The post Pro needs miracle to avoid Q-School playoff. What happened next was better appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro needs miracle to avoid Q-School playoff. What happened next was better appeared first on Golf.

Michael Wright stood off the 18th green at TPC Scottsdale‘s Champions course and was speechless.

“Long,” Wright said to PGA Tour Champions cameras when asked how he’d sum up his career to this point. “And a challenge. But we’re here, so…”

The 49-year-old has been a journeyman on the PGA Tour of Australasia for the last quarter century, never picking up an Official World Golf Ranking-recognized victory and never rising higher than 468th in the World.

He’s 10 years removed from his best and most significant worldwide finish, a fifth-place showing at the 2013 Australian PGA Championship.

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But Friday, it all culminated in Scottsdale.

Wright began the final round of PGA Tour Champions Q-School in 10th place and made a move, climbing up eight spots in the final round thanks to six birdies through 17 holes. The top five players at the end of the week earn full PGA Tour Champions status for 2024.

However, he blocked his tee shot at the 72nd hole into the desert. His chip out didn’t get out of the sand.

Wright was in jeopardy of falling from safely earning his card to a merciless four-for-two playoff for the final spots. He needed to get up-and-down and the hole was still nearly 100 yards away.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

Wright’s third shot from the desert, still on the wrong side of the cart path from the fairway, didn’t just find the putting surface, it went in.

He and his caddie both screamed and hugged each other when they realized what had happened and Wright did a full 360˚ fist pump, nearly throwing his wedge across the fairway in the process. As he started to process what had happened, he slowly started walking down the fairway to retrieve his ball.

Wright was soon chased by his caddie and while the looper shouted some obscenities, what was clear is that he told Wright he was “in.”

“In” of course meant Wright finished in the top five, earning his 2024 PGA Tour Champions card after finishing solo second at 15 under.

“Yeah it was one shot, but it was 25 years of hard work,” Wright told the PGA Tour Champions.

He became emotional in realizing his accomplishment, crouching by the 18th green, covering his face with his hands.

Wright was one of four Australians to claim their 2024 PGA Tour Champions cards Friday. Longtime PGA Tour veteran Cameron Percy was the medalist for the week at 20 under. Steven Allan finished tied for third while David Bransdon survived a three-for-one playoff for the final spot.

The other card went to the United States’ Shane Bertsch who was tied with Allan at 14 under.

Major League Baseball legend John Smoltz came in solo 73rd, at 22 over for the week, last place among those who completed 72 holes.

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The post Neglecting to rake bunkers at this Q School event could hurt players’ wallets appeared first on Golf.

The post Neglecting to rake bunkers at this Q School event could hurt players’ wallets appeared first on Golf.

There are few more frustrating feelings in golf than walking up to an already difficult bunker shot and finding your ball sitting in a big ol’ footprint.

Any chance you had of putting some spin on that sucker is likely toast.

If you’ve ever found yourself the victim of someone else’s negligence, then you might find yourself a fan of this rule from the first stage of the Asian Tour’s Q School in Arizona.

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Mini-tour whisperer Ryan French got a hold of the players’ information for the qualifying series’ only American site — at Oakcreek Country Club — and spotted quite the harsh penalty for not upholding one of the simplest pieces of golf etiquette.

Yes, you read that right: an automatic $300 fine for failure to rake a bunker.

That may be pocket change to established Tour pros, for many players in the field at the opening round of Asian Tour Q School that could be a week’s meal budget.

This is the first time the Asian Tour, which now has ties to LIV after the Saudi breakaway league invested $400 million in the tour, has held an event on U.S. soil. Top finishers at the U.S. site and four others will move on to the Final Qualifying stage in January.

It’s also the first time since 2020 the Asian Tour is hosting Q School after Covid forced its cancelation in 2021 and ’22.

While not every player may have a caddie this week, those loopers who are on site will be on heightened alert not to cause his player financial harm.

The rule also begs a question of enforcement. Early stages of Q School often are bare bones, so it’s unclear who will serve in the role of bunker police this week at Oakcreek.

If we’re being honest, this a rule no tour should have to enforce. Raking bunkers is easy, and part of your duty as a golfer, even in the pressure-cooker of Q School.

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The post How a pro carded four birdies and an eagle on way to … 74(?) at KFT Q-School appeared first on Golf.

The post How a pro carded four birdies and an eagle on way to … 74(?) at KFT Q-School appeared first on Golf.

It’s easy to learn something every time you head out to the golf course. For Korn Ferry Tour hopeful Chris Crisologo, Saturday he made have learned a new phrase: Nonuple bogey.

Despite making a 13 on the par-4 13th at The Landings Club’s Marshwood Course, hence the nine-over “nonuple bogey,” Crisologo offset it with four birdies and an eagle during the second round of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School and is remarkably still alive to earn starts on next season’s Korn Ferry Tour.

After two rounds, the 26-year-old was one over through two rounds. A par on 13 would have had him in the top 5, just two back of the 36-hole lead. While every player at Q-School gets some status for next season’s Korn Ferry Tour, the top-10 finishers and ties are guaranteed starts through the first two priority ranking reshuffles, while the top 40 and ties are guaranteed eight starts, or through the first reshuffle. Crisologo was three shots out of the top 40 at the midway point.

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It was an unlucky 13 for sure, but to still be in the mix for starts after such a debacle is no small feat. Crisologo made two birdies in the final five holes Saturday after the nonuple bogey. He made no regular bogeys on the day.

“I did lip out my putt for 12,” the Canadian told GolfChannel.com. “I’m lucky there are two more days. One of the caddies said it best: Better to have it today than on Monday.”

There’s no Shotlink available for Q-School, but Cirsologo detailed the hole to Golfchannel.com.

On the par-4 with water down the left the whole way, he said he pulled a driver into the drink.

He next tried a 3-iron to find the narrow landing area, but the ball went through the fairway and into the drink again. The same thing happened on the fifth shot and the seventh, which Crisologo said was down to a 4-iron by that point.

Finally, his ninth shot, another 4-iron found the grass.

“Push-blocked that one into the middle of the fairway,” Cisologo said. “I felt great off the tee on all five shots, but you can’t really lose focus out there, and on top of that, you have to know the lines extremely well. With that tee box moving up, I just felt a little uncomfortable with what I needed to hit off the tee.”

From there he said he put his approach from 240 into a short-side greenside bunker, splashed out and lipped out the putt for 12, as he mentioned.

It was a 10-stroke setback from the day previous when he made birdie on 13. His opening-round 69 on Friday was a different type of wild, featuring three eagles, four birdies, three bogeys, a double and a triple.

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The post Excruciating DQ hour after round ends pro’s Q-School run appeared first on Golf.

The post Excruciating DQ hour after round ends pro’s Q-School run appeared first on Golf.

While action on the PGA Tour has slowed down of late — with the exception of this week’s stacked field at the CJ Cup — many pros on lesser tours are fighting for status at various Q-schools.

On Tuesday, former University of Texas All-American Gavin Hall was trying to earn his way onto the Korn Ferry Tour, after a strong season on the PGA Tour Canada. Hall seemed to be off to a good start after shooting 66 in the opening round of the second stage of Q-School at Plantation Preserve Golf Club in Florida.

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That was until he was disqualified about an hour after finishing his round for a rules infraction he didn’t know he had committed.

According to a report from Firepit Collective’s mini-tour insider Ryan French, a caddie in the group reached out to rules officials after the round to alert them of a possible violation on the 6th hole.

The 6th at Plantation Preserve (below) is a short dogleg left par-4 with water down the left, meaning if you bite off more than you can chew on the dogleg and rinse your tee shot, there isn’t anywhere to drop in the fairway because your ball’s last entry point would be back near the tee.

The South Florida PGA (the PGA Tour usually lets local PGA sections conduct qualifying stages of Q-schools and other qualifiers like it) tournament director told French that Hall hit his tee shot down the left side and all three players saw the ball splash. Hall re-teed, which meant he was declaring the ball lost in the penalty area, and even if he found it, he would have to play the second tee ball. Hall was not playing a provisional. According to Rule 18.3(a), if the player is aware that the only possible place the original ball could be lost is in a penalty area, a provisional ball is not allowed and a ball played from where the previous stroke was made becomes the player’s ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance.

A player is allowed a provisional “when a ball might be lost in a penalty area but also might be lost somewhere else on the course.” This was not the case in Hall’s situation, because if the ball was not in the penalty area, Hall likely would have found it easily.

After Hall and his caddie wandered down the fairway, the caddie discovered a surprise: Hall’s first ball on the bank of the penalty area. Seemingly unaware of the rule, Hall played his original ball back into the fairway and got up-and-down for a wild 4. Or what Hall thought was a 4. No one in the group to that point had questioned Hall’s decision to play the first ball.

This is where things got messy, according to French.

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Apparently, another caddie in the group said something on the next tee about Hall possibly committing an infraction, but not loud enough for Hall to hear. Once Hall teed off on the 7th hole, his disqualification fate would be sealed. Until then, he could have gone back to the 6th fairway and invoked rule 3-3, which allows players to play another ball if unsure of the ruling. Hall, had he done that, likely would have salvaged a bogey or double while figuring out the matter later. (UPDATE: According to further reporting from French, which he published on Twitter Wednesday evening, a player and the caddie in question both said they mentioned the infraction to Hall en route to the 6th green.)

Trouble was, Hall played on, unaware of his violation; he birdied his final three holes and signed for what he believed was a 66. French said nothing was mentioned about the situation at scoring by either of the three players or caddies in the group. (UPDATE: According to French’s update, the caddie said he did not bring up the infraction to officials during the round or in the scoring area but said he did say something to a player in the group on 18.)

But nearly an hour after Hall finished his round, French reported, the caddie who questioned the ruling on the 7th tee called a rules official, who then had to tell Hall he was disqualified.

Hall’s 66 would have had him in a tie for 12th with 54 holes to go. The top 18 and ties from the second stage will advance to next month’s final stage of qualifying.

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