"They're actually finding a solution before it becomes a problem."
/Ryan Moore defends the new Q-School/fiscal year calendar in the name of saving the fall events.
Read MoreAs each year goes by I fear the true sporting spirit of match play is less and less in evidence. We find a growing disposition for play to concentrate on the figures that are registered at a hole rather than on the question of whether the hole is lost or won in a purely friendly match.
TOM SIMPSON
"It has to be right the first time because you can’t cost someone their dream right out of the gate.”
/Rex Hoggard says the PGA Tour Policy Board is poised
Read MoreNobilo On Q-School Demise
/Considering he's such a passionate on-air presence who nearly always convinces me of his point, I expected a much more impassioned case for killing Q-School as an avenue to the PGA Tour from Frank Nobilo. But
Read MoreMcIlroy Two Clear Of Another Lowly Q-School Product
/Heading into the Honda Classic finale, Rory McIlroy is two clear of Harris English who, Doug Ferguson writes, had the audacity to make every cut in 2012 without having played the Nationwide Tour.
Read More"A great deal of the PGA Tour ongoing relevance in Korea owes itself to the Qualifying School."
/Ben Sellenger makes a strong case that top Asian players interested in playing around the world will choose the European Tour now that Q-School sends them to the Nationwide Tour. Besides a Jeremy Lin reference and reminding us that K.J. Choi came to the PGA Tour through Q-School, he writes (thanks reader Josh):
Read More"The new system undoubtedly makes it harder for outsiders to crash the PGA Tour’s party."
/Sean Martin says good players will make their way to the tour, but he also mourns the likely demise of stories like Q-Schooler John Huh's Cinderella run, which will not be possible if the PGA Tour policy board votes to approve changes (and since FedEx just re-upped for $35 million based on the proposal, I'd say the votes will be there!).
Read MoreHuh? Ponte Vedra Spinsters Prepare To Twist Q-Schooler's Huhnbelievable Win
/The Golf Gods do work in mysterious ways…but I think they are making their statement about the planned demise of Q-School as a vehicle to line more pockets and value prop up the Nationwide Tour!
Read MoreFollow The Money: PAC Okays Sweeping PGA Tour Changes
/Doug Ferguson reports that the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council rolled over became convinced to scrap Q-School for the PGA Tour to help attract a title sponsor for the Nationwide Tour. The rationale, not surprisingly, came down to money.
Read MoreFinchem Admits: "The system is not broken"
/In town to meet with the Players Advisory Council to discuss the Q-School revamp and move to a year-round schedule, Tim Finchem talked with Jill Painter and said the new season ending Nationwide v. PGA Tour 126-and-beyond was FedExCup inspired.
Read MoreQ-School Squabble: Van Sickle def. Herre 7&6
/Nice little debate in this week's SI/golf.com Confidential on Q-School, with Gary Van Sickle taking the case of keeping Q-School. Van Sickle notes that "the real story here is that the PGA Tour is scrambling to find sponsors to replace Nationwide."
Read MoreHuh Finishes T-6, Best Finish Of '12 By A Rookie
/Just imagine if he'd played a year on the Nationwide Tour instead of graduating from tacky old Q-School. Sean Martin, filing notes on Sunday's wacky final round at Torrey, says this about the rookie-from-nowhere's amazing start:
"Dramatic N'wide Tour changes needed"
/As the PGA Tour's Oxford shirt set prepares to present players with their plan to save the Nationwide Tour by killing the Q-School avenue to the PGA Tour, Sean Martin suggests ways to liven up the soon-to-be-renamed minor league tour. And I couldn't help but wonder why you wouldn't take these suggestions to make it more sponsor-attractive without killing the Q-School approach?
Read MoreQ-School Replacement Concept Upgraded From Unfathomable To Merely Dreadful
/My friends at the PGA Tour have assured me that they would never consider exemptions into the minor league version of the FedExCup melding Nationwide Tour players and PGA Tour 126-and-beyond castaways. Instead, players earning money through exemptions on either tour could be eligible to the Q-School replacement event if they earned enough money.
Read MoreQ-School Replacement Idea Getting Worse By The Day
/Ryan Ballengee talks to Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee, who says players showing up at a Torrey Pines player meeting will get to hear the latest concept for the PGA Tour/Nationwide Tour's three-event fall finish, which is designed to help lure a Nationwide title sponsor and replace PGA Tour Q-School as an annual avenue to the tour.
Check out this:
Beginning in 2013, a total of 50 PGA Tour cards will be awarded through a three-tournament series on the Nationwide Tour schedule. Q-School will only offer status on the Nationwide Tour.
The top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour money list and the first 75 players who fail to qualify for the PGA Tour playoffs will be a part of the series. In addition, Calfee said a number of top amateurs or collegiate players could be invited to take part in the series.
“It’s kind of like our form of the FedEx Cup, in some ways,” he said.
So now they are talking sponsor's invites for college players into the series?
What's next, spots for a few of the Commissioner's favorite players outside the top 125? Former Players Champions who no longer have status?
"The PGA Tour should not be a closed shop."
/A fair point indeed, unfortunately he has to offer a counterpoint to Gary Van Sickle's extensive argument in favor of keeping Q-School and it's just not a fair fight. Van Sickle wheels out the names Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler as two players who would be spending a year on the Nationwide Tour if they were turning pro today.
Read MoreRickie, Others Coming To Q-School's Defense
/Rickie Fowler, who has been privately making the case for keeping the PGA Tour's doomed Q-School in its current form, went public today with is feelings, offering this tweet after earlier re-Tweeting Sean Martin's commentary sticking up for the PGA Tour's traditional entry path.
Read MorePGA Tour's Q-School Replacement Requires At Least Three Sentences To Explain
/Doug Ferguson says the pieces "are starting to come together" for a plan to end PGA Tour cards from Q-School in the name of trying to legitimize (and fund) the Nationwide Tour.
The final pieces are starting to come together in a plan that would merge the top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour with the 75 players from the PGA Tour who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. They would play a three-tournament series, and the top 50 would earn PGA Tour cards. The rest could go back to Q-school to try to earn status on the Nationwide Tour.
The current Q-School and Nationwide structures each requires one sentence.
Q-School: Write a check, survive three stages and you have a tour card.
Nationwide Tour: Finish in the top 25 and get your card.
Ferguson writes that policy board member Steve Stricker would like to see 10 spots at Q-School still saved for PGA Tour cards, but Stricker also partially endorses the tour's idea.
"I still think it would be nice if somebody had the opportunity to get a quick turn on tour. I believe, though, it's going to be better for a better player. It's going to bring out talent over a longer period of time. If I was a good player, I would love to have the whole year to prove myself for 50 spots."
Except that you work the whole year to prove yourself, yet your graduation status still comes down to a bizarre seeding and three-week window to ultimately prove yourself? It's kind of like asking a student to gets straight A's just to take the final, which they also have to earn an A on just to get a diploma.
The top 25 from the Nationwide Tour money list - players who previously would have automatically earned PGA Tour cards - would be seeded No. 1 through No. 25. The next seed would be shared by No. 26 on the Nationwide money list and No. 126 on the PGA Tour money list. The PGA Tour player would be assigned the same money as his counterpart from the Nationwide Tour.
Some of the early calculations have shown that top 25 would be virtually assured of finishing among the top 50 to earn their cards; and that anyone winning one of those three tournaments also would be a lock to earn a card.
Virtually assured.
Have we already forgotten how the FedExCup models panned out and how many times the formula has been changed?
So I ask, if the season long play is considered better, then why would you open the door to a "virtually assured" situation?
Oh right, money.
Wrap: Second To Last Q-School We'll Care About
/
The unbylined AP story on Q-School winner Brendon Todd, who closed with 68.
Rex Hoggard writes about the Georgia grad's success and the incredible number of top players the program has produced of late.
In order, former Georgia players Brendon Todd (pictured above), Brian Harman, Harris English and Kevin Kisner earned Tour cards, and even Hudson Swafford, the final member of the Bulldog five-some at Q-School who missed his card by two strokes, could appreciate the achievement.
“We had seven guys on that team that could play anywhere week to week,” Swafford said. “Our qualifiers my freshman, sophomore, junior years were as intense as any event.”
And that’s saying something considering this year’s Fall Classic was as intense as any on record.
John Strege looks at the Q-School graduating class of 2012 with ages, career highlights and other notes, including some of the notables who missed out on getting a chance to make three, or if they're really lucky, four West Coast starts before the reshuffle.
Strege also notes that David Duval did not make it, along with Lee Janzen and Shaun Micheel. Duval was low major winner for the week at T70.
The PGATour.com folks also list the group, with face shots, college and their total number of tour starts. Bob Estes' 589 do stand out!
Sean Martin leads with the story of Tommy Biershenk who "was working on a North Carolina farm two years ago, earning $500 a week as he tried to keep his golf dreams alive." But he also notes this year's crop of Korean hopefuls, who sound ready to make some noise.
This is the second consecutive year that two 20-somethings from Korea earned PGA Tour cards. Sang-Moon Bae, No. 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and Noh, who’s ranked 101st, were the two top-ranked players in the field. Bae has won three Japan Tour titles this year. Noh won on the European Tour at age 19 and finished 30th at this year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship.
Their graduation came at the same site, PGA West, where Y.E. Yang earned his PGA Tour card at the 2008 Q-School.
Brian Wacker talks to a fortunate few survivors, including Biershenk, along with others who know both heartbreak and jubilation at making it.
The Australian PGA covers the Aussies who made it, including the amazing Jarrod Lyle.
The PGA Tour's excellent notebook from round 6 features a mix of stats and notes.
The final scoreboard for what is likely to be the second to last Q-School anyone pays attention to before the intended change to a Nationwide-only qualifier in 2013.
Q-School Final Day Preview
/Marco Dawson leads heading into the sixth and final Q-School round. Already, the emotions (and juicy quotes) are flying. John Strege on Adam Hadwin, who was granted a spot in the finals by the tour.
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