how did this guy even get in?

I was looking at some pre-qualifying results for the PGA Q-School, and was shocked at a score I saw down at the bottom. Click here and scroll down to the bottom. Mark Bove, +145 through 4 rounds. Hell, I'm lousy and I think I could beat that guy! Don't people have to have a verifiable handicap that's low enough to even enter an event like that?

Like Michelle Wie?

Gold..!!

are you saying David Duval should not be entering tournaments? He had a few 80's lately...

If I remember correctly to enter qualifier for the Q-School all you need is $2000 (or was it $4000?) entry fee... unlike US Open where almost-scratch handicap is required.

Maybe he wanted to show off the free bag tag and shirt that he probably got.

11 pars and one birdie in 72 holes - If a guy like this thinks he has a shot, there is hope for the rest of us!!

The tie for 16th at Winged Foot offset a lot of the 80+ scores.

As for the topic, the guy could have suffered a severe injury for all we know. I'd like to know the full story before completely hanging him out to dry. If he suffered an injury on the driving range or on the first few holes, his game could have gone south in a hurry. More than likely, he was just wasting everyone's time. But we don't know that for sure.

oh my god !! how bad are those scores for that guy!!! i hope that someone paid for him to enter cos that is just a huge waste of money!!! How could he possibly think he would get on the tour with play like that! i mean everyone is entitled to have a go but you must know if you have half a chance at least of ranking anywhere!! oh dear!

no. you need to verify your handicap (2, the open is 1.4), have 2 letters of recommendation and a host of other things.

This is the main reason the PGA has set up the "pre qualifying" round this year. All previous years, everyone would start in on the 1st stage. This was a catch-all stage that had people with various degrees of status on the nationwide tour competing right along side guys who fudged their handicaps and got some letters from their local club pros (and end up shooting 100) This year the pre quailfying stage applies to those who havent had status on any recognized tour (ie: the Canadian Tour lets say) and it costs $2500.00. If you make it thru, then you pay the rest of the q school fee (another $2500.00) I think its a pretty fair system and will cut down the huge amount of people that are usually in the first round. Also it should be noted, just like in USGA qualifiers, the PGA can also reject a future application based on previous q school scores, so rest assured atleast this years stock of 13 handicaps posing as 2s wont be doing the event next year. Theyve also done this for PGA event Monday Qualifiers, hence the larger fields at Nationwide tour qualifiers.

He also shot a 59, which tied for the lowest 18 hole score in a PGA tour event.

Anyways, Q-School or even PAT test is very stress full. One of our club pro's (who was just fired, but wanted to get out of the golf business) shot a 84-92 at his first PAT. He could be pretty good, but under these tests he could've buckled?

He has 2 10's and 2 9's in his last round. I surely hope the guys playing with him had no serious intention of qualifying becasue playing with that would have made it very difficult. Would love to have seen playing partners scores.

yea, I'm not buying it either. In the last 4 years I never scored over 100 and I played some tough courses and back tees - and I don't even come CLOSE to thinking I'm good enough to try to qualify for the Q-school. If injury was really the case - I'd think a WD would be the natural sequence... On the other hand - even if I had severe shank-attack during the first round and score 100+ - geez, I'd FAKE a injury just to get out of there

( note to readers: rafcin just violated first rule of golf " never say 'I never...'". expect him creating a post soon about his 105 scored during the next round he plays. )

The only thing I can think of is that he's not a golfer, he's a writer thats putting a book together about the experience of going thru Q-School.

well again, thank goodness this is happening in the pre qualifying stage.

the cut off line is much more generous and around the top 45 get thro to the 1st stage.

this is exactly the type of case that made the PGA institute these changes to q school this year.

if i had to shoot 69s to get thro (as it will be in thge first stage) and i was playing with a guy hitting 100 id be steamed. but knowing that i could hit it around in the mid 70s and still have a shot would deff relieve the pressure.


plus again his future applications will be rejected. and since he can remain an amateur now, he doesnt have to be stuck stinking up smaller tour pro events because he had to forfeit his amateur status once he applied to q school.

the pga is fully aware that no matter what they do, they will always have guys like these, showing up who have no clue.

If you think this is bad, you should check out some of the senior tour monday qualifiers...yeesh

in that case he'll have only enough material for first chapter