Most well-known professional golf players tend to have careers that can last many years, and sometimes even decades. They work on their skills, attend the right events, and always keep up to date on the latest strategies to give themselves the highest possible chance of winning on a more frequent basis.

Some players, despite showing incredible promise – sometimes with enough potential to become overnight legends, and many of them did – only to suddenly fade away from the professional scene, and some even never returned to golf again.

1. Ralph Guldahl

Most modern golf fans have probably never heard of Ralph Guldahl, which is surprising considering that he was widely considered the best golfer in his generation. During a two-year stint between 1937 and 1939, Guldahl claimed three major trophies, including the 1939 Masters, as well as the 1937 and 1938 US Opens. He also managed to win three Western Opens when the Western Open was regarded as a major. Guldahl was an extraordinarily talented player, but around 1940, he basically gave up on the game, officially quitting two years later. No one is completely sure why he suddenly lost his talent on the game, but some believe that he became so carried away in the analysis of his swings that he basically lost the ability to hit well.

2. Bill Rogers

In 1981, Bill Rogers was arguably the number one player in the world. He had won the PGA tour four times, while also boasting seven victories in total from across the globe. He would disappear for two years but earned another PGA win in 1983. And that was it – within a period of 5 years, Rogers had virtually vanished from the professional circuit, but his career truly came to an end in 1988. His fall from fame is not a mystery, however. Rogers has gone into great detail explaining the death of professional career, which was mainly caused by the constant travelling and public appearances that would eventually kill his passion for the game.

3. Yani Tseng

Yani Tseng’s career really took off around the year 2008, and it was a career that would leave most other pro golfers feeling a bit envious. Tseng wasn’t just an excellent player but was perhaps the very best player at the time. She was only 22 years old when she won the 2011 Women’s British Open, and it was already her fifth win in a major event, and she became the focus of sponsors.

Of the eight women’s majors that she had participated in up to that point, she had won half of them. It was a career that looked like it would easily mirror or even beat the successes enjoyed by players like Tiger Woods. And then suddenly in 2012, her career seemingly came to abrupt halt. Within a year, she dropped to 38^th place on the money list, and then 54^th a year after that. By 2019, Tseng’s career was virtually over, and she missed the cuts for all the major events that year.