The 2017 NCAA Championships West Lafayette Regional was not the end of Peyton White's golf career — he's almost a year into his professional career.
White is playing on the PGA Tour Latin America after competing in local tournaments and attempting to qualify for the Web.com Tour last fall.
On the GProTour last summer, White won a tournament and earned $10,840.21 over the course of nine events.
White then made it past the first qualifying tournament to get a Web.com Tour card but then missed the cut by one stroke at the next tournament.
The competition level is much better, and everyone is practicing daily, so White must constantly be at the golf course improving.
“Once you get out here that if you're not putting in eight, nine, 10 hours a day, then somebody else is," White said. "So, at that point, you're getting passed by other people.”
Wanting to be the best he can motivates White to continue practicing; as he has gained experience, he has learned how to practice better.
Before 2018, he had traveled outside the U.S. but never golfed on foreign soil. Adjusting to the weekly travel schedule while focusing on his golf game has been tricky. White has a group of friends also playing on the tour, so they travel together to each tournament and help each other solve problems.
In his first two events on the tour, White missed the cut. He's getting used to all parts of professional golf, the good and the bad.
“There's times when you don't want to be out there, and you've got to remember at the end of the day, this is your job,” White said.
At Ohio, White was one of the best players in program history. In his senior year, he had the lowest average round in school history and won two events before deciding to go professional.
No longer part of a team, the motivation to improve is all on White — and that can make the difference between winning and losing.
“If you're not motivated by yourself, then you're not going to make it far,” White said.
White can compete in any of the remaining seven tournaments of PGA Tour Latin America before attempting to qualify for the Web.com Tour again in the fall.
“It all sounds like sunshine and rainbows, which a lot of the time it is,” White said. “You get to play golf for a living, and that's what we love doing, so it’s perfect.”
