PONTE VEDRA BEEACH, Florida – While a lot of the PGA Tour’s next season schedule is still under construction, Golfweek knows the location of the tournament that the PGA Tour pros will do everything to avoid.
The Tour’s Q-School will offer five cards for the big leagues in the first decade of its existence. It will take place in mid-December at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, and the nearby Sawgrass Country Club.
From 1977-1981, the Players Championship was held here. In 1982, TPC Sawgrass became the permanent home of the Tour’s signature event. Sawgrass Country Club, a 27-hole layout by Ed Seay, hosts a collegiate event called the John Hayt Invitational. It is also familiar to former contestants from the AJGA’s Junior Players. TPC Sawgrass renovated the club in 2016.
The Landings, Savannah, Georgia, was the venue for Korn Ferry Tour Q-School last year. The venue has alternated between PGA West, Palm Desert, California and Orange County National, Winter Garden, Florida for many years. Recently, the Masters was moved to the location of the LIV Golf event.
The PGA Tour has not made any official announcement. Golfweek received a letter from Dan Cavey, Sawgrass club president, dated January 30, that explained how the course will be used.
It stated that the PGA Tour approached Club to host the PGA Tour Qualifying School, or ‘Q School’.
The final round of 2015 Web.com Tour Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida saw the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley. Photo by Chris Condon/PGA Tour
The PGA (Tour), which is elevating Q-School as a featured televised competition, is interested in having it in Ponte Vedra Beach close to their headquarters. They plan to make it a split field, with 85 players at our course and 85 at Valley Course.
The top 40 players and ties from Q-School have been granted full status for the first 12 events of the Korn Ferry Tour. This is the development circuit for PGA Tour. The PGA Tour status will be awarded to the top five finishers and ties for the next season. This allows college players to skip the year on the Korn Ferry Tour and go straight to the big leagues. Q-School is offering a direct route to the PGA Tour for the first time since 2012.
“I believe it’s a great opportunity for guys. It’s something you should have. It’s quite exhausting to go through Q School, especially if it starts at the first stage, like I did,” Scottie Scheffler, reigning Masters champ, PGA Tour Player Of The Year, stated earlier this month. It’s been a long time.
He said, “I believe more opportunities for men to get out there is better.” “Because you want the best golf everywhere it is. You want to reward great golf, no matter where it is: at Q-School, on the Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Canada, Latin America or elsewhere.
