To play in nationwide tour

[golfro]

How many baseball players are in MLB that didnt play college. Oh 90% or so... A lot of hockey players dont play college either. There are different proving grounds for each sport.

yep. NBA and NFL particularly rely on college players for recruit but with golf, whether or not you play in college doesn't dictate anything. Sure, playing competitively in college can somewhat train you to be in the competitive mental mode and you also get the opportunity to play various courses across the nation, but again, your chances of getting on tour doesn't just go up because you played in college. Joe Schmo the janitor, age 60, can grab his lifes savings and goto PGA Q-School and somehow qualify in top 50 and hop on tour. Ciollege has absolutely nothing to do with it.

[TourSpoon]

yep. NBA and NFL particularly rely on college players for recruit but with golf, whether or not you play in college doesn't dictate anything. Sure, playing competitively in college can somewhat train you to be in the competitive mental mode and you also get the opportunity to play various courses across the nation, but again, your chances of getting on tour doesn't just go up because you played in college. Joe Schmo the janitor, age 60, can grab his lifes savings and goto PGA Q-School and somehow qualify in top 50 and hop on tour. Ciollege has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I see your point, but in reality how many Euro guys played college golf in the states? Quite a few come to mind. So it must have more merit than "absolutely nothing". Couple that with the American golfers that played college and you have a substantial amount.

[AzGolfGeek]

Can you qualify for the nationwide tour being a true scratch golfer?? Or what does it take?

I read through the other posts and did not see the answer, just a bunch of chat about odds and number of players. The answer to your question is, YES, you can qualify for the Nationwide tour, the same as qualifing for the PGA Tour. There are 2 methods for ordinary people (non-celeb), 1st is going through the Q-school process, this is a very long and expensive process. But the results from the Q-school dictate who has exempt status on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tours. The "status" is what is used to determine what tournaments you can get into. The "Status", also dictates where you start within the Q-school process, the process is just a series of tournaments, where the top so many advance to the next tournament within the pocess. Someone with "NO-STATUS", would have to start with the Pre-Qualifing tournament, I believe the top 40 then advanced to Stage I.

The 2nd method is a little less expensive, this would be going the monday qualifier, again if or have "NO STATUS", you might have to play in a pre-qualifier to get into the Monday qualifier. From what I have seen here in AZ, for both the Waste Management tournament, and Justin Timberlake's tournament, the Pre-qualifier is on the Thursday before, about 40-50 then advance to the Monday qualifier, where the top 4 advance. The entry fees are $200 to enter the Pre-qualifier, and an additional $200 if you advance. This process was the same a few years back when a Nationwide event was held in Scottsdale. On the entry forms, the only time a hdcp is needed is if your declaring Amateur, If you declare Pro, there is no hdcp question. However I think they do monitor the results so you wouldn't be able to get into too many pre-qualifiers when firing 90's. I've seen plenty of 80's shot. The top 40-50 in the pre-qualifiers are usually EVEN to -1, out of 99 players, the Monday qualifiers usually takes a 66, 67, or 68 to get the top 4.

[golfro]

I see your point, but in reality how many Euro guys played college golf in the states? Quite a few come to mind. So it must have more merit than "absolutely nothing". Couple that with the American golfers that played college and you have a substantial amount.

Like I said, playing college can help train you for competitive mindstate and perhaps playing golf in college helps hone in on your skills...but how exactly does playing in college suddenly get you a PGA card? They are completely independent of each other. You may attract some sponsors when you play in college but that doens't happen too often. Again, the PGA tour doesn't actively go out and recruit college players to play in the PGA like they do in the NBA. In the NBA, if you aren't a recognize college player, its near impossible to even get a scout to give you a second of his day, because they focus mostly on college recruitment. Its extremely rare.

To qualify for the PGA tour, its completely independent of playing in college. Regardless of if you went to college or not, you can qualify if you have the money and the talent. College doesn't make that any easier. of course one can become a better player playing inc ollege, surrounded by great players...than say Joe Schmo who plays with his father in law every weekend, but just happens to be amazingly talented at golf. But the fact remains, a +5 handi from Arizona University has just much a chance to get a PGA card as +5 handi Joe Schmo from Nantucket. the qualification process is completely independent of whether ot not the player went to college.

[TourSpoon]

Like I said, playing college can help train you for competitive mindstate and perhaps playing golf in college helps hone in on your skills...but how exactly does playing in college suddenly get you a PGA card? They are completely independent of each other. You may attract some sponsors when you play in college but that doens't happen too often. Again, the PGA tour doesn't actively go out and recruit college players to play in the PGA like they do in the NBA. In the NBA, if you aren't a recognize college player, its near impossible to even get a scout to give you a second of his day.

It is completely independent and there are a ton of college golfers that will never sniff professional golf. Gotcha.

[sean_miller]

I read through the other posts and did not see the answer, just a bunch of chat about odds and number of players. The answer to your question is, YES, you can qualify for the Nationwide tour, the same as qualifing for the PGA Tour.

Which essentially means, NO, a "scratch" golfer likely would not qualify for either one.

[AzGolfGeek]

Which essentially means, NO, a "scratch" golfer likely would not qualify for either one.

One never truely knows unless they try. An engineer at Ping just qualified for the tournament in Vegas. He was just another "scratch" golfer in the area, never even winning a club championship or anything. He also is the guy that designed the new Ping Anser Irons.

[Valleygolfer]

I don't understand the whole "not get the break" for the Nationwide guys. IMO, you are either good enough to finish high enough to get your card or you are not. It is a season long money list that determines whether you get your card or not. How many "breaks" does a guy need to get his card? Why not just give them to everyone?

I agree here. Cream always rises to the top. I think one hit wonders get breaks that get them into the pga however when a guy is pga good, he stays in there for quite a while barring any meltdowns. I just think there is a fine line between PGA good and nationwide good but the line is defined very well which is why the two entities exist so well.

[TourSpoon]

One never truely knows unless they try. An engineer at Ping just qualified for the tournament in Vegas. He was just another "scratch" golfer in the area, never even winning a club championship or anything. He also is the guy that designed the new Ping Anser Irons.

Jertson, Marty

Marty Jertson is a Senior Design Engineer at PING Golf in Phoenix, Arizona with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He has worked at PING for 5 years and his main expertise has been clubhead design, but he has also specialized in steel and graphite shaft design, grip design, and process development. During his time at PING, he has designed drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, and putters, including the recently launched i15 driver and i15 iron. He has also overseen the development of over 40 graphite shaft designs and 4 steel shaft designs. Marty is also an avid professional golfer, member of the PGA of America, and competes in 10-15 professional golf tournaments a year. Before this "scratch golfer" worked at Ping he played mini-tours for 18 months. He also just won a sectional club pro event. I would venture to say he is much better than scratch.

[AzGolfGeek]

Jertson, Marty

Don't get Touring Pro golf mixed with Club Pro golf, they are very different. And as far as Marty playing mini-tour golf, anyone here with less than a 5 hdcp can play on the Pepsi Tour. All this means, is that ANYONE who wants to compete, can find a tourament to get into to advance them. Whether its likely for them to get a Tour Status or not is solely up to their results in the qualifing process.

[sean_miller]

Don't get Touring Pro golf mixed with Club Pro golf, they are very different. And as far as Marty playing mini-tour golf, anyone here with less than a 5 hdcp can play on the Pepsi Tour. All this means, is that ANYONE who wants to compete, can find a tourament to get into to advance them. Whether its likely for them to get a Tour Status or not is solely up to their results in the qualifing process.

That's all fine and good, but it's a bit different than your earlier implication that any Joe Lunchpail with a scratch index could qualify for a pro tournament on a whim.

[AzGolfGeek]

That's all fine and good, but it's a bit different than your earlier implication that any Joe Lunchpail with a scratch index could qualify for a pro tournament on a whim.

Yes, anyone could......and has over the years.....one never know unless they try, however unlikely anyone else might think.............The orignal post was about how to go about qualifing.

[sean_miller]

Yes, anyone could......and has over the years.....one never know unless they try, however unlikely anyone else might think.............The orignal post was about how to go about qualifing.

Is this a nomenclature issue? To me scratch is an index of 0.0 (or thereabouts) and to me that's not nearly as likely as someone with a "+ something" index. Scratch implies that the average of the best 10 of their last 20 differentials is 0.0. On a tough track that might be an average of 74 or higher. Actually now that I think about it, they'd likely have some high 60s rounds in there - yeah they might be able to qualify. The house money is on them not making the cut (i.e finishing out of the money), but as you said, that wasn't the question.

[2bGood]

I think a good way to judge yourself, would be to ask these two questions.

That sucks as I am only the fifth best player at Isleworth, I guess I have no chance.

[jrsmith1491]

""I read through the other posts and did not see the answer, just a bunch of chat about odds and number of players. The answer to your question is, YES, you can qualify for the Nationwide tour, the same as qualifing for the PGA Tour. There are 2 methods for ordinary people (non-celeb), 1st is going through the Q-school process, this is a very long and expensive process. But the results from the Q-school dictate who has exempt status on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tours. The "status" is what is used to determine what tournaments you can get into. The "Status", also dictates where you start within the Q-school process, the process is just a series of tournaments, where the top so many advance to the next tournament within the pocess. Someone with "NO-STATUS", would have to start with the Pre-Qualifing tournament, I believe the top 40 then advanced to Stage I.

The 2nd method is a little less expensive, this would be going the monday qualifier, again if or have "NO STATUS", you might have to play in a pre-qualifier to get into the Monday qualifier. From what I have seen here in AZ, for both the Waste Management tournament, and Justin Timberlake's tournament, the Pre-qualifier is on the Thursday before, about 40-50 then advance to the Monday qualifier, where the top 4 advance. The entry fees are $200 to enter the Pre-qualifier, and an additional $200 if you advance. This process was the same a few years back when a Nationwide event was held in Scottsdale.

On the entry forms, the only time a hdcp is needed is if your declaring Amateur, If you declare Pro, there is no hdcp question. However I think they do monitor the results so you wouldn't be able to get into too many pre-qualifiers when firing 90's. I've seen plenty of 80's shot. The top 40-50 in the pre-qualifiers are usually EVEN to -1, out of 99 players, the Monday qualifiers usually takes a 66, 67, or 68 to get the top 4. """



thank you finaly someone answers the ? that I asked!!! and personally i think that qualifying for the nationwide and pga are absolutely two different ball games. Obviously this is true or there would be no nationwide everyone would be in the pga tour. Dont get me wrong the nationwide tour guys a tough and really solid but the guys in the pga tour play much harder courses with a lot more on the line than nationwide. If the guys on the nationwide could do that as consistent then they would make the step up.

[Paradox]

I don't understand the whole "not get the break" for the Nationwide guys. IMO, you are either good enough to finish high enough to get your card or you are not. It is a season long money list that determines whether you get your card or not. How many "breaks" does a guy need to get his card? Why not just give them to everyone?

It most definitely comes down to a break "just having things go my way" Such and such misses that putt to put you where you need to be...so on and so forth. My only point was that Nationwide guys have the SKILL to play on the PGA tour, they just haven't gotten to the PGA tour yet for one reason or another. I never said it was a guarantee that anyone would come off the Nationwide and go into the PGA and be a champion, but past results show that its entirely possible.

Tom Lehman, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Stuart Appleby, Chad Campbell, Chris DiMarco, Lucas Glover, Shaun Micheel, Boo Weekley, Ricky Barnes, Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson...I'm sure there are quite a few more. Not really a list of "no names" and guys who've never done anything on the PGA tour.

[alo1984]

How to qualify for the Nationwide Tour: become redonkulously good. The end.

[TN94z]

It most definitely comes down to a break "just having things go my way" Such and such misses that putt to put you where you need to be...so on and so forth. My only point was that Nationwide guys have the SKILL to play on the PGA tour, they just haven't gotten to the PGA tour yet for one reason or another. I never said it was a guarantee that anyone would come off the Nationwide and go into the PGA and be a champion, but past results show that its entirely possible.

See, I think missed putts are results of the wrong read, wrong speed, or bad strokes. The guys that go on are the ones that make those putts. To me, it's nothing to do with breaks. If you were that good, you wouldn't be on the cut line. And I'm not talking about "off weeks." Those aren't bad breaks.