Tag: Bryan Hoops

These five golfers – four of them Aussies – earned 2024 PGA Tour Champions tour cards at Q school at TPC Scottsdale

TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course was host for the 72-hole qualifying tournament.

The PGA Tour Champions had five tour cards for 2024 up for grabs at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course this week.

The final stage of Q School for the senior circuit provided 78 golfers 72 holes to snag status for next season.

By Friday, 73 of those golfers came up short, including Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz (dead last by eight shots at 22 over), 72-year-old Dick Mast (who shot or beat his age two times this week), Notah Begay, Shaun Micheel, Ted Purdy, Carlos Franco and Bryan Hoops, the lone amateur in the field who missed out on a playoff by a stroke.

All is not lost for those who finished sixth through 30th, as they will be eligible to apply for PGA Tour Champions Associate Membership for 2024, which would then get them into qualifiers.

But for those lucky top five, they are now fully exempt into all open, full-field events for the 2024 season on the PGA Tour Champions.

Here’s a closer look at what turned out to be an Aussie takeover, with Australian golfers earning four of the five cards.

PGA Tour Champions Q school final features a former major winner, a former Major Leaguer, a Golf Channel analyst and a 72-year-old

Smoltz will be vying for one of five cards that will be handed out at TPC Scottsdale.

Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz is among the 78 golfers who earned a spot in the final stage of qualifying for the PGA Tour Champions.

Smoltz, 55, will be vying for one of five cards that will be handed out at the end of the week at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course.

Smoltz won 213 games over a 21-year career as a pitcher. In three previous attempts at Q school, he hasn’t finished better than tied for 54th in the first stage.

Smoltz won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1995. He won the National League Cy Young award in 1996. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.

He hasn’t competed on PGA Tour Champions since 2021, but he has played in nine events overall, including the 2018 U.S. Senior Open.

Other notables/hopefuls at TPC Scottsdale this week include:

  • NBC/Golf Channel reporter Notah Begay III, back at qualifying for a second year in a row
  • Former Arizona State golfer Todd Demsey, who likes to use persimmon clubs
  • Shaun Micheel, whose lone PGA Tour win was the 2003 PGA Championship
  • Ted Purdy, who grew up down the I-10 in Tucson and went to the University of Arizona
  • 54-year-old amateur Bryan Hoops of Scottsdale, who claims 19 holes-in-one, with 15 of them coming in tournaments
  • Jonathan Kaye, who won two PGA Tour events, including the 2004 FBR Open (now the WM Phoenix Open) at the TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course
  • 72-year-old Dick Mast, who’s played in 360 PGA Tour events and another 191 Champions events without a win. He does have four victories on the Korn Ferry Tour, the most recent in 1999. He got in the field at the last minute after Andrew Marshall withdrew

The first tee times are Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. local (10:30 a.m. ET). Smoltz is playing alongside Daniel Chopra and Jason Bohn at 8:52 a.m. local time off the first tee. The event concludes on Friday. Admission is free for anyone interested in attending.

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