Harry Higgs is among the many PGA Tour faces at Q-school this week.
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Like any faculty you’ve ever been to, this week’s PGA Tour Q-school is a mixture of those that are comfortable to be there and people who desperately want they didn’t must be.
There are dreamers with shiny futures like event favourite Keita Nakajima, who’s in search of PGA Tour status after a killer season on the Japan Golf Tour, or Sam Bennett, who captured the world’s consideration as an newbie at this spring’s Masters en path to a T16 end. There are additionally mini-tour professionals who’ve dreamt of this alternative, by no means having been so near reliable status and now simply 4 stellar rounds from a Tour card.
That’s the place this yr’s format is totally different than years previous: The top-five finishers safe PGA Tour playing cards. After that? The subsequent 40 finishers (plus ties) earn assured Korn Ferry Tour begins, whereas the subsequent 20 after that may get assured begins on the PGA Tour Americas. (Think of these as golf’s Triple-A and Double-A associates, respectively.) And each participant within the subject will safe conditional status on these decrease excursions simply by taking part in this week. But the distinction between full PGA Tour status and partial PGA Tour Americas status is like making the Red Sox’ beginning lineup vs. backup catcher for the Portland Sea Dogs. It’s vital.
There are different bizarre subplots at play, like the truth that Jon Rahm‘s LIV defection bumped Carl Yuan up from No. 126 to No. 125 in this year’s FedEx Cup, granting him full status and permitting him to WD from Q-school. There’s little doubt that new No. 126 Henrik Norlander can have his eye on the information, too — however for now he’s in this week’s subject.
(Another wrinkle: As Q-school whisperer Monday Q Info factors out, the mixture of unhealthy climate and already-guaranteed status may add as much as rivals dropping like flies as soon as they’re out of rivalry for the highest 5.)
What makes it much more cutthroat is that this a zero-sum sport. For each professional who good points his PGA Tour card there’s one other professional who’s shedding his. And that’s the place we’ll settle for the needs of this article: seven names you may acknowledge from the PGA Tour ranks who will pop up this week among the many 165 professionals throughout TPC Sawgrass (Dye’s Valley Course) and Sawgrass Country Club. Some have conditional status, that means they’re prone to get some begins in common PGA Tour occasions even with out bettering their status this week. But others will combat for any begins at all. The record contains current PGA Tour winners and main championship contenders, every of them serving as a reminder of simply how short-term this all may be. Here they’re!
1. Patton Kizzire
FedEx Cup rank: 128
Surprising as a result of: It’s not simply that his 6-foot-5 determine has made his presence recognized on the PGA Tour. Kizzire has been a mainstay for the higher a part of a decade, taking part in two dozen occasions yearly since he graduated from the Korn Ferry in 2015. In 2017-18 he received at Mayakoba and the Sony Open within the span of 4 begins, bringing him to the sting of the highest 50 on this planet. But this yr wasn’t fairly ok to take care of full status.
2. Scott Piercy
FedEx Cup rank: No. 131
Surprising as a result of: There’s a bunch of PGA Tour professionals who’ve been part of the material of the Tour for so lengthy you simply assume they’ll at all times be there. Scott Piercy is now 45, so it’s no shocker that he will not be taking part in the perfect golf of his life. And we’re getting farther from his most up-to-date win (the 2015 Barbasol) and his finest main efficiency (T2, 2016 U.S. Open) nevertheless it’s vital to see the 69th-ranked participant on the PGA Tour’s all-time cash record ($23.4 million in on-course earnings) battling it out with the celebs of tomorrow.
3. Adam Long
FedEx Cup rank: 137
Surprising as a result of: It appears like he simply received! As it seems, Long’s lone PGA Tour win was in 2019 at the Desert Classic, improbably holding off Phil Mickelson by a single shot. He posted a number of podium finishes in 2020, too, plus a runner-up at Congaree in 2021. But his two-year winner’s exemption (plus one-year Covid exemption extension) has now run its course, leaving Long to combat for higher status with membership in hand.
4. Harry Higgs
FedEx Cup rank: 144
Surprising as a result of: He nonetheless owns cult-hero status on Tour. Higgs really confirmed loads of promise early this season, posting top-25s at the RSM Classic and American Express plus a T7 in Puerto Rico. But these playing cards are sometimes earned late within the season and in his most up-to-date 10 begins he’s made simply two cuts and completed T68 each these occasions, slipping exterior the highest 400 on this planet within the course of. It was simply 2021 when he completed T4 at the PGA Championship — and simply 2022 when he was T14 at the Masters! He’ll combat to return in 2024.
5. Russell Knox
FedEx Cup rank: 146
Surprising as a result of: It’s Russell Knox! When the Scotsman received the 2015 WGC-HSBC and the 2016 Travelers Championship quickly thereafter he moved to No. 18 on this planet, his profession excessive. He has been a continuing presence on the PGA Tour ever since and he’s simply exterior the highest 100 on the Tour’s profession cash record ($17.4 mil, 107th). But it’s been over a yr since his final high 25, leaving the 38-year-old scrambling for extra begins.
6 and 7. Kevin Chappell and Martin Trainer
FedEx Cup ranks: 175 and 162
Surprising as a result of: …of what they did final week. Intriguing may be a greater phrase. Chappell is a former Presidents Cupper and PGA Tour winner who’s No. 109 on the Tour’s profession cash record. (His record of runner-ups is arguably extra spectacular: Players, Memorial, Bay Hill, Tour Championship and extra.) Trainer is a more moderen PGA Tour winner at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open. And whereas neither performed his finest golf in 2023, each headed to Abu Dhabi to play LIV’s first-ever Promotions occasion final week and completed inside the highest 10, incomes exemptions to the International Series (a step under LIV) within the course of. Now they’ve some entry to the DP World Tour, some entry to LIV’s feeder circuit and a few entry the PGA Tour. How a lot? We’ll know extra after this week. At some level we’ll study the extent of their punishments, too…
Honorable mentions: Tour mainstays Kevin Tway, Kelly Kraft, Kramer Hickok and Austin Cook, U.S. Amateur champ (and Tour contender) Doc Redman, current Masters cutmakers Sotashi Kodaira and Sung Kang, multitalented Wesley Bryan, promising Tour teen Austin Smotherman and, properly, I’ll go away it there. All these guys are fairly good.
We’ll see which of them play the perfect this week.
