To play in nationwide tour

[Shanks A Million]

Want to play on the Nationwide tour? Well, if you're like a +2 handicap, you may get lucky and qualify for an event here and there. You'd have to be having a damn good day though to qualify. I'd say a +4 can be an also ran on the Nationwide tour. Worst players on the PGA tour are around +5.

[Valleygolfer]

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.

I am with you here. The same guys think luck has something to do with it.

[MJP]

PGA tour pros admit to win they have to be both good and lucky. But that's to win, not to consistently place well in tournaments.

[TourSpoon]

Want to play on the Nationwide tour? Well, if you're like a +2 handicap, you may get lucky and qualify for an event here and there. You'd have to be having a damn good day though to qualify. I'd say a +4 can be an also ran on the Nationwide tour. Worst players on the PGA tour are around +5.

We have had this conversation a few times on this forum. Not only the +2 but also some nerves to go along with it. I was talking to a Nationwide guy yesterday who just "retired". He is easily a +4 and couldn't make a go of it as a career. I posted some of my friends experiences on the last Nationwide thread that really put it into perspective. Those guys are good...no a lot better than good.

Here is more perspective on what it takes: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...nament-by-2011 .

[Paradox]

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.

You're harping on a point that I used as a slight exaggeration to say what I wanted to say. The guys on the Nationwide Tour are good enough to play on the PGA tour(for the most of them, anyway)...they just haven't gotten there for one reason or another.

Luck, break, bad week at a bad time, whatever...they DO have the skill to play PGA tournaments and thinking otherwise is just silly. They are not "less than" or "not good enough"..THAT was my point. That leads me to imply that if you're wondering how hard it might be..then just look at guys on the PGA tour and think of how hard it would be to play against/along side them. Yeah, you aren't gonna run into a tiger or a phil or Rory or any other top guy..but the idea is the same.

[Valleygolfer]

PGA tour pros admit to win they have to be both good and lucky. But that's to win, not to consistently place well in tournaments.

Pro's may say crap like that but I doubt they believe it. It is for the fan. They would sound arrogant if they said, "I knew how wind was swirling and every decision I made hit it worked out pretty much the way I planned it" and "if I would not have hit it that way it would not have turned out as well as it did". They know they control their destiny. Finally you have to say things like Tiger Woods is so much luckier than anyone else on tour.

[James_Black]

Pro's may say crap like that but I doubt they believe it. It is for the fan. They would sound arrogant if they said, "I knew how wind was swirling and every decision I made hit it worked out pretty much the way I planned it" and "if I would not have hit it that way it would not have turned out as well as it did". They know they control their destiny. Finally you have to say things like Tiger Woods is so much luckier than anyone else on tour.

tiger woods 2008 U.S Open, his putt on 18, for any other pro the ball would've lipped out

[Valleygolfer]

tiger woods 2008 U.S Open, his putt on 18, for any other pro the ball would've lipped out

The fact is he putted the ball where it didn't.

[MJP]

Golf has more luck involved than any other sport. That being said, bad luck and good luck in golf is usually obvious are rarely does it make or break a tournament winner.

Rocco got lucky to hole 4 shots from outside 100y. If he wouldn't have got lucky, they still would have all been fantastic shots, but the fact that they went in was lucky and that's a rare case of where it actually won the tournament for him.

[Valleygolfer]

Golf has more luck involved than any other sport. That being said, bad luck and good luck in golf is usually obvious are rarely does it make or break a tournament winner.

I give up.

[James_Black]

I give up.

4 hole outs is lucky.

Rocco would be the first to admit that. Getting it within a few feet is skill, but actually holing out is luck.

[zeg]

I don't see how one can deny that luck is a factor. Nobody is arguing that luck is the reason that Tiger Woods is at the top of the heap, we're talking about players at the top of the Nationwide versus those at the bottom of the PGA tour. These guys are all phenomenally good golfers, and statistically pretty darn hard to distinguish from each other. They all make astounding shots with regularity, but only some of them put together rounds in the situations that differentiate the tours. Again, remember that we're talking about the guys in the PGA tour who are not finishing top 30 week-in and week-out, these are the ones who are happy to stay high enough on the money list to stick around for another year.

To say luck is a factor in no way diminishes the incredible skill that they have. When the pros acknowledge this, they're not just being fashionably modest. No one, not even Tiger, is good enough to win every week. The very best are clearly so much better than the "average" pro that the names at the top are usually pretty familiar, but there are a lot of pros that you never hear of, and a fair number who bounce back and forth between the tours.

Just look at Q-school and read some of the stories---a couple tough breaks or, conversely, a couple lucky putts can be the difference beween shooting a 66 and a 70. One of those will advance, the other might be one of many who just miss the cut. Even the pros are not "skilling" every, or even the majority of, 30-foot putt into the hole, but they are leaving short second putts. A couple of those falling in instead has a lot to do with luck. More to do with skill, certainly, but all these guys are pretty similar in the skill department...

[TourSpoon]

I think that some of the luck that I see being a contributing factor could be in sponsorships, endorsements, connections, etc. Sometimes being in the right place at the right time and getting the financial backing to make a go of a particular tour can take the pressure off to play at one's best.

[Mizzoujohn]

Think of it this way... there are hundreds of thousands of people in the US who play at scratch to +2 handicap consistently... .

No way there are hundreds of thousdands of scratch or better players in the USA.

[Bigtank]

Can a scratch golfer qualify for the Nationwide...the simple answer is yes. They could play well and qualify. It was mentioned earlier about the ways that you qualify and those were basically correct. You have Q school, which is a mind boggling, grueling multi-stage event that wraps up with some of the hardest 5 days of golf many will ever see. There are reasons that PGA pros dont want to go back through once they have made it. Then there is Monday Qualifying. You have to notify you PGA sectional and then play the rock, just to get into the Monday qualifiers. Then you are going to need a 65 or 66 to make it in. Then there is the Sponser's exemption, this is the 3rd way through. This is usually reserved for local golfers, college players etc.

Next, I read an artical several years back that stated out of all the people that play golf, only 10% can break 90 and only 1% can break 80, playing golf by the REAL rules. This means when you hit it OB, you have to re-tee not drop "out there". Many golfers out there play by an abridged version of the rules. It is not out of any maliciousnous, most just dont know them.

Then there is the tees. These courses are tee'ed from the tips. I know lots of guys at my club that are 2.0 handicaps playing from the blues, that dont cut it. These tournament courses look very different from those tips...you know those tee boxes that usually dont even have the tee markers, because they dont ever use them.

I think this is where college golf (state and USGA events) really help. Like some have said before, it exposure to true tournament format. Not to mention, in college golf you must qualify just to be 5 golfers to travel to the event. When I played college golf, we had a 3 day tournament format the week prior to the tournament and I had to compete against 10 golfers on the squad, just to get to go to the event. It does help a great deal to prepare you for the riggers of a tour. I played college golf against some of the previously mentioned gents, Matt Kuchar, Lucas Glover, Luke Donald. However, for everyone of those guys, there are 100 Mike Martins, Billy Mcluens, that you will never hear of. In fact the years I was there, the best golfer in college hands down was Bryce Molder and he has struggled for years to make it. This is the same for the Nationwide Tour, for every Stewart Cink and Bubba Watsons, there 100's of others that have not...the Paul Claxtons, or Jason Gore's. The guys on the PGA Tour are so ridiculously good, there is no comparison to any other tour.

As for getting a break or Luck....That is a load of you know what. There is NO luck involved in those guys being there, it is God given talent and hard work. I will ask you, when is the last time you wore out a wedge? Maybe every couple of years, maybe every year for those of you tht play fairly often. My college roomate is a current memeber of the PGA tour and last year during the off season he wore out a sand wedge in 2 weeks. He hit thousands of balls in that two week period of time to know that that wedge with that loft and bounce would react in every situation. So when he holes it out of the bunker...we call it luck...luck is a when we are prepared to take advantage of a situation when it presents itself. Even when Rocco holes it 4 times in a tournament, it is because he has hit thousands of balls from that yardage. There might be luck in the that it drops, but there is a little luck in every sport in a single play, maybe a DB falls down allowing Peyton Manning to throw a TD, but I would not say that he is lucky to be the starting QB for the Colts. I would venture to say that 99.99% of the people on this board, myslef included, could hit balls from now on and play golf everyday and still not ever qualify for the tour. But, I am also not saying that we shouldnt try!

My two cents.

[Bigtank]

oh yea and by the way....Rory Mac was a +4 when he took golf by storm, and I think Ricky Fowler was a +4 as well when he turned pro.

[motteler621]

oh yea and by the way....Rory Mac was a +4 when he took golf by storm, and I think Ricky Fowler was a +4 as well when he turned pro.

do you think you might have a chance to get on tour if you dropped two more strokes? also what is that pro-v protype ball in your sig?

[golfro]

No way there are hundreds of thousdands of scratch or better players in the USA.

read the whole thread, i already said i exagerated for point sake.