In my view there is no lonelier place in golf than Q School where you are battling either to get your card for the first time - or worse still – trying to reclaim your playing rights mid-career with a mortgage to pay, family at home and other commitments. Either way, it is pressure which is unbearable at times, but is part of the game’s great ritual and the gateway to any of the main Tour’s – be it Ladies, European or Senior.
However the one good thing about Qualifying School is that it’s a great leveller and dispatches fortune and misery equally to former champions, Ryder Cup players and rookies alike. But trust me, that can be little consolation at times.
Having been almost a regular at the Final Qualifying - returning annually from 1999 to 2006 – I was meeting fellow pro’s in a similar predicament each time from all over the world. For the more experienced the wear and tear of the game showed giving us a more philosophical outlook on the game from which the younger guys were so far spared.
Luckily in 2004 I reclaimed the card. But unluckily I then failed to make enough that season to
retain it – going back to Q School for the final time in 2006. Like all who make the journey each round is still etched in my memory with thoughts coming to the fore on occasions even today of what might have been and the “if only” shots – which can be a destructive force.
But in golf – as with all sport – there is little time for sentiment as the sport always has a loser – if there are winners on the other side - and the Race to Dubai at the weekend with Ian Poulter showed that clearly to all of us. Even if rules, regulations and fortune can also play their part.
Watching the Irish guys battling in Spain this week at the European Tour Qualifying School Stage 2 – in what were unseasonably wintry condition – those memories come flooding back to me as I hear about holes that were drivable suddenly becoming unreachable in regulation.
Or, with the heavy rains the greens then need to be squeegeed making the run of the ball nothing like in the practice rounds. And in the case of one of the days in Costa Ballena, the wind became so strong it was hard to stand upright on the tee-box.
Given the mind plays its role each of these events usually seem to happen when you just need to scramble a par or even need a birdie to stay in touch. So you have to be very strong mentally to keep the clarity of thought and overall focus to battle throgh the challenges – which I can tell you is easier said than done.
In the end all the details matter a whit as the score-card is the only measure of whether you get access to the magic of a Tour Card or playing rights at the highest level.
These days the Q School has become longer with Stage 1 starting in mid September, followed by the Stage 2 in late November – each of which is four rounds – and those making the top 23 spots at each event passing to the next event. Faced with these limited numbers the best advice you can give any pro is to spend little time looking around the practice range so as not to add up the number of players around you as one could give up before even hitting a ball in anger - as 650 players started out last September chasing only 30 spots.
If you prevail at Stage 2 – as Niall Kearney and Damian Mooney have done this week - then it is on to a six round affair at the PGA Catalunya in Girona with the cut being made after the fourth round. Although it sounds like a chummy gathering - it is far from it - as each of the hundred and fifty players are also vying for their financial livelihood for the following season – with little or quarter given on the course
This year Kearney and Mooney will be joined at the PGA Catalunya by Simon Thornton and Colm Moriarty, who are also returning once again to do battle. Last year Thornton was one of the two players to secure a card with Gary Murphy the other, after he lost his rights in 2009. However both failed to keep them their rights this season for 2011.
Last year’s winner Simon Khan won Q School Final Stage after travelling there in hope in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2009. The win earned him an automatic spot at the BMW PGA Championship in May – which Khan the won – earning a five year exemption for the European Tour along with the not inconsiderable prize money of €750,000.
It is these stories that make you see the agony of Q School in a very different light with each player hoping that one year their turn will come.
For all those who missed this year though it’s now long wait until next September.
Philip Walton ©
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