It's official: The first real PGA Tour Q-School since 2012 kicks off tomorrow!
Okay, maybe I provoked some hate comments with those thirteen words. There was a Q-school run by the PGA Tour from 2013 to 2022 (except in 2020 due to Covid-19). As with this year's edition, it consisted of four stages: a prequalifying stage followed by three "proper" stages, with a modicum of Korn Ferry Tour status guaranteed just for making it to Final Stage. But here's the thing: KFT status was all you could get from that edition. The only reliable way to get a PGA Tour card was through the Korn Ferry Tour itself--as one of the top 25 regular-season performers, one of the top 25 performers in the three- or four-event KFT Finals, which also included underachieving PGA Tour players or winning three KFT events in the same season. The most recent to accomplish the last of these methods remains Chile's Mito Pereira, who took his talents to LIV Golf earlier this year after winning thrice in the combined 2020-21 season. (He followed countryman Joaquin Niemann in that regard.) Otherwise, one must win a PGA Tour event or secure a sufficiency of nonmember points in the FedEx Cup to gain his card. That's what makes this year's Q-school different from the last nine editions.
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| Not just for the Korn Ferry Tour any more! |
Granted, there are as few as five cards available on next year's PGA Tour. And it's not like the Signature Events are likely to offer access to Q-school grads. The same goes for the now-thirty season-long KFT grads, as well as the top ten not-otherwise-exempt players in the DP World Tour Race to Dubai. In fact, there could be as few as 45 cards awarded by these means by year's end--the lowest total since the 1970s. If it were up to me, there should be at least fifty cards granted by the PGA Tour, as there had been prior to this year, with the remainder after Q-school ties for fifth being distributed among (1) KFT players; (2) DPWT members; and (3) Q-school finishers in rotating order. But it's a start. Maybe my idea or some other good plan will be adopted down the road. Though I'm not holding my breath.
Now that that's off my chest, I decided to cobble together a quick reference over several posts that will be regularly updated. Look for the tag "Q-school primer" whenever you stop by the blog. This post outlines how Q-school works starting this year.
As mentioned at the top, prequalifying kicks things off with eight 54-hole tournaments. As with all stages of Q-school, these are no-cut affairs. (Sound familiar, Greg Norman?) The next stage is the first "proper" stage. From this stage on, the length of the tourneys increases to 72 holes each. This stage, held in October, also is three weeks in length, and it consists of thirteen sites. This is where low-level exempt players from various golf tours of the world can enter.
November brings the second stage, held at five warm-weather sites (obviously) across the month's closing fortnight. At this point, you start to see somewhat more prominent players from developmental tours come in. It all crescendos to the finals in December at TPC Sawgrass, nerve centre of the PGA Tour (fitting). This stage is held across two of the property's courses--Valley and East-West. The players who enter here are relatively elite up-and-comers.
In addition to the top five and ties who get PGA Tour cards, the next 25 and ties get a reprieve from the first two KFT reshuffles of 2024. This means they can't be demoted in terms of priority of getting playing opportunities on the Korn Ferry Tour. The remainder of the top 45 and ties will get a reprieve from the first reshuffle. The other Q-school finalists receive conditional KFT status, as well as exempt membership on the PGA Tour Americas, one step below the Korn Ferry Tour.
Again, the next post will detail the first few sites of prequalifying.
Edward the Scop
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