Q-School Primer 2023: Final Stage Criteria with Commentary

 Well, this is it. We've made it to the final serious week of golf for Anno Domini 2023. In case you're living under a rock, it's PGA Tour Q-School Final Stage Week!!!

When I reported the Second Stage criteria, I made a mistake. I reported that all Final Stage entrants would get to start on next year's PGA Tour Americas Latin American phase, no questions asked. It turns out the minimum reward is only conditional PGA Tour Americas membership, which may warrant participation in Monday qualifiers for such events. The potential to get to Korn Ferry Tour and even PGA Tour events via Mondays remains, though.

Of the 166 players still entered into the event, five--Frankie Capan III, Van Holmgren, Thomas Longbella, Andre Metzger and Alex Schaake--qualify as Umcees in some capacity, with FC3 already having done well enough this past KFT season to advance directly to Final Stage. As mentioned in earlier posts, the top five and ties will receive low-level PGA Tour exemptions, comparable to the top ten DP World Tour players who weren't otherwise exempt or the top thirty KFT finishers. The next forty and ties will receive Korn Ferry Tour status, with anybody finishing in the top 25 and ties among those finishers garnering twelve guaranteed KFT starts and the rest having eight to start the season. Finally, the twenty and ties after that will receive guaranteed starts throughout the PGA Tour Americas' Latin American portion. In total, a minimum of 65 participants will receive some starts in the pyramid of the PGA Tour, and the number is often more than that.

Normally, qualifying consists of 168 players, so where did two go? Shad Tuten, whose two-stroke penalty at the KFT Championship in southern Indiana cost him a PGA Tour card, had to withdraw because of a heart condition. As for Chinese riser Carl Yuan, he benefited from Jon Rahm getting banned from the PGA Tour for defecting to LIV Golf.

So, how did the field get here? Seventy-nine golfers qualified from earlier stages of Q-school. Of these, only Caleb Hicks and Wes Homan participated in prequalifying back in September. Hicks, a former UT-Arlington star, finished T9 in Gunter, Texas, while Homan went T6 in Chardon in his home state of Ohio. The remaining 77 had some sort of exemption, including all four Umcees who had to qualify for Final Stage. (They all started in First Stage in October.) It will be interesting to see if any of those six or their 73 cohorts can beat out the 87 players who met one or more of these exemption criteria:

1. The top forty eligible golfers in the 2022-23 FedEx Cup (including FedEx Cup Fall) among the top 200 but not top 125. The aside above shows an example of what can happen if a bigwig player like Rahm becomes ineligible for, say, LIVing it up. In that case, any player who moves into the leading 125 eligible PGA Tour golfers can drop out of Q-school and keep his card. (39 players from Henrik Norlander of Sweden to Kevin Chappell)
2. Nonmembers equivalent to the top 150 on said list but not top 125. Unlike members who fail to keep top-125 placement but stay in the top 150, nonmembers who crack the top 150 but not top 125 don't have the safety net of conditional status for the 2024 PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour status, unless they already had KFT membership beforehand. The only way to gain any exemptions is via a sufficient finish at Final Stage. (Ryan Gerard, Peter Kuest)
3. The second thirty on the KFT points list. Straightforward Nos 31-60 on the Korn Ferry Tour order of merit. (28 players, including one Umcee, Frankie Capan III; Curtis Luck of Australia sitting out)
4. The top five PGA Tour University Class of 2023 finishers. As with Second Stage exempt entries, this is based on a metric derived from the WAGR. (Fred Biondi of Brazil, Ross Steelman and Sam Bennett; Adrien Dumont de Chassart opted out, while Ludvig Aberg was already exempt via his RSM Classic win this year)
5. Top five Totalplay Cup finishers. This year's order of merit for the PGA Tour Latinoamerica was the last before the PGA Tour Americas era commences next year. (Chandler Blanchet, Myles Creighton of Canada, Walker Lee, Austin Hitt and Daniel Hillier of New Zealand)
6. Top five Fortinet Cup finishers. The final order of merit in PGA Tour Canada history will give its name to next year's PGA Tour Americas point list. (Hayden Springer, Sam Choi, Davis Lamb, Etienne Papineau of Canada and Cao Yi of China)
7. Top five PGA Tour of Australasia OOM finishers. This is based on the 2022-23 list since the 2023-24 edition hasn't been finalized yet. (David Micheluzzi, Tom Power Horan and John Lyras, all of Australia; Andrew Martin of Australia and Michael Hendry of New Zealand sitting out)
8. Top finisher in each of the Japan Golf Tour and KPGA orders of merit. You would think that the biggest tour would take more players from Japan, but the JGTO has a partnership with the DP World Tour, with the top three JGTO players making the following year's Old World circuit. Hence, only Keita Nakajima, who had already clinched the title before the season-closing JT Cup, is awarded a Final Stage exemption via JGTO qualifications. The same may be said of Ham Jeong-woo of South Korea, who won the KPGA OOM title for 2023.

As for where it goes down, it's the same complex as the Players Championship has occupied since 1982--the Sawgrass area in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Only, they won't use the Stadium Course used by the Players, but Dye's Valley and Sawgrass Country Club. Good luck to the 166 players who are competing this week and weekend!!!

Edward the Scop