There’s a lot of Pepto-Bismol being sold in La Quinta this week. At PGA West, 161 of the best golfers not to have their PGA Tour card for 2009 are playing for their futures. The field is an odd mix of the familiar and unfamiliar.
Bob May once nearly took down Tiger Woods in the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, but now he’s just hoping to regain his card at Q-School. Frank Lickliter II won the 2007 edition of Q-School, but he’s back, too. Notah Begay III, Carlos Franco, Glen Day, Robert Garrigus, and Harrison Frazar are teeing it up with Major Manning, Alex Aragon, Vance Veazey, and the Golf Channel “Big Break” alumni James Nitties and Tommy “Two-Gloves” Gainey, all vying for the coveted PGA Tour card that will give them a shot at very comfortable living for life.
In Daytona Beach, 139 women are trying to earn their 2009 LPGA tour cards at LPGA International. You may have even heard of some of them. There’s this young Hawaiian named Michelle Wie, and an Australian model named Anna Rawson who also just happens to play golf. In addition, there are enough Big Break alumni competing to fill a whole new Big Break.
John Feinstein called qualifying school “the Fifth Major.” It certainly doesn’t carry the cachet that the Majors do. The contestants are not the world’s elite players, though they can all dust average humans. They are the second tier of players, the nearly great who have been working their ways up through the mini-tours or are trying to get back to the show after losing their cards.
But in terms of pressure, Q-School may very well be on par or even higher on the scale than the Majors. After all, if you’re a pro playing in the Masters, you’ve most likely made a very substantial sum of money already. Playing in Q-School, however, you are playing for what could become a very lucrative career.
Number Five: A Rose by Any Other Name…
The official name of Q-school is the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. The first such tournament was held in 1965.
Number Four: One is Not Enough
Each of the major (as well as some of the not-so-major) tours has its own q-school, from the PGA Tour to the Ladies European Tour. The formats vary, of course. The PGA Tour final stage of Q-School takes place over 108 holes. The Ladies European Tour wraps up after 72 holes, although those qualifying have to stay around for a tour orientation the next day and a pro-am on the following.
For the purposes of this article, however, we’ll stick mostly with the PGA Tour’s Q-School.
Number Three: Nothing Else to Do?
Bryce Molder has his card for 2009, but he’s playing in La Quinta this week. He earned his 2009 card by finishing 23rd on the Nationwide Tour this year. So why is he putting himself through the pain of Q-School? To improve his ability to get into the tournaments he wants to play most.
How that works exactly is a little complicated. Players who earn their cards like Molder did on the Nationwide Tour and those who qualify through Q-School have the same status. Their finish positions determine the pecking order for choosing tournaments. The two groups are intermixed by taking one player from each group at a time.
So Molder’s 23rd place means he’ll be at 45th in the pecking order at best (and that’s after the 125 PGA Tour players who managed to keep their cards for 2009). That means a good finish at Q-School could improve Molder’s standing substantially. Better standing should mean more starts for Bryce (and more chances at money) in 2009.
Number Two: A Long Road
The PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament comprises four stages and a maximum of 324 holes. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
The number of tournaments in the early stages of qualifying, as well as the number of players qualifying for the next stage, vary according to the size of the field (and the number of PGA Tour players who have already earned status for 2009).
In 2008, the first stage, actually called the Pre-Qualifying Stage, was contested in September over 72 holes at six courses in the US. The top 35-40 finishers, plus ties, from each site moved on to the second stage, which is actually called the First Stage. (This discrepancy in naming stems from the addition of Pre-Qualifying Stage in 2006).
This year, First Stage qualifying was held at 12 tournament sites in October. On average, about 20 players from each site qualified for the Second Stage (which is really the third) after 72 holes.
Second Stage qualifying took place in November at six courses over another 72 holes. Again, about 20 players advanced from each site.
Which brings us to the Final Stage, being held this month at PGA West on the Nicklaus Tournament Course and the TPC Stadium Course. After 108 holes (six rounds), the top 25 players and ties will earn their PGA Tour cards for 2009 (and a well deserved rest).
Number One: 26+
So what happens to the majority of the players who fail to qualify? Are they consigned to selling Lady Kenmores at Sears or pushing Titleists in the pro shops of America? Hardly.
Most of the field that finishes 26th and over will earn status on Nationwide Tour. Perhaps that’s not exactly how they’d like to spend 2009, but it’s not that bad of a fate either. Those finishing in the very back of the pack will have partial status on the Nationwide, which will force them to scramble a bit to keep themselves in top level tournaments. Still, they’ll be playing golf for a living, which is more than most of us can ever hope for.
Thanks for this clear explanation. It’s remarkable how pgatour.com makes this info so hard to ferret out.
I went to watch today in Daytona… lots of tears.. lots of cheers… wow… intense week!!
Good information. I have been at PGA West the last two days and the pressure is so much greater than any that I feel when I attend or work regular PGA events. One thing that adds to it is the fact that there is almost no crowd, I think the extreem quite even adds to the pressure.
The Bryce Molder story is the most interesting one out there. Obviously the guy wants to go all out to ensure that he will be getting a shot at as many tournaments as possible. Many people live with the misconception that a top-25 finish on the Nationwide Tour solves all the problems for these players but it couldn’t be further away from the truth. Although a PGA Tour card does make it easy, it is still a lot of conditional starts for these players and especially those who just manage to scrape through for their card.
Unfortunately for Molder, the attempt at improving his position really did not pay any dividends as he failed to make it through qualifying school but the good news for him is that he still gets to play.
The other interesting bit is about Bob May. It was one of Tiger’s finest wins in a major, the 2000 PGA Championship but what May did that day was nothing short of incredible. To see the guy struggling to regain his place in the big league is really disappointing. What could have happened had Tiger not made that six footer on the final hole or the 25 footer on the first playoff hole or for that matter that wonderful save on the final playoff hole. Incredible tournament, and I think we can safely say, one that chaged May’s fortunes forever.
That really is a wonderful compilation about the qualifying procedure. It was a wonderful read because it is a very well compiled list of facts.
I really do enjoy watching the final round of q-school on the golf channel. It’s remarkable to watch a man face a bending 15 footer to earn his card and make it. Some jump for joy while others simply doff the cap and act like it was no big deal. Those ones are some cool customers indeed.