09:50 PM
12/21/24
12/21/24
March 21, 2012
PGA Tour Eliminating Qualifying Tournament: The PGA Tour is dropping the National Qualifying Tournament, which awarded tour cards to the top 25 finishers, and putting the top Nationwide Tour players and bottom PGA Tour players into a three-tournament series where 50 PGA cards will be earned. The final qualifying tournament could be the Jacksonville Winn-Dixie Open played at TPC Sawgrass. "A player coming out of college can't go through Q-School and get his card," said golfer Martin Laird, who reacted positively to the idea. "But if he's that good, I'm thinking that he's going to be just as good one year delayed."
Interesting idea. Obviously fuelled by TV ratings, but probably a better way to do it. I'm not sure what the stats are in the US, but I know in Europe the number of people who have gone from pre-qualifying through Q-school and actually made it onto the top tour in one go is in single figures in the last 20 years anyway.