By Gene Wang
June 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Marcus Byrd could barely stand after a practice session in May ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship. The 25-year-old professional golfer was at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club for a rare opportunity to play in a PGA Tour event, but when he sought medical attention, the verdict was grim: strep throat and a 104-degree fever.
Doctors prescribed antibiotics and instructed Byrd to rest and consume plenty of fluids. The discomfort became so acute by Tuesday night that swallowing even small amounts of water was excruciating. Byrd willed himself to do so to have a chance at regaining stamina for Thursday’s opening round.
A PGA Tour card member with a case of strep throat might have shut it down for the week. But as one of the top performers on the minority-only Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour, which aims to increase diversity in a sport with a lengthy history of racial discrimination, Byrd had secured a spot in the field courtesy of a sponsor’s exemption. And he wasn’t about to let it go to waste.
“It was a rough two days,” Byrd said. “I was dehydrated, didn’t have any energy, and Thursday I had to go out and tee it up on one of the hardest golf courses they play all year. It definitely stung a little bit because I felt like my game was in a good place to go out there and play well, but it’s just a part of it.”
He managed to make his afternoon tee time, overcoming another obstacle in pursuit of a PGA Tour card while operating on a limited budget and relying on the largesse of friends and family.
Byrd, who was born just outside Washington in Cheverly, Md., failed to make the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship but followed a 6-over-par 77 in the first round with a 71, finishing ahead of major championship winners Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson, among others. A little more than a week later, he was back in the Washington area playing at a charity event in Prince George’s County, in part to keep his game sharp.
Such has become routine for Byrd, often surviving paycheck to paycheck on professional golf’s satellite tours, where prize money is a pittance compared with that of the PGA Tour. Winners of APGA Tour tournaments, for instance, typically receive $7,500. Byrd lives part-time with his grandmother in Temple Hills, Md., and part-time with his mother in Atlanta. And like other APGA players, he sometimes shares car rides to tournaments or stays with friends while he’s competing.
“You’re definitely losing money,” said Byrd, who leads the standings in the chase for APGA Tour player of the year honors. (The winner of that season-long competition gets $50,000.) “Making a living playing golf, if you’re just relying on how you play in certain tournaments, it’s hard. You’re not going to end up in the green very often.”
The exception came at the season-opening Farmers Insurance Invitational in January at Torrey Pines in Southern California, where Byrd won his first of three APGA Tour events this year and earned $30,000. Aside from collecting his largest paycheck as a professional, Byrd also secured a spot in the Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
A month after his win at Torrey Pines, thanks to the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption, Byrd was in the field at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club outside of Los Angeles. A spot in that event, which is hosted by Tiger Woods and has a purse of $20 million, is awarded annually to a golfer of color.
The Wells Fargo Championship, meanwhile, marked the fourth start in a PGA Tour event for Byrd, whose next APGA Tour tournament isn’t until July 23 at Valhalla in Louisville. The most recent APGA Tour event concluded May 30 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. Byrd shot a 9-under 133 to win by two strokes.
Byrd’s promising trajectory has yielded a handful of corporate sponsorships, most notably with Dallas-based Invited, the largest owner and operator of private golf and country clubs in the United States. That sponsorship allows Byrd, who also has status on PGA Tour Canada, to play and practice without the financial burden of membership dues, greens fees and other course-related expenses.
“Marcus has an incredible story of perseverance and determination,” Invited chief executive David Pillsbury said. “Even as a professional golfer who is on a path to the PGA Tour, he hasn’t had the resources that other golfers might be afforded.”
Said Byrd: “I don’t necessarily just think of the challenges, because I’ve faced adversity my entire life. I’ve had to kind of push myself beyond those limits, just not having the same access to country clubs, nice golf courses. I grew up on the driving range, so adversity was something I became accustomed to.”
Byrd spent much of his early youth at Langston Golf Course, a municipal course in Northeast Washington, initially learning the game from his late father, Larry, who passed from complications related to covid-19 in 2020, the same year Byrd turned professional.
Byrd was 3 when he first picked up plastic golf clubs and tried to imitate his father’s swing. By the time he turned 14, as a freshman at North Point High in Waldorf, Byrd finished second in the Maryland state high school championship.
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