'Tis The (Last) Season

             All good things must come to an end, and the ability to qualify for a PGA Tour card at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of them, sadly. Historically, this event is known as Qualifying School or “Q School” for short. 

            The use of the adjective “grueling “ to describe the Q-School experience is a gross understatement.  It’s a meatgrinder of a process that allows a lucky few to qualify for a PGA Tour card for the following season.   All you have to do is excel against your peers through a maximum of four stages and seventeen rounds of stroke play, the final stage lasting a mere six rounds.  
 

            Or, perhaps I should say, all you had to do.  That’s because the PGA Tour and Tim Finchem have recently announced two revolutionary changes to the PGA Tour.  The first is the fall golf season becoming part of the full PGA Tour year in 2013.  The second is the elimination of the Q School.  Oh, and the Nationwide Tour is now the Web.com Tour, having replaced the Nationwide Tour virtually overnight last month.  (Nationwide, we hardly knew ye.)  

We Hardly Knew Ye!

            That’s right, after the FedEx Cup regular season ends in August 2013, the PGA Tour will take the top 75 players from the Web.com Tour money list, along with the players who finished No. 126 through 200 on the PGA Tour money list, and have them play three tournaments. The top 50 finishers at the end of the three tournaments will receive PGA Tour cards for the following season.

             And that following season, i.e., the 2014 PGA Tour, after the monumental change just mentioned, will begin in October 2013.   And that ‘s because The PGA Tour policy board has decided to award full FedEx Cup points to the tournaments that come after the season-ending Tour Championship. So the new season that will start in October 2013 will now conclude with the Tour Championship in September 2014.  And those boys that win their Tour cards in the new Q-Triple Play will have to get to work right away.   

The Commissioner's Commissioner

            Of course, now the golf season will be generating cash twelve months a year for the PGA Tour coffers instead of for a paltry nine months per annum.  Pete Rozelle, the legendary NFL Commissioner who presided over the growth of the NFL from one of several secondary professional sports leagues into the behemoth dominating the professional sports landscape today, dreamed of a world in which the NFL occupied the sports calendar all year long.  Well, Alvin Ray Rozelle is resting peacefully, I am sure, and Tim Finchem be stopping by El Camino Memorial Park with flowers sometime soon.  

            Now, whether golf fans will be able to say the same when the double whammy of the loss of Q-School and being forced to watch coverage of the “Checks Cashed Here” Golf and Horseshoe Tossing Invitational Classic from Killeen, Texas, when we could be watching NFL and college football games, MLB playoffs and other very popular sporting events, remains to be seen.  Where have you gone, Ginn sur Mer Classic? 

A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes ...

            So 2012 will be the last time the Q School event will be played.  What will the golf world be missing when Q School is cancelled, aside from 60-plus years of tradition?   

            Here’s the process as described by the PGA itself for the 2011 tournament:

The PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is actually a series of tournaments, beginning with first stage qualifiers played at numerous locations around the United States.

Pre-Qualifying - Stroke play contested over 54 holes.

First Qualifying Stage - Stroke play contested over 72 holes.

Second Qualifying Stage - Stroke play contested over 72 holes.

Final Qualifying Stage - Stroke play contested over 108 holes.

Golfers who make the grade at the first stage advance to second stage qualifiers. And golfers advancing out of the second stage move on to the Final Stage - the six-round grind that is known as Q-School.

Following six rounds of stroke play at the Final Stage, the highest finishers receive fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for the following year.   The top 25 players and ties will receive PGA TOUR cards for 2012. The next nearest-number-to-50 will earn fully exempt Nationwide Tour cards for the first 10 events in 2012, and the remainder of the field will receive conditional Nationwide Tour status.

Okay, so how competitive is the PGA Tour Qualifying process?  Well, in 2011:

• A total of 513 players teed off in the seven pre-qualifiers and competed for 258 spots (and ties).

• A total of 969 players teed off in the 13 first-stage qualifiers and competed for 284 spots (and ties).

• A total of 450 players teed off in the six second-stage qualifiers and competed for 122 spots (and ties).

• A total of 39 players were exempt into the final stage of the tournament.

Proud Q-School Graduate

So, seven pre-qualifiers, along with 13 first- and six second-stage regionals, were held to reduce the field. A total of 173 players advanced to the final qualifying stage, which consisted of six rounds with no cut.

            Only seven players qualified for the final round by making it through all three stages -- Gator "Richard" Todd, Glenn Northcutt, Wes Roach, Erik Flores, Jess Schutte, Travis Wadkins and Paul Haley.  None of these seven golfers ultimately qualified for their card.

            In 2011 the final stage was contested from Nov 30 - Dec 5, 2011in LaQuinta, California, on the PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course and the PGA West TPC Stadium Course. 

            In 2011 29 golfers earned their PGA Tour Card.  The medalist was Brendon Todd, and the three golfers tied for 24^th were Matt Anderson, Alexandre Rocha and Richard H. Lee.  In between, Daniel Summerhays kept his PGA Tour Card, veterans Bob Estes and Jeff Maggert will be back on tour, and Colt Knost, who double-bogeyed his final hole after finding the water off the tee and who acknowledged that "I thought I was done," finished right on the number at 8 under and tied for 27^th and the final PGA qualifying spot.

Another Proud Q School Graduate

            As is traditional at Q School, some relatively big names failed to make the cut afrter six days of competition in 2011.  David Duval, former World No. 1 and winner of nearly $19 million in prize money failed to qualify.  Lee Janzen, two-time U.S. Open champion and winner of $15.6 million lifetime, missed his PGA Tour card by two shots.  Shaun Micheel, whose only PGA victory in his 19 seasons on tour was the 1993 PGA Tournament, missed the cut, as did Rich Beem, who has lifetime earnings in excess of $9 million.  And Ty Tryon the golfing wunderkind who turned pro at the age of 16 in 2001, finished 158^th out of 160 players.

            Now this type of excitement, melodrama, dream chasing  and pressure will disappear, like a tee shot in the drink, another victim of the almighty buck.  Tragic

Not a Q School Graduate

            Speaking of pressure, matching Q School to Under Pressure was a no-brainer. (Although the David Bowie song that perhaps might make more sense in this case is “Changes”)  The Q School situation is a pressure cooker, perhaps unparalleled in the golf world, with the possible exception of the Ryder Cup, and it’s one of the greatest rock songs ever, bringing together originally two of the greatest rock icons, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and Queen.  But check out the Queen Tribute in Wembley Stadium, with Bowie and Annie Lennox performing this classic here, after first checking out the rehearsal video here. Having co-produced The Golf Album, I must admit it brings chills to watch geniuses at work in rehearsal, out of the limelight offstage, honing their remarkable skills to perform on stage. And notice the difference in the actual performance.  The intensity level, shall we say, is understandably quite elevated in the live performance.  And I also think Annie had a thing for Bowie – check it out.

Neither Was She

            And by the way, if Annie Lennox isn’t the most underrated rocker alive, then who is?

            One other observation – the video for the 1992 Freddie Mercury/Queen Tribute at Wembley is absolutely incredible – more than other live performance videos, for some reason, it gives a remarkably clear sense of what it would be like to perform onstage as a rocker. Perhaps it was the celebration of  Freddie Mercury’s life, the perfect combination of the transcendent performers involved, the camera work  and crisp video production, or just the fabulous music of Queen – whatever the reason or reasons, the performances were just incredible.  It leaves one thinking, who wouldn’t give a little - or a lot -  to have the chance to experience some pressure, on the golf course or on stage, under similar circumstances someday, and with similar results.

Freddie and Q School, Gone

Under Pressure

Songwriter/Composer

David Bowie

John Richard Deacon

Brian Harold May

Frederick Mercury

Roger Meddows Taylor

Publishers

Beechwood Music Corporation

Screen Gems-Emi Music Inc

Tintoretto Music

Umm boom bah day
umm boom swing away
umm bah boom bah bay day

Pressure, pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, to make the Tour
Under Pressure
That breaks a swing plane down
Can’t keep putts less than two
Puts golfers on streets

Umm bah bah bay
Umm bah bah bay
Ea day da
Ea day da
That's okay!

It's the terror not knowing
What this game is about
Watching some golfers
Screaming Make the Cut!
Pray tomorrow takes me lower
Pressure on golfers
Duffers on tees

Day day day
Umm... Buh da bah bah bah
O-kay!

Chippin' around
Kick my ball round the green
These are the days
It never stops it just rolls

Ea doe bay dup
Ea da doe bah bup
Ea doe bup
Bay lup

Duffers on tees

Ea da dea da day

Spectators on seats

Ea da dea da dea da dea da...

It's the terror not knowing
What this game is about
Watching some golfers
Screaming Make the Cut!
Pray tomorrow takes me lower

Pressure on golfers
Duffers on tees

Take  away from the ball
Like a blind man
changed up my grip  but it don't work
Keep coming back to the Q
But it all seems for naught
(Why, why, whhhhhyyyy??)
Golf golf golf golf

Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking

Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give golf that one more chance?
Why can't we give golf give golf give golf?
Give golf give golf give golf give golf give golf

Cause golf's such an old fashioned game
And golf dares you to care
For the people on the edge of the night
And golf dares you to change our way
Of caring about ourselves

This is our last chance
This is Q School under pressure
Under pressure

Pressure

AMDG

 

© R.E. Kelly 2012-2021