Q-School Primer 2023: First Stage Criteria with Commentary

 Tomorrow, 10 October 2023, what I call the proper portion of Q-school for the PGA Tour pyramid tees off with four sites across as many states: Arizona, Florida, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Next week has five sites, including a second stop in Florida, as well as stops in California, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. The week after concludes First Stage with two further sites in Texas plus one each in Alabama and North Carolina.

Whereas prequalifying largely involved players from minitours and those who didn't make the main developmental circuits out of college, First Stage is for those who have a modicum of status on bigger tours. Specifically, the criteria for skipping prequalifying are:

1. Members of the PGA Tour and/or its developmental circuits, the DP World Tour, the Japan Golf Tour, the Korea PGA Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia or the Sunshine Tour the last three years. This requires some clarification. The 2019-20 cycle was combined with 2020-21 for eligibility purposes due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, PGA Tour members this year won't have to worry about entering here, as the rules provide Second Stage entry for them.
2. Anyone who made a cut in an official-money tournament conducted by these tours the last two years. Again, some clarification is in order, as this strictly refers to nonmembers of such tours who happen to make the cut at least once where official money is at play. By this, in turn, is meant that at least three rounds (54 holes) have been completed of a given event on these tours.
3. Second Stage participants from the last three Korn Ferry Tour Q-Schools. Because there was no Q-school in 2020 due to Covid-19, the 2019 edition is included this year for the last time in this category.
4. Top 50 and ties from each First Stage site the last two years.
5. Participation in the majors and the Players Championship the last two years. Last year, this was a Second Stage exemption criterion. With the revival of PGA Tour cards at Q-school, this gets bumped to First Stage.
6. Participation in the last PGA Professional National Championship.
7. Makers of the cut in the last PGA Assistant Professional National Championship.
8. The second hundred on the OWGR as of 11 September 2023.
9. The twenty players below the top five on the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of 6 September 2023.
10. Players who qualified for the last two Walker Cups.
11. Semifinalists at the last three U.S. Amateurs and finalists at the last two U.S. Mid-Amateurs.

So what's at stake? Not much at this point, except that all site medallists (of whom each site can have multiple) will receive guaranteed PGA Tour Americas membership for the Latin American half of 2024. This replaces the old PGA Tour Latinoamerica, which in turn replaced the Tour de las Americas. As for the second half of the season, held in Canada, it replaces the PGA Tour Canada, formerly the Mackenzie Tour. However, membership cannot be attained via Q-school for that segment, at least not directly.

The next post concerns the first four sites, with emphasis on Umcees participating at each site.

Edward the Scop