There was a time Brad Dalke wanted to pursue a career in professional golf. And he worked pretty hard to reach the big leagues. However, his efforts didn’t pay off, as he failed to leave a lasting impact at the professional level. So when Grant Horvat asked him if he wants to pursue the dream again, Dalke said there is only one way he would go pro.

He joined Horvat on his YouTube channel for a round of golf. The host raised the question after their tee shot on the sixth hole. Dalke told Horvat, “Q-school and all that, I’m not going to go through the grind of that. You’re losing money.”

As the golf content creator expressed, he might consider turning pro, but he doesn’t want to go through the process of playing in the Korn Ferry Tour or getting a PGA Tour card through the Q-School. At 26, he has established himself as a golf creator, and he doesn’t need to go through a tedious year of traveling around the country trying to make it into the top-20 at the end of the year.

He added, “If I get sponsor exemptions, I will definitely go do that. If I somehow made the PGA Tour that way. If you told me right now, I could have a full PGA Tour schedule, I would 100% take it.”

Dalke desires a PGA Tour membership. But he detests the process required to qualify for a card. Making it past the PGA Tour Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour is just as tedious as keeping a PGA Tour membership every season. So, we can imagine that even if he does make it into the PGA Tour, he won’t enjoy the struggle of maintaining his status.

That said, it’s not like Brad Dalke is a bad golfer. However, going through the grind of earning a membership will require more than just skills for the 26-year-old.

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Why was Brad Dalke not able to earn a PGA Tour membership as a pro?

Brad Dalke was an established star on the amateur circuit. Before turning pro, it looked like he was destined to be on the PGA Tour. But reality hit him hard when he actually turned pro.

He struggled to find consistency and barely managed to scrape through events. And he never really played enough golf elsewhere to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour. Dalke only had one KFT appearance in his career. He did make three other appearances. In 2017, Dalke played in the U.S. Open and the Masters Tournament. In 2020, he was invited to the Evans Scholars Invitational on the PGA Tour. However, he missed the cut in all those events.

Lack of success and opportunities really took a heavy toll on him. As Brad Dalke admitted in an interview with Gary Williams on December 8, 2025, “I went down the dark path. My identity was so wrapped up in golf, scores went sideways, and my identity was lost. It was stressful, and I got into alcohol issues. I almost died from alcohol. That was just the wake-up call.”

So it’s understandable why he gave up the grind and why he just made the statement that he would prefer exemptions instead.