“I definitely feel like I've underachieved”: Despite $23,000,000 in career earnings, PGA Tour golfer unfulfilled with his golf accomplishments

PGA Tour golfer Aaron Baddeley recently made his 500th PGA Tour start at the Fortinet Championship 2023. This also happened to be his 16th time at the Napa Valley. However, he missed the cut by a four-stroke margin at the Silverado Country Club.

He spoke at an Australian media conference. The golfer said that he was disappointed despite accumulating over $23,000,000 as on-course earnings on the American Tour.

Baddeley added that he could not have gotten more peace and joy off the golf course, but felt that he had "underachieved" as a golfer. The PGA Tour golfer was quoted by Golf Australia as saying:

"Definitely with what I expected, the goals that I set. But life-wise, I feel like I've exceeded all my expectations with my family, with my kids, my wife. I couldn't be more at peace and joyful off the golf course.

"Golfing wise, I definitely feel like I've underachieved. But in saying that, I still, I feel like I've got a lot of my best years ahead of me," he added.

Aaron Baddeley had played 500 events on the PGA Tour and had missed the cut in 203 of them while finishing inside the Top 10 only 52 times, and has won just four events.

Speaking on achieving the 500 starts milestone, the PGA Tour golfer said that he did not think he wanted to play that many events on the Tour.

"You don't start the game or join the PGA tour thinking, 'Man, I want to get to 500 starts'. You think about just playing the next event, trying to win and whatever happens that week, you win or miss the cut, you move to the next week and do it all over again."

Aaron Baddeley's last win on the PGA Tour came at the 2016 Barbasol Championship. He defeated Kim Si-woo in a playoff match for that title.

How has PGA Tour golfer Aaron Baddeley performed in the 2022-23 season?

Aaron Baddeley played 23 events this season. He missed the cut in 9 of them and finished three times inside the top 10.

The 42-year-old PGA Tour golfer did not qualify for any of the four majors this season. In fact, he had not played a single major since 2019.

His best performance came at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He finished tied sixth on the leaderboard. His other top 10 finishes, both T7, came at the 2023 Sony Open in Hawaii and the 2023 3M Open.

Below are the leaderboard standings of PGA Tour golfers in the 2022-23 season:

Fortinet Championship - T36
Butterfield Bermuda Championship - T6
World Wide Technology Championship - CUT
The RSM Classic - T39
Sony Open in Hawaii - T7
The American Express - T50
Farmers Insurance Open - CUT
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - T37
The Honda Classic - CUT
Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard - T34
THE PLAYERS Championship - 72
Corales Puntacana Championship - T46
Zurich Classic of New Orleans - CUT
Mexico Open at Vidanta - T39
AT&T Byron Nelson - T23
Charles Schwab Challenge - T21
RBC Canadian Open - CUT
Rocket Mortgage Classic - CUT
John Deere Classic - T31
Genesis Scottish Open - CUT
Barracuda Championship - CUT
3M Open - T7
Wyndham Championship - CUT.

Aaron Baddeley did not qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Although he did not win a single event this season, he has accumulated a sum of $1,246,265 playing in the 2022-23 PGA Tour season.