To qualify for the Professional Golf Association Tour, you have to meet the qualifications of the organization. That includes going to qualifying school or playing well on one of the satellite tours. However, to train for the PGA tour, you should start early and take your golf game extremely seriously.
Start Playing Early
By the time you are 12 or 13 years of age, you should have played golf enough that you decided you like it and you have some ability. Most serious golfers take up the game even earlier than that and if you wait any longer, you might have a difficult time catching up. More importantly, when you start playing as a youngster you can learn the right way to play from the start.
High School and College Golf
Playing golf competitively at the high school and college level will get you on the path to earning a spot on the PGA tour. Part of becoming a tremendous player is not only developing the proper swing and learning how to make all the shots -- tee shot, fairway shot, bunker shot, approach shot, pitch, chip and putt -- you also have to learn to compete against players of similar ability and experience. Playing on a team when championships are on the line will train to you to stay calm and play the game on a competitive basis.
Teaching Pro
Once you are playing on the high school and professional level, you will be associated with a golf team coach. This individual might be a golf expert or it might be someone with a passing interest in the game who loves to be on a team. You cannot rely on your team coach to help you make significant improvements. If you want your game to grow and develop, you need to associated yourself with a certified PGA teaching pro who will stay with you as your game develops. If you hit a plateau, you can go to your PGA teaching pro for individual instruction on swing development, shot-making and strategy.
Qualifying School
Once you have played winning golf at the high school and college level and you have made enough progress by competing well in amateur tournaments, you can try to win your tour card at qualifying school. Q-School consists of a six-day annual tournament in which the top golfers earn the right to play in PGA events. In the 2010 Q-school tournament, 29 players earned the right to play in 2011 PGA tour events. In addition to qualifying school, you can play on a satellite golf tour such as the Nationwide Tour to earn your tour card.
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