PONTE VEDRA, Fla. – Both heartbreak and jubilation appeared Monday at PGA Tour Q-School.
During one week, the professional golfers who have been consumed by greed for years were replaced by job-seekers desperate to get a better position next season. Money was so far behind that veteran pro Erik Compton, who finished T-38 in the final round of the tournament, asked his caddy on their way to score: “Did you make any money?”
He said, “You’ve made enough to get double barbacoa and extra guac at Chipotle tonight,”
Compton earned $6,214.28 out of a $550,000 purse, which would have covered the Chipotle, but it was the same amount as Nick Taylor received for placing 25th in the Tour Championships last August. Compton’s real goal was to stay in the top 40, and to have eight Korn Ferry Tour appearances guaranteed to start the 2024 season.
Compton said, “If I make eight starts in the first quarter of the year, and I don’t stress out about it, then I can get my (full card) back,” bursting into a smile, and with renewed hopes of a clear pathway back to the PGA Tour by 2025.
Julian Suri had to par the final hole at Dye’s Valley, where he grew up before attending Duke. He needed to do this to get eight starts. He made a triple bogey, and now is on conditional status. It’s unclear how many starts he will get in the future.
More Monday meltdowns
Wesley Bryan, who was in contention for one of five full Tour cards, shot 79. He will now have to rely on his past champion status as a primary factor next season. Spencer Levin (39), who was T-3 on the final day and in the last group played, airmailed the green at the ninth hole and pitched it 12 feet beyond the hole. One fan clapped as Levin’s putt missed the hole. There were 28 people circling the green. Levin was able to hear it with only a few spectators and glared at the fan.
Levin had just made his fifth bogey, but he was more upset by the fan’s clap. Levin was still expressing his anger at the fan as one of his partners lined up their putt. He shot 73, and fell to T-10. This did not help him as he had already been granted full status on KFT for the next season.
At 18, there would be no one to clap for him.
The Q-School is a mess for your brain
You feel your hands sweat and your stomach turn. Kevin Velo had only two top-25s in KFT this year and was dead last at Nationwide Championship, the final event of his regular season. He went back to First Stage, but fought back and finished T-21. The PGA Tour was not rewarded, but the alternative was worse.
Velo said that losing your job was one of the worst possible things to happen.
Imagine waiting an extra day to play the final round because a storm wiped out Sunday’s action. Velo was tossed and turn at night, and then turned to YouTube about 3 am. He watched videos of lawn mowers and a man who unclogs drains as a profession.
He said, “They are super-satisfying.”
What gets you through the evening?
Five PGA Tour cards were awarded to the top five finishers, for the first since 2012. This was the carrot used to attract a field 165 players who had already been guaranteed a conditional KFT by reaching this stage. Sam Saunders stated, “We would have been there if one PGA Tour Card was available.”
Childhood Dreams Fulfilled
The five players who received cards played in a different tour during the last season.
- Harrison Endycott is eligible to return to the PGA Tour as a full member
- Trace Crowe completed 38 th at the Korn Ferry Tour
- Hayden Springer topped money list in PGA Tour Canada
- Raul Pereda played the Mexico Open on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica.
- Blaine Hale Jr. worked on the mini tours
Springer’s story was the most emotional of all. Sage, his 3-year-old child, died on November 13. We’ll never understand how he managed to keep it together and perform as well at Q-School. Michael Burns, his caddie? He was not so happy. On 18, he burst out in tears.
Burns stated, “I have never felt my heart beat faster in all of my life.”
Springer’s story is up there with Erik van Rooyen’s winning in Cabo in honor of his dying friend, and Camilo Villagas’s victory in Bermuda, which was his first win since his daughter died, in terms of golf’s feel-good stories.
Cinderella tales and nightmare endings. The Q-School was full of everything except money.
