Par4QC
I think a lot of it is all relative. How much time are you spending in airports, getting shuttled around, going to different timezones, having cameras shoved in your face, doing sit-down interviews for various reporters, and then trying to find time to work on your game once you arrive at the next venue in between all the commitments. Then there are the sponsor obligations, the occasional pro-am you're obligated to show up for. Players who play upwards of 23 events per year are traveling and on the road 5 days out of the week for at least half the year, most are playing more. And even when they do take a break - it's not like they're not working. They still have to put in the hours needed to keep their games on point. A friend of mine who talked with a former middling touring pro back in the mid-90's said that the guy told him he was hitting upwards of 700 balls per day on the range on his off days, and then would go spend 3 hours working on his short game. That's pretty much a full day of work for most people.
All of this going on, while most of the time (not for everyone, granted, but a lot of the older veterans) spending that time away from their kids' school functions... soccer games, football games, basketball games. Not to mention the absence of the one person who should mean the most in your life - your soulmate.
It's hard to feel sorry for the top players making life changing money, for sure. But there's still a significant sacrifice/ tradeoff in their 'best years' for those with a family while their kids are growing up. They cash that all in, if they're successful anyway, later in life when they're retired at age 50 and have a nice bank account that will take care of them and their kids for the next 50 years.
You look at the guys getting paid $40 million/year in the NFL, the NBA or MLB... that's not including endorsements and bonuses. We just assume that everyone inside the top-50 are getting fat endorsement checks like Phil, Tiger and Rory for $20 million/year to subsidize a couple of bad seasons, and that's rarely the case.
Not trying to be argumentative, but just trying to look at both sides.
That said - hell yeah. Sign me up. I'll take that on.