Check out who earned status for the 2022 KFT season.
On Monday the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School wrapped up play, with one player earning fully exempt status for the 2022 season, nine earning 12 guaranteed starts and a whopping 39 earning eight starts.
Zack Fischer, the 32-year-old Texas grad who missed the cut in his lone start on the KFT last season, made a birdie on his final hole at the Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia, to secure medalist honors by one shot over rookie Jonathan Brightwell. Fischer was one of just four players to shoot in the 60s in all four rounds of the final stage, which was delayed a day by inclement weather.
Joining Brightwell at 13 under were Vincent Norrman and Andre Kozan. Michael Feagles and Sam Stevens finished T-5 at 11 under followed by Grant Hirshman (-10), Andrew Yun (-9), Conner Godsey (-7) and Tain Lee (-6). All will have 12 starts next season.
For 13 years, Mark Baldwin’s professional golf career has been a story of chasing starts around the globe.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Timing is everything when starting a family. Mark Baldwin can’t believe how well things have worked out in this department.
In March, Baldwin, 36, and his wife Sarah will welcome their first child, a son. By the time he becomes a father, Baldwin will be immersed in his second full season on the Korn Ferry Tour, having earned eight guaranteed starts at the final stage of Q-School on Dec. 15 with his T-13 finish.
In effect, Baldwin is coming home.
For 13 years, Baldwin’s professional golf career has been a story of chasing starts around the globe. He’s a fascinating study in where golf can take you, if you let it.
As luck would have it, his first professional win came not long after his graduation from Notre Dame – where he was a three-time Big East All-Conference Player and team captain his senior year – and in his home state of New Hampshire, no less. That state open title was an initial encouraging launching point for far-flung places.
“Beginner’s luck, if you will,” Baldwin said.
Before long, the “state open” tour gave way to something much bigger. Armed with a working knowledge of Mandarin (a last-minute decision made when he found himself in need of foreign language credits near the end of his college career), Baldwin set off for Asian Tour Q-School. His story ultimately began on the Korean Tour – learning to travel, soaking up a rich culture and delicious food and rejoicing in cheap rent in Kuala Lumpur, where he made up the difference with daily use of a mop and bucket during monsoon season.
“If I’m being honest, in those early years of playing pro golf I really didn’t know just how good I could be at golf, but I did know that I could see a lot of the world and learn a great deal,” Baldwin said.
“Hey, I’m alive.”
Baldwin’s experiences traveling around the world have made this profession richer. His desire to travel was met, and now the timing of Korn Ferry Tour status couldn’t be better. The travel always came with uncertainty, and it’s not a viable option for a new father.
A blog site that has evolved into a way to document his experiences began as a way just to let family and friends know he was still alive on the other side of the world. Baldwin carried no phone during his first foray in Asia beginning in 2007 and had to scour each tournament stop for an “internet café” with an ethernet hook-up.
His blog also contains a meticulous timeline of his travels and successes. The variety is astounding. Baldwin has played – and won – everywhere from the Moonlight Tour (twice) to the Dakotas Tour. He has held membership on the Canadian Tour (2010-11), Challenge Tour (2015), One Asia Tour (2016) and, eventually, the Korn Ferry Tour (2018).
The travel brought many blessings, not the least of which was the volunteer at a 2010 Canadian Tour event who would eventually become his wife. Sarah’s grandmother spotted Mark first because she liked his swing and urged her granddaughter to talk to him.
Sarah and Mark Baldwin. (Photo submitted)
It was easy to make the connection, given that Tour players often interact with volunteers placed with their group for the day, as Sarah was. Mark invited Sarah to visit him during a tournament in Florida a few months later, and a long-distance relationship commenced.
Sarah, an Alberta, Canada native who works as a freelance makeup artist, has traveled with him frequently since, and was along most memorably for Mark’s second stint in Asia.
“I wanted to always travel but until I met him, I didn’t really go anywhere,” Sarah said of their adventurous start. “…It was crazy when we first went to China together because it was my first big international flight.”
International travel can test a young relationship, but the Baldwins made it through everything, from cold and miserable playing conditions to meals made of ingredients neither could name.
“She caddied every single tournament while we were over there,” Mark said. “She has seen more golf swings and has more professional competitive golf experiences than a lot of professional golfers.”
The two were married in 2017, and Mark calls his wife “the best thing golf has ever brought me.”
The Baldwins during their travels. (Photo submitted)
“He just never gives up.”
Sarah already sees what kind of role model Mark will be as a father because he’s a man who never gives up. Despite losing status on this tour and that one, running out of funds, finding side gigs to pay the bills and having to generally reinvent himself many times, Mark has always found a way forward.
The closest he came to a career change was when two seasons of relative stability on the Mackenzie Tour in Canada ended. It’s what prompted a short hiatus filled with freelance work, and eventually the second trip to Asia.
“I’ve always really wanted it,” he said. “I didn’t stop playing because I didn’t want it or think I could improve further. It was more a matter of the resources it takes.”
Throughout his career, Baldwin’s Notre Dame teammate Eric Deutsch, who works as a CPA for the family business has picked up his friend’s bag, when work allows. He has been a constant for encouragement, too, and helped his friend get through the most recent version of Korn Ferry Q-School.
Three years ago, Deutsch was on business in Shenzhen, China while his friend was grinding on the China Tour. Things were not going particularly well on the golf course, but you’d have never known it when the two met up.
“Golf is going bad, he’s getting married soon, he could have been depressed but he’s not,” Deutsch remembered. “That’s what I think of Mark – always upbeat, always making everyone else feel good.”
Their partnership is successful because of its roots in a long friendship. Deutsch jokes that other caddies cringe at some of the things he’ll say to Baldwin in the moment.
“I make him laugh in times that most caddies wouldn’t dare say something to their guy, but he needs to hear,” Deutsch said.
A calculated decision
Before entering Korn Ferry Q-School this fall, Baldwin had wrestled with his 2020 blueprint.
“I felt like the way my game was progressing, some of the courses in Europe – and I’ve tried over there before – might be a good option,” he said.
Friends encouraged him to remain stateside, and soon after, he and Sarah found out they’d become parents in 2020.
Baldwin has fared well in Europe because of the variety of courses and the demand for creativity. Korn Ferry setups, meanwhile, can just be about making birdies.
“I think I’ve shown, especially as time has gone on, that I can shoot the low scores too,” Baldwin said. “I was thinking about the journey to getting here and I don’t think progress is linear exactly, so having lost status and having spent the whole year trying to find something in Monday qualifiers, which is a birdie fest, that improved the aspect of the game where you have to be aggressive.”
What does success look like from here? Family plays a key role and so does stability and improvement.
“One big thing I hope to build on that came out of this year is working on things outside of golf,” Baldwin said.
It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours but Zach Wright and Lindsey Weaver have made it work.
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WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Zach Wright felt like once he got past the par-3 13th on Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course, he could breathe a little easier. In the final round of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, Wright reeled off four birdies in the five closing holes, diving to 14 under and effectively securing eight guaranteed starts for the 2020 Korn Ferry season.
“I had two par 5s downwind, just had to keep breathing and I knew I’d be OK,” said Wright, who played those last five holes in a combined 10 under for the week.
That’s where his caddie came in. Wright had fiancée Lindsey Weave on the bag at Orange County National, who should know something about the pressure that comes with Q-School. She was a little over a month removed from a top-5 finish at the LPGA Q-Series, an eight-round monster played at Pinehurst Nos. 6 and 9. Weaver secured full status for the upcoming season.
At his own Q-School, Wright found that Weaver was good for reading greens and confirming lines, but also keeping him calm. This is the third time in four years he has played final stage.
“More than anything, she’s kind of there for support and help with emotions,” he said.
It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours. The past month is a good example why. Weaver caddied for Wright at a second-stage qualifier in San Diego, then flew directly to Pinehurst for her own Q-School. The couple, who lives in Phoenix, spent the past week in Orlando.
“It was exciting because it all worked out the way it was supposed to,” Weaver said.
Lindsey Weaver during the final round of the LPGA Q-Series. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Wright and Weaver met as kids playing junior golf in Arizona and ended up dating in high school. Weaver feels like they’ve known each other forever, but when they went to different colleges – Wright to LSU and Weaver to Arizona – they saw each other less frequently. When the Wrights moved to Iowa while the Weavers moved to Ohio, logistics became even harder.
“We weren’t in the same state anymore, it was like we were never going to see each other,” Weaver said. “We just reconnected a little over two years ago.”
It was perhaps easier in 2018, when Weaver was on medical leave with an injury for much of her LPGA rookie season. Wright was playing the Mackenzie Tour in Canada, and it was often a relatively short drive from Weaver’s parents’ house in Ohio to see him.
If you want to make it work, Weaver says, it works.
“This past year was really our first year both full schedules trying to make it work,” she said. It ended with a proposal.
Wright had the ring since February but didn’t pop the question until this fall on a trip to Napa. Weaver expects a long engagement. There’s much to plan amid a full schedule of golf.
With full LPGA status, Weaver plans to start her season at the new LPGA event in Boca Raton, Florida, on Jan. 20 before spending two weeks in China and a week in Australia. By mid-March, she’ll be back in Phoenix for the Founders Cup.
“We live like two minutes from that course,” she said.
Lexi Thompson was happy to see her older brother Curtis Thompson wrap up fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next season.
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NAPLES, Fla. – LPGA star Lexi Thompson played in the QBE Shootout for the fourth consecutive year but had her worst finish. She and partner Sean O’Hair, who was playing competitively for the first time since February due to surgery for a badly torn oblique muscle, finished last among the 12 teams in the field at Tiburon Golf Club.
The pair shot 8-under 208 and landed 12 shots out of 11th.
“I’m ready for some time off, definitely ready,” said Thompson, 24, who tied for sixth in the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship, also at Tiburon, back on Nov. 24. “But it was a fun week. Honored just again to be able to play here.”
Thompson was happy, however, to see her older brother Curtis, 27, wrap up fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next season with co-medalist honors at Q-School. Thompson birdied the final hole on Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course in Winter Garden, Florida, on Sunday, which gets him back on the developmental tour for next season. Curtis turned professional in 2014 and played on the Korn Ferry Tour from 2015-18.
The third Thompson sibling, 36-year-old Nicholas, came up a couple of strokes short of earning any guaranteed starts for 2020 after tying for 53rd. The top 40 earned improved status.
“I’m very proud of Curtis, and both of them really,” she said.
It has been a tough year for Curtis, who had taken a break from competitive golf and begun caddying. He worked as a club caddie as well as Lexi’s caddie, and was memorably on the bag when Lexi won the 2018 CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon.
“She’s one of the best players in the world, you see how she gets it done,” Curtis said of the time spent with his sister.
Asked for a memorable experience from working as a club caddie, Curtis only smiled.
“It’s a lot different than caddying for Lexi. Lot of watching golf balls.”
Julie Williams contributed to this report from Korn Ferry Tour Q-School.
All 154 players who started the week at final stage already had Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2020. This week was about improving status.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – A year ago, Curtis Thompson went 14 under at the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School and missed advancing by a shot. There’s a lot to unpack in that, not the least of which is the difficulty of making a living as a professional golfer. Thompson, who turned professional in 2014, left Lakeland, Florida, that week ready to be done with this lifestyle.
“Hung it up for two or three months and didn’t really know what to do with myself,” he said.
On Sunday, Thompson holed a 30-footer for birdie on the final hole of Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course that he believed would send him to a playoff with Braden Thornberry for fully exempt status on the developmental tour in the 2020 season. Turns out both men earned full status for the following year.
All 154 players who started the week at final stage already had Korn Ferry Tour membership for next season. This week was about improving status. Only Thornberry and Thompson are fully set up for next season. The top 10 players (and ties) earned what amounts to 12 guaranteed starts next year while Nos. 12-40 earn eight starts.
“It’s a long day,” Thompson said of a final-round 66 that got him to 21 under. “It’s hard to stay focused for some of it. There’s a few different things you’re thinking about. How do I stay inside the number? How do I stay inside the top 10 and then at the end, how do you try to win it?”
In a field of varied professional experience, Thompson has probably seen as closely as anyone what it takes to compete at the very top level. The former LSU player competed on the Korn Ferry Tour from 2015-18. Struggling with his game, he took all of 2019 off and used a year of uncertainty to test out his caddie skills. He worked as both a club caddie and also carried the bag for his younger sister Lexi Thompson, who is currently No. 10 in the Rolex Ranking.
Curtis Thompson carries his sister Lexi’s bag at the 2018 CME Group Tour Championship. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Curtis was on the bag about this time last year when Lexi won the CME Group Tour Championship, which now awards the largest check in women’s professional golf. With so much golf in the Thompson family – older brother Nicholas was also at final stage, though a T-53 finish didn’t do much to improve his status – hanging it up was never really a viable option for Curtis.
“There’s been a lot of downs in the last two years,” he said. “Six months ago, didn’t know if this was possible.”
Thornberry, meanwhile, is on the way up. This time last year, he was a senior at Ole Miss. He entered Q-School uncertain whether he’d turn professional or return to college to finish his senior season – which was a challenging mindset to face in itself. He ultimately chose the former option, but without guaranteed starts, faced a hectic year.
“It’s very much a relief to know I can pick my schedule and basically play wherever I want,” Thornberry said of the co-medalist perks he secured with his closing 65.
Thornberry poured in putts on the front nine. Thompson, playing in the same group, said he’d never seen anything like it. Thornberry opened with birdie, then made six consecutive from Nos. 4-9 before the putter went cold on the back nine. His only birdie was at No. 17.
“It’s hard to complain when you made that many on the front,” he said.
At Q-School, when one player birdies, it tends to have a ripple effect on everyone else in the field. Zach Zaback might be the best example of that.
When Zaback birdied No. 18 on the Panther Lake course, it bumped him from 11 to 12 under, effectively moving the cut-off for status right up with him. That was potentially year-changing for the 12 players who were sitting at 11 under with an outside chance.
Duke senior Chandler Eaton was among them. Having come so close to earning something tangible for next year, he said he had some questions to ask before he made any immediate decisions about his future.
“It’s a weird type of pressure,” he said of the week. “I definitely feel like I’m a more mature player than I realized. I feel like I can hang with these guys.”
Mr. Monday earns status
Chip McDaniel, the player who garnered the moniker “Mr. Monday” after making something out of a season he entered with no status on any tour, was another one of the men left out at 11 under.
McDaniel, who successfully Monday qualified for three PGA Tour events in 2019 in addition to navigating his way through U.S. Open sectional qualifying, hammered his driver on No. 18 of Crooked Cat into a fairway bunker on the left side of the hole. He blasted it out to 20 feet and had to face that putt with an electronic scoreboard in his sightline. He said he didn’t pay much attention to that.
The 24-year-old had birdied No. 17 to give himself a shot, but ultimately missed the birdie putt on No. 18 to finish T-41.
“I have status,” he said. “This time last year I didn’t have status. I learned a lot this year, playing with the big boys.”
John VanDerLaan during the final round of the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
John VanDerLaan navigated his way to 18 under and a T-7 finish – which was just good enough to earn 12 guaranteed starts for 2020. VanDerLaan, who won the 2018 NCAA Division II individual title at Florida Southern, made sure to sign up for the first-stage qualifier at the Mocs’ home course in nearby Lakeland, Florida.
VanDerLaan was a combined 40 under for the first and second stages (which he played at another familiar course in Brooksville, Florida), and won second stage by eight shots (interestingly, over Broc Everett, the 2018 Division I NCAA medalist).
The 23-year-old felt that a culture of winning at Florida Southern helped shape him as he charted his way to a professional career.
“No matter how far you go, you have to win if you want to be successful,” he said. “I kind of had a little bit of it, but it definitely molded me more into that when I was there.”
Taking the next step
Perhaps nobody, though, represents the long and arduous road to professional success quite like Taylor Dickson. With a T-13 finish and eight guaranteed starts for the next year, Dickson will finally make his first sanctioned tour start after bouncing around mini-tours since his graduation from Winthrop University in 2015.
“Getting in the car, driving all over, just to play some golf,” he said of that journey.
Dickson has filled the downtime in those past four years doing odd jobs for his dad, who owns a Napa Auto Parts store. He’s careful to clarify that he’s an errand guy, not a mechanic. A budding Korn Ferry career might be the big break that allows him to move out of his parents’ house as he continues pursuing the dream.
Dickson was “late” to pick up this game as an 11-year-old. How he has blossomed since.
“I used to get down on myself some, and that’s probably one of the reasons it took me so long. This year I just tried to believe in myself that I can hit the shots required to play out here with these guys.”
Curtis Thompson, the brother of Lexi Thompson, has a one-shot edge with varying levels of Korn Ferry Tour status is on the line.
The top of the leaderboard at the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School was looking quite crowded until Curtis Thompson birdied his final two holes Saturday on Orange County National’s Panther Lakes course. Ultimately, the birdie at No. 18 bumped him out of a seven-way tie and into the solo lead in Winter Garden, Florida.
At 15 under, Thompson will take a one-shot edge over six men into the final round – where varying levels of Korn Ferry Tour status are on the line. Finish first (or tied for first), and a player earns fully exempt status for the 2020 season. Past the medalist, the rest of the top 40 players and ties earn some level of guaranteed starts on the developmental tour next year.
Thompson is the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, who is the only female in the field at this week’s QBE Shootout across the state in Naples.
Curtis celebrated his 27th birthday on Saturday. The former LSU player turned professional in 2014 and is fighting to make his way back on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he played from 2015-18. The player who says he’d be a motivational speaker if he wasn’t a professional golfer has struggled over the past few seasons, but a big day on Sunday could him set him back on track.
Interestingly, Curtis’ older brother Nicholas, 36, is also in the field but is tied for 58th after a third-round 74 on Panther Lakes.
The group tied for second at 14 under includes Braden Thornberry, who has bounced around the top of the leaderboard all week. Thornberry had a 65 on Panther Lakes in the third round, matching the score he posted on Crooked Cat in Round 1 that got him an immediate share of the lead.
Thornberry is back at final stage as a professional this year. He was halfway through his senior season at Ole Miss last year, and ultimately turned professional before the spring season despite not finishing high enough to earn guaranteed starts. Thornberry won the 2017 NCAA individual title and was formerly the No. 1-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Of the two college players in the field, Duke senior Chandler Eaton is in position to slide into the top 40 on Sunday. He is 7 under and tied for 50th, but only one shot out of a large tie for 38th. Kansas senior Andy Spencer, the other amateur, is 2 over and T-140.
Tommy Gainey, who made headlines for his arrest earlier in the week for allegedly soliciting a prostitute in nearby Polk County, is also on the bubble. He is 6 under and T-58 through three rounds. He was only one off the lead after Thursday’s opening round.
There are few courses Ryan Ruffels knows as well as Royal Melbourne. The 21-year-old is a member at the Presidents Cup venue.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – There are few courses Ryan Ruffels knows as well as Royal Melbourne. The 21-year-old is a member. He’s played thousands of rounds there between tournaments and afternoon nine-holers. Seeing it on TV this week as he grinds his way through the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School has been a welcome sight.
Nearly 10,000 miles away from pressure-packed Q-School, Royal Melbourne is hosting the Presidents Cup.
“You’ve got to be so versatile around there,” Ruffels said of a place that greatly shaped his game. “You can’t be one-dimensional with your short game or the way you approach greens or drive the ball. Everything is so strategic so to be able to grow up at a place like that, U.S. golf isn’t quite like that, but there are days like that where you do have to play a little bit that way.”
An opening 68 at Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course makes a good example. Ruffels and the rest of the field battled rain and wind. On the first tee, he had admitted to his caddie he didn’t have a clue where it was going. Still, he found “at least half” of the fairways.
Conditions were soggy again in the second round, but Ruffels managed a bogey-free 65 around the Panther Lakes course. He’s 10 under and four off the lead at the halfway point.
Ruffels was born in the U.S. but moved back to Australia when he was nine and thus holds dual citizenship. This is his second Q-School start, but his first time at final stage. Interestingly, Ruffels has played 19 PGA Tour events and made 43 PGA Tour Latinoamerica starts, but has never played a single Korn Ferry Tour event.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for Ruffels, who turned professional in 2016 at the age of 17. Impatient for results, Ruffels changed swing coaches. Last year – after struggling with a lingering injury that resulted from dislocating his shoulder during the middle of a round (it popped back in and he finished the round, for those wondering) – he returned to coach Denis McDade, with whom he’d worked since he was 11 years old, and doubled down on his game.
“We took some time toward the end of last year,” Ruffels said. “Lot of frustration, lot of long days of scratching our heads, trying to figure it out. Once we knocked through that barrier, it’s been a lot better.”
Ruffels lost to Andres Echavarria in a playoff at the Molina Canuelas Championship, his second PGA Tour Latinoamerica start of the year. He made 12 cuts in 15 starts on that tour this season and ultimately secured a spot in this week’s final stage.
This past summer, Ruffels’ younger sister Gabriela – a junior at USC – won the North & South Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Ryan calls his sister the hardest-working girl he knows, but she likely took a cue from big brother.
The Ruffels siblings are coming up in the world, but naturally, Ryan felt a little heat.
“I don’t want to be the brother of Gabriela Ruffels,” he said grinning. “I’d rather it be she’s the sister of Ryan Ruffels.”
The final stage concludes Sunday, when 40 players and ties earn status based on their position relative to the top of the leaderboard.
Both will have a decision to make if they finish the week among the top 40 and ties and thus lock in guaranteed Korn Ferry starts for 2020.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – For many of the players who enter Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School, a PGA Tour career is a pipe dream. Chandler Eaton uses that phrase to describe a science outreach program he imagines one day developing with his dad Scott, who works as a computer scientist.
Eaton is a Duke senior majoring in environmental science. He and Kansas senior Andy Spencer are the only two amateurs in the 154-man final-stage field of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. Both will have a decision to make if they finish the week at Orange County National among the top 40 and ties and thus lock in some number of guaranteed starts on the developmental tour for the 2020 season.
Regardless, Eaton plans to finish his degree at Duke. He arrived in Durham, North Carolina, with the goal of playing professionally but also knowing it may not be a sustainable way to live.
“I always worked like I was going to (play professionally), and I still know I’m going to be fine whatever I do,” he said.
Collegians at Q-School are received differently in men’s and women’s golf, probably because it’s not as popular a path for the men as for the women. Five of the top female players in the nation entered the LPGA Q-Series in October, and all five are headed to the Symetra or LPGA tours at the start of 2020. Stanford got dinged twice in that process, losing a pair of senior All-Americans in Albane Valenzuela and Andrea Lee.
Changes to the PGA Tour’s qualifying structure in 2013 made it much more difficult for a player to come straight out of college and onto the PGA Tour. Matthew Wolff, who won a Tour event 41 days after claiming the NCAA individual title, is the exception. The vast majority of players are funneled up through the Korn Ferry Tour.
Still, the women have the option to defer status they earn at their Q-Series. Eaton wouldn’t mind that route, if it were available to him. He won’t have to turn professional immediately if he does finish among the top 40, but he must do it relatively soon or risk getting lost in the reshuffle that happens after every four events once the 2020 season starts.
There aren’t many ways for an amateur to skip the pre-qualifying and first stages of Q-School, but Eaton got a pass straight to the second stage when he made the cut at the U.S. Open this summer. That was a life-changing week in itself.
“I got a lot of confidence in my game from that, but most importantly I just learned those guys are playing with so much pressure to make a living,” Eaton said. “They are so calm and relaxed and have so much belief in themselves, that was the biggest thing I learned. When things are going bad, just keep believing.”
Eaton and his family viewed this as an opportunity he may not get again. Duke coach Jamie Green agreed, likening Eaton’s situation this week to “playing with house money.”
Eaton becomes his first active player to go through Q-School. As he watches the process unfold, Green acknowledges that a deferment option (allowing a player to pick up the status he earned at the end of the college season without getting lost in reshuffles) would be the best of both worlds – at least from where he’s sitting.
“I think it’s awesome,” Green said of Eaton’s path to final stage. “A couple of people have asked me how I feel about it, and obviously we want the best team with the best players every semester we have a chance, but our team is based on individuals and we care about each one of those guys.
“If this is his dream job, I want him to get it.”
There are different ways to approach Q-School as a college player. Ohio State graduate Will Grimmer did this dance last year as a senior, but only made it as far as second stage.
“When you know that you’re in college and you’ve got a spring semester to fall back on,” Grimmer said, “I think that makes it a lot easier to go out and kind of free-wheel it this week versus guys that are pro and have been grinding out here for six to eight years and know if they don’t play well this week, they don’t have any starts and they don’t have a good alternative to fall back on.”
He’s at final stage as a professional this year.
Braden Thornberry made it to final stage a year ago as a senior at Ole Miss. He finished T-72, which didn’t earn him any guaranteed starts for the 2019 season, but turned professional before the spring season anyway. Thornberry is also back at final stage this week.
“I wouldn’t say there was less pressure last year, obviously there was another option,” he said. “Honestly, that probably made it a little bit tougher. You weren’t fully making up your mind either way, there’s that little bit of doubt – if I finish here what am I going to do. This year, it’s pretty clear cut.”
Last year, Braden Thornberry (@TBerryGolf) played Final Stage of Q-School as an amateur, finishing T74.
Spencer, the Kansas senior, played his way to this point from the pre-qualifying stage. After his junior season, the Prairie Village, Kansas, native sought advice from Matt Gogel, a former professional who was a fraternity brother of Spencer’s dad Jeff at Kansas. Gogel thought that, at the very least, the process would be great experience.
Spencer’s family, coach and teammates got on board. Q-School marks the first professional experience Spencer has had outside of the Watson Challenge, a professional event limited to players in Kansas City.
“There’s really no downside to playing,” Spencer said. “Obviously I want the best for my team at KU, but I thought if I was good enough to come out here and do this, might as well give it a shot. I’ve kind of taken the route that I have no pressure, just kind of play free.”
Asked what it would take to turn professional, Spencer said he had the top 40 circled. That would get him guaranteed starts next season.
“If I were able to do that, I’d have to weigh my options and make a pretty tough decision.”
Sometimes it takes a few years to find the right formula for success, particularly at Q-School. Alistair Docherty can attest to that.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Sometimes it takes a few years to find the right formula for success, particularly where Q-School is concerned. Alistair Docherty can attest to that.
Docherty, 25, fizzled out in the first stage of two previous attempts at earning Korn Ferry Tour status. On Thursday, he ended the opening round of final stage one shot off the lead. The Pacific Northwest native posted a 6-under 65 on a soggy day on Orange County National’s Panther Lakes course. He had five birdies and an eagle at the par-5 14th that he set up with a “perfect 2-iron.”
“Caddie had a good read on it because I would have missed it,” Docherty said of the resulting 12-footer. “Give that one to the caddie.”
Docherty should get plenty of credit – for preparation and maturity, if nothing else. Since graduating from Chico State, an NCAA Division II program that finished as the national runner-up in 2015 when Docherty was a senior, the bulk of Docherty’s competitive experience has come on the Mackenzie Tour in Canada.
For a young professional just starting out, cost-saving measures are understandably in play. Docherty took that route in choosing a pre-qualifying start for Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. He went to St. George, Utah, to stay with a friend while competing at SunRiver Golf Club.
In retrospect, a high-altitude venue like SunRiver downplayed his advantage as a big hitter.
“Every time I got there, it just wasn’t my week,” Docherty said. “I like playing golf courses that are a little more difficult. Kind of eliminates some of the field. My length usually is to my advantage and that course just didn’t suit me.”
Docherty had been wintering in La Quinta, California, but this year moved to the Phoenix area and began work on his swing with Andy Patnou. A roommate introduced the two. Slowly, Docherty’s game began falling into place.
Docherty advanced through first stage at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, in September. He was third at the second-stage qualifier at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, California, a course he was familiar with from playing rounds with a host family member when he first turned professional.
A change in scenery seems to have done it for Docherty, but for 45-year-old Tag Ridings, the secret to an opening 7-under 64 on the Panther Lakes course was a new putter. Ridings, who guesses he’s played Q-School (through several iterations) 14 times over the span of his 22-year career, put a Piretti putter with a new shaft in his bag before the first round.
“I’d actually been putting really nicely,” Ridings said. “In fact, I only built it because I felt I had been putting so well, I didn’t feel like I had been searching. Just kind of a see-what-happens type of thing.”
Ridings had seven birdies and an eagle in his opening round.
Braden Thornberry played the Crooked Cat course in 7-under 65 and tied Ridings for the lead. There is no cut this week’s event, and every player will play two rounds on each of Orange County National’s two courses.
Thornberry advanced to final stage as an amateur last year, halfway through his senior season at Ole Miss. After finishing T-72, which didn’t earn him any guaranteed starts for the 2019 season, Thornberry ultimately turned professional for the spring. He made 14 Korn Ferry Tour starts but played the weekend only six times.
Now that he’s established as a professional, Thornberry thinks Q-School might even be a little easier to attack mentally. Either way, you’re playing for your living.
“I wouldn’t say there was less pressure last year, obviously there was another option,” he said. “Honestly, that probably made it a little bit tougher. You weren’t fully making up your mind either way, there’s that little it of doubt – if I finish here what am I going to do. This year, it’s pretty clear cut.”
After three more rounds, the top 40 finishers and ties will receive a number of guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2020 relative to their position on the leaderboard. The medalist (and ties) receives fully exempt status for the upcoming season.
Gainey, who was in the next-to-last group to come off Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course in Thursday’s opening round, is part of a nine-way tie for sixth at 6-under 66.
According to Polk County jail records, Gainey was arrested for soliciting a prostitute and charged with a first-degree misdemeanor. He was booked Dec. 8 and later released after posting the $500 bail.
In a Wednesday news conference, Polk County Sherriff Grady Judd said Gainey, who lives in South Carolina, told the sheriff’s office Gainey was in Florida for a charity golf event.
“He didn’t make it,” Judd said. “He was a scratch.”
Known as Tommy “Two Gloves,” the 44-year-old was one of 124 arrested as part of the investigation titled “Operation Santa’s Naughty List” which closed over the weekend.
After his round on Thursday, Gainey declined to comment to Golfweek about either his arrest or the charity outing that he allegedly missed.
Gainey’s position on the leaderboard after the first round of Q-School is promising. His card included three front-nine birdies. He had three more on the back nine, plus two bogeys and an eagle at No. 14. He said he was able to get a read from playing competitor Spencer Levin on that hole.
Gainey’s late-morning tee time meant he caught the brunt of the wind and rain that moved through the area mid-afternoon.
“The conditions sucked for the most part,” he said after the round. “We had a lot of wind, we had a lot of rain actually. I think we maybe played four, five holes the whole day without rain so it made it that much tougher especially with the wind blowing 10 to 15 or maybe a little more than that.”
Leader Tag Ridings is 8 under and four players are tied for second at 7 under. After three more rounds, the top 40 finishers and ties will receive a number of guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2020 relative to their position on the leaderboard. The medalist (and ties) receives fully exempt status for the upcoming season.
Gainey turned pro in 1997 and joined the PGA Tour in 2008. He gained popularity among fans for wearing gloves on both hands. He also was a notable character on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” in 2005.
Gainey has played four PGA Tour events this season, missing three cuts and finishing T-36 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He competed in five PGA Tour events last season, missing three cuts with his best finish a T-39 at the Barbasol Championship. He also played eight events on last season’s Korn Ferry Tour, making three cuts with no top-10s.
