Introduction

I know it has been a couple of months since my last newsletter and that was for good reason. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes of getting the business side of golf handled as well as finishing up my Masters Degree in Business Administration from Mercer. Now that all of that has been handled, as well as most Mini Tours taking the month of July off, we can focus on what is ahead for the rest of the year.

First things first, my next newsletter that will be coming out in a few days will be about my experience caddying for my good friend and former teammate, Tobias Jonsson, at the 3M open (PGA Tour Event). I have been working hard on that newsletter and cannot wait for it to come out.

In this newsletter I want to give everyone more insight on what my year will look like and how qualifying school works. I have had numerous questions on how the qualifying process works and want to help people understand what it looks like.

My Schedule For the Rest of the Year

1. Minor League Tour Event at Deer Creek Golf Club August 19-20 (Deerfield Beach FL)

2. Minor League Tour Event at Osprey Point Golf Club August 22 (Boca Raton FL)

3. GPro Columbia Open at Columbia Country Club August 27-29 (Columbia SC)

4. Pre Qualifying tournament for Q School at Brunswick country club Sept. 16-20 (Brunswick GA)

5. GPro Waverly Open at Sanctuary Golf Club September 24-26 (Waverly GA)

6. GPro Augusta Open at Belle Meade Golf Club September 30-October 2 (Thompson GA)

7. GPro Cardinal Classic at The Cardinal by Pete Dye October 8-10

8. First Qualifying stage for Q school at RTJ Magnolia Grove October 20-25 (Mobile AL)

9. Rolling Red Fleming Island classic at Eagle Harbor Golf Club November 8-11 (Fleming Island Florida

10. Second Qualifying Stage for Q school at Landings Golf Club November 17-22 (Savannah GA)

11. Rolling Red Tampa Classic at Crescent Oaks Golf Club December 4-6 (Tampa FL)

12. Final Qualifying Stage for Q School at TPC Sawgrass Valley Course December 9-15 (Ponte Vedra FL)

How Does Q School Work?

Since starting this newsletter I have gotten a lot of the same question, How does qualifying to get on the PGA tour work? That answer is a little complicated.

First you must understand how the tours work. Think of it like Major League baseball with the PGA tour being the highest league and many feeder tours being the Minors. The step down from the PGA tour is the Korn Ferry Tour. These guys have a year long tournament schedule and point system that awards 25 tour cards to the top 25 points list guys from the regular season events for that year. There are also another 25 cards up for grabs during the playoffs on the Korn Ferry Tour. To qualify for the playoffs you have to be in the Top 75 for Korn Ferry Standings or have not gotten enough points to keep your card on the PGA tour so you get demoted and play in the Korn Ferry playoffs. Top 25 for those events in points get their cards. The way to get on the Korn Ferry tour is either through playing on the PGA Tour Americas tour and finishing in the top 10 in points for that year. The way to get status mainly on Korn Ferry and PGA Americas is through Qualifying School, shortened to Q-School. This features 4 stages of qualifying with each stage improving your status. Each stage is its own tournament and has requirements for you to finish in a certain position to earn a spot into the next stage. For people like myself who do not have status from previous years, I also have to play in Pre qualifying School, which just adds another stage onto qualifying school. The cards are broken up as follows:

• 5 PGA tour cards are given out to the top 5 finishers in the Final Stage of Q-School. This is huge as historically there was not a direct way to the PGA tour and gives guys more incentive to go low at final stage.

• Everyone else at final stage has status on either Korn Ferry Tour or PGA Americas depending on where you finish. The higher you finish in Final stage the more starts you have on Korn Ferry Tour.

Another way to get into PGA Tour Events and Korn Ferry Tour events is through Monday qualifier. If you successfully qualify, you get into the next event that is being played. More info on Monday qualifying can be found here: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/monday-qualifier-faq-sheet

There are other tours out there that guys will play on. These include the DP world tour and its feeder tour, the challenge tour. Most of these tournaments are played in Europe and I have a strong interest in playing on it. PGA tour China is a fast growing tour that some Americans are now using as an avenue to the PGA tour. The Asian tour now feeds into LIV golf so the competition has gotten very good on that tour. Sunshine tour is a very strong tour based out of South Africa. For me right now, money would be an issue with these tours as travel would be much more expensive but as I grow as a player I will not count these tours out for possibilities to play on.

When you see my schedule for the rest of the year you see the terms “GPro, Rolling Red, or Minor League tour.” these are what is known as Mini Tours. These are tours for players who are looking for somewhere to play and do not have qualifying schools for them- you just have to be approved to play. These tours cut as many costs as possible so that they can give out a bigger check to the higher placed finishers and give guys chances to make a little money but are mostly used as ways to gain experience in between the waiting periods to get another shot at the PGA Tour sanctioned tours.

This, of course, is the main part of the different tours and qualifying schools as there is more complexity to it but these basics will hopefully help everyone, myself included, know the path I am trying to take to get to the PGA Tour.

I want to thank everyone for their continued support of my journey. I am excited to get into the professional realm and cannot wait to share what I have learned. My next newsletter will be coming out on Friday so be looking out for that as I talk about my time as a PGA Tour Caddie. If you have a business who would like to be affiliated with my brand or what I am doing, email me at [email protected]. God Bless and cannot wait to talk in the next one.