hamilton turned professional in 1987 but was unable to gain entrance to the pga tour. instead he played internationally for many years, primarily on the japan golf tour. when he left the japan golf tour after 12 seasons, he was the tour's 2nd all-time leading non-japanese money winner (to usa's david ishii), with earnings of over 630 million yen (about $6.18 million in 2014 us dollars) with 11 tour wins.