of the
credit cards don’t last very long,” says McCarron. Typically the sponsors
Game Love
For the
are a handful of well-heeled members of a player’s home club, or a syndicate of fam- ily members who kick in money to help a youngster chase the dream. (Worst case, it’s a shyster who cooks up a lopsided deal that amounts to a kind of indentured servitude.) Breitfuss’s operation is
different in its scale and sophistication. Incorpo- rated under the name Tee Time, it is a holistic ap- proach in which expenses are covered—players get their own corporate credit card—but Breitfuss also helps provide everything from swing coaches to sports psychologists to help with on-the-road logistics. He has typically reached out to players from established col- lege programs whose records hinted at a professional fu- ture but were not quite gaudy enough to attract an agent. “These kids come out of
school and there’s no infra- structure in place for them,” Breitfuss says. “It’s not like they’re drafted by a team that will look after every de- tail for them. They’re totally on their own and often not really sure how to proceed. I saw that void and I wanted to help.” In addition to cover-
ing tournament travel expenses—typically around $4,500 a month on the mini-tours—Tee Time also provides its players with a monthly stipend in the neighborhood of $2,000 to defray expenses at home.
32 /
NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2014
Monday’d at the Phoenix Open. I was playing well but coming down the stretch on Friday all I could think about was making the cut. If I did that I knew I’d bank at least 10 grand, and that would mean I could stay alive for another couple of months. I should have been thinking about making birdies and moving up the leaderboard, but sometimes it’s just a game of survival.” Breitfuss’s players keep
all of their endorsement income, but a percentage of their tournament winnings
point B, and then once you are selfsufficient and you understand how to do it and you’re all lined up, you graduate out of Tee Time and you’re on your own.” In the past, Breitfuss
has carried as many as five players at a time, but with a burn rate approaching $30,000 a month, that was becoming a very expensive hobby. He doesn’t like to talk about the numbers but does allow that cumulatively over the last 15 years his average annual loss has been $100,000. Breitfuss is sur-
A photo of the Tee Time Cup crew in 2012 at Nicklaus Club – Monterey, including LPGA Tour player Mina Harigae (third from left), the PGA Tour’s Parker McLachlin (third from right) and Curt Breitfuss (far right).
Joe Tamborino, a San Jose State alum whom Breitfuss had competed against while at Fullerton. Tamborino was going broke on the mini tours, and so pretty much on the spot Breitfuss and his friend agreed to each kick in $5,000 to keep Tambo- rino afloat. If he played well enough, he’d pay back the
“Working with Curt has
brought me so much peace of mind,” says Troy Kelly, who over the last five years has split his time between the PGA and
Web.com Tours; this 35-year-old father of two is the only cur- rent player in the Tee Time stable. “You can’t play good golf when you’re sweating every dollar. I’ll give you an example: back in 2011 I
go back to Tee Time. It’s a sliding scale in which the more they make, the less they pay out. “The whole idea is to graduate these players onto the PGA or LPGA Tour,” says Breitfuss. “They work themselves out of a contract through success. I’m not there to support you for your entire career, I’m there to take you from point A to
prisingly OK with that. “I look at it as a charitable
donation,” he says. “Instead of giving the money to a big organization like The First Tee, I’m investing directly with the players.” He fell into this racket
mostly by accident. In the early 1990s Breitfuss was liv- ing in Reno. During a round at Thunder Canyon, he and a buddy crossed paths with
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