at the 2018 Houston Open.

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“And that’s the challenge. You look at most team sports, more or less all team sports, there is a winner and a loser every single game. And in golf, there’s a winner, and there’s 156 losers. So, it’s just a very interesting dynamic.”

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The American professional carded rounds of 65-68-69-67 to finish 19-under 269 at the 2018 Houston Open. However, he succumbed to the pressure of the playoff. He hit a triple bogey in the very first playoff hole, while Ian Poulter finished at par to win the event.

Hossler said that he did everything he could, but Poulter was just a little better than him, and that’s how it usually is. He also acknowledged that there are multiple ways to finish second because of the large number of variables. For instance, someone with a three-stroke lead could lose with two double bogeys on the last three holes.

The 31-year-old has had five runner-up finishes and three third-place finishes in his 252 starts on the PGA Tour. In fact, he had another near-miss finish at last week’s Wyndham Championship, where he finished runner-up, just three strokes behind winner Michael Brennan. Despite the excellent performance, he could only manage to get to the 72nd position in the FedExCup rankings and didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

While it seems brutal, he is still lucky enough to be able to keep his PGA Tour card for the upcoming season. He also spoke about being paired with players outside the top 100 in the FedExCup standings, whose full Tour status is at risk, leading them to face even more financially and mentally challenging times. Those who lose full status face a more uncertain path back, whether through conditional PGA Tour status, the Korn Ferry Tour, or Q-School.

Since there are a lot of factors that can’t be controlled, Beau Hossler believes that it is all about managing the average of mediocre days, which would further allow the good days to bring the golfer to a position from which he can get a nice result.

Luke List put it perfectly in an interview with Golf’s Subpar podcast. He described the tour grind as a combination of making cuts, traveling, staying in shape, and handling sponsor and family obligations.

Similarly, Ben Griffin opened up about the financial challenges, while Aaron Wise said that playing professional golf is a “constant daily battle” when it comes to mental pressure.

For Hossler and many others, professional golf is a battle of fine margins. One stroke can change everything, making consistency and simply staying on Tour major achievements.