Who’s competing in the PGA Tour Q-School? Here’s the full list

Among the veterans are multiple Tour winners Nick Watney, Sean O’Hair and Martin Laird.

The chase for the cards has come down to four days on the First Coast.

The PGA Tour Q-School, presented by Korn Ferry, will be Dec. 12-15 with the field competing in two rounds at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley and two at the Sawgrass Country Club.

Among the veterans who have had to return to the qualifying process are multiple Tour winners Nick Watney, Sean O’Hair and Martin Laird, other Tour winners such as Lanto Griffin of Ponte Vedra Beach, Austin Cook, Tyler Duncan, Tommy Gainey and Garrick Higgo; and rising stars Christo Lamprecht, Pierceson Coody and Sam Bennett.

The tournament rounds at Dye’s Valley are open to the public. The free tickets must be downloaded by visiting the Q-School ticketmaster page at am.ticketmaster.com/pgnt/buy/buy2024.

Local players will take their best shots

The Jacksonville area will be heavily represented in the Q-School field:

  • Travis Trace, a Sandalwood High and University of North Florida graduate, made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole of a second-stage qualifier at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga., to clinch the final spot from that event. He was making his fifth attempt in a second-stage qualifier to reach the Q-School finals.
  • Nick Gabrelcik, the first three-time ASUN Player of the Year at UNF, earned a Korn Ferry Tour card through the 2024 PGA Tour University college rankings. He made six of 13 cuts and finished 118th on the final points list.
  • Raul Pereda, a Jacksonville University graduate, earned his PGA Tour card at the 2023 Q-School. However, he made only four of 25 cuts and had to return to second-stage qualifying. He tied for fourth at the Valencia, Calif., qualifier.
  • Marcus Plunkett played high school golf at Nease and Ponte Vedra and then earned an appointment to Army West Point, where he was the Patriot League Player of the Year in 2014. He finished solo fourth in the Dothan, Ala., qualifier.
  • Two area residents who played golf in the Big Ten, Sam Anderson and Luke Guthrie, were the medalists in their second-stage qualifiers. Anderson, who played at Wisconsin, won the Valdosta, Ga., qualifier by six shots and Guthrie, who played at Illinois, won by two at the Hammock Beach qualifier.
  • Other area residents in the Q-School field are Tyson Alexander, Derek Bard, Cody Blick, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Doc Redman, Thomas Walsh, Tom Wilkinson and Carl Yuan.

PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry field

Players who qualified directly to Q-School

Tyson Alexander, Matthew Anderson, Matt Atkins.

Paul Barjon, Erik Barnes, Wilson Bateman, Zach Bauchou, Sam Bennett, Barend Botha, Joseph Bramlett. Ryan Brehm, Hayden Buckley, Bronson Burgoon, Ryan Burnett.

Will Cannon, Davis Chatfield, Pierceson Coody, Austin Cook, Patrick Cover, Myles Creighton, Brandon Crick, Trace Crowe.

MJ Daffue, Roberto Díaz, Alistair Docherty, Kevin Dougherty, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Tyler Duncan.

Clay Feagler, Wilson Furr.

Nick Gabrelcik, Tommy Gainey, Emilio Gonzalez, Tano Goya, Austin Greaser, Lanto Griffin.

Garrick Higgo, Harry Hillier, Kensei Hirata, Austin Hitt, Ian Holt.

Yubin Jang, Carter Jenkins.

John Keefer, S.H. Kim, Frederik Kjettrup.

Martin Laird, Christo Lamprecht, Nelson Ledesma.

Ryan McCormick, Matthew NeSmith, Seung-Yul Noh, Pontus Nyholm.

Sean O’Hair, Alvaro Ortiz.

Trent Phillips, Scott Piercy.

Chez Reavie, Doc Redman, Seth Reeves, Matthew Riedel.

Sandy Scott, Robby Shelton, Roger Sloan, Austin Smotherman, Hayden Springer, Ross Steelman, Justin Suh.

Callum Tarren, Ben Taylor, Alejandro Tosti, Shad Tuten.

Thomas Walsh, Dalton Ward, Nick Watney, Joe Weiler, Richy Werenski, Kyle Westmoreland, Tom Whitney, Tim Wilkinson, Brandon Wu.

Norman Xiong.

Carl Yuan.

Second-stage qualifiers

Savannah, Ga.

Marcelo Rozo, Zack Fischer, Cooper Musselman, Christopher Crawford, Tain Lee, Rhein Gibson, Zach James, Jake Scott, Spencer Ralston, Ryan Blaum, Charles Huntzinger, Rayhan Thomas, Ben Carr, Cameron Huss, Bryson Nimmer, Derek Bard, Grant Hirschman, Luis Garza Leon, Brandon Berry, Jake Hall (a).

Dothan, Ala.

Ashton Van Horne, Owen Stamper, John Augenstein, Marcus Plunkett, Chase Sienkiewicz, Evan Brown, John Houk, Jacob Bergeron, Blake McShea, Connor Howe, Jack Maguire, Callum McNeill, David Longmire, Billy Tom Sargent, Will Chandler, Jin Chung, Ryan Davis, David Perkins, Sam Choi, Gavin Cohen.

Hammock Beach

Luke Guthrie, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveir, Brandon Hoelzer, Andi Xu, Runchanapong Youprayong, Zecheng Dou, Dan McCarthy, Hank Lebioda, Cody Blick, Brendon Jelley, Drew Doyle, Dawson Jones, Lance Yates, Charles Reiter, Caleb VanArragon, Davis Shore, Jeremy Gandon, John Houchin.

Valdosta, Ga.

Samuel Anderson, Aman Gupta, Blaine Hale, Chris Korte, James Nicholas, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Dawson Armstrong, Bryce Lewis, Ryan Hall, Kyle Cottam, Brett White, Cole Sherwood, Steffen Smith, Derek Hitchner, Sebastian Szirmak, Luke Gifford, Travis Trace.

Valencia (Calif)

Petr Hruby, Takumi Kanaya, Raul Pereda, David Gazzolo, Corey Shaun, Riley Lewis, Nate Stember, Jonas Baumgartner, Sangmoon Bae, Thomas Longbella, Tanner Napier, Dylan Menante, Nicolo Galletti, Jeffrey Kang, SeungTaek Lee, Johnnie Greco.

PGA Tour Q-School to be hosted in 2023 at TPC Sawgrass and neighboring Sawgrass CC

Golfweek has learned the site of the tournament PGA Tour pros will be doing everything in their power to avoid.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – Much of the PGA Tour’s schedule for next season, including the fall portion of the schedule, are still in flux, but Golfweek has learned the site of the tournament PGA Tour pros will be doing everything in their power to avoid.

The Tour’s Q-School, which will offer five cards to the big leagues for the first time in more than a decade, will be held in mid-December and be hosted at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass and nearby Sawgrass Country Club.

The latter was the home of the Players Championship from 1977-1981 until TPC Sawgrass, sister course to Dye’s Valley, became the long-term home of the Tour’s signature event in 1982. Sawgrass Country Club is a 27-hole layout designed by Ed Seay and regularly hosts a collegiate event, The Hayt, and also will be familiar to former contestants of the AJGA’s Junior Players, which hosted the popular junior invitational while TPC Sawgrass conducted a renovation in 2016.

Last year, Korn Ferry Tour Q-School was held at The Landings in Savannah, Georgia. For several years, the venue alternated between PGA West in Palm Desert, California, and Orange County National in Winter Garden, Florida. The latter recently was announced as the site of a LIV Golf event ahead of the Masters.

The PGA Tour hasn’t made an official announcement, but Golfweek obtained a letter from Sawgrass club president Dan Cavey, dated Jan. 30, to the membership that detailed how it will serve as one of the two courses to be used.

It noted that, “The PGA Tour approached the Club to be a partner in hosting the PGA Tour Qualifying School or ‘Q School.’”

TPC Sawgrass Dye's Valley
The 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley during the final round of the 2015 Web.com Tour Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Photo by Chris Condon/PGA Tour

It continued: “The PGA (Tour) is elevating Q-School to be a featured televised event and is very interested in holding it in Ponte Vedra Beach near their headquarters. They want to structure it as a split field with 85 players daily at our course and 85 at the Valley Course.”

In recent years, the top 40 and ties at Q-School earned full status for the first eight events on the Korn Ferry Tour, the development circuit for the PGA Tour. But beginning this year, the top five finishers and ties will earn PGA Tour status for the following season, creating a pathway for collegiate stars to go straight to the big leagues and bypass spending a year on the Korn Ferry Tour. This marks the first time since 2012 that Q-School will provide a direct path to the PGA Tour.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for guys. I think it’s something that you deserve. I mean, it’s pretty grueling to go through Q-School, especially if you start at first stage like I did,” said reigning Masters champ and PGA Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler earlier this month. “It’s a long few months.”

“I think more opportunities for guys to get out here is better,” he said. “Because you want to reward good golf wherever it is. If it’s at Q-School or on the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour Canada, Latin America, wherever it is, you want to reward good golf.”

[listicle id=778116331]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=]

Robbie Higgins of North Florida comes through again on final hole to lift Ospreys to Hayt title

The North Florida men’s golf team won its invitational tournament for the fifth time.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The University of North Florida men’s golf team won its invitational tournament for the fifth time thanks to another clutch shot at the par-5 18th hole of the Sawgrass Country Club by sophomore Robbie Higgins.

Higgins, who pitched in for birdie at the last to finish Sunday’s second round after he doused his tee shot, hit a difficult chip to within tap-in range  Monday to assure the Ospreys of a one-shot victory over Charlotte in The Hayt, at 4-under 860.

No other team got close as the Ospreys and 49ers turned the week into a two-team race. UNF won The Hayt for the first time since 2017.

UNF and Charlotte were tied through 18 holes. They were tied again through 36 (12 shots ahead of Liberty) and they were tied with the last two groups playing Nos. 17 and 18.

”You’d think it wasn’t possible, for two teams to be this close for 54 holes,” UNF coach Scott Schroeder said. “Charlotte has a good team, really good players and I think when we went up by four or five halfway through the round, we didn’t play well with the lead. You’re probably better off chasing than leading on this course because you get a little defensive, and this isn’t a good golf course to play scared on.”

Florida Gulf Coast (4 over), crept past the Flames to finish in third by four shots. Tennessee was fifth at 13 over and Louisville sixth at 15 over after posting the low team round of the day at 12 under.

After coming to the 18th tee with the Ospreys ahead by only one shot, Higgins found the fairway and then flared his second shot onto the lower portion of the large bank protecting the 18th green, with the ball coming to rest in the second cut of rough.

He gouged the ball out of a downhill lie and nearly holed it for a second day in a row, but settled for the birdie and a 72 that gave him solo third at 5-under 211, one shot behind teammate and defending individual champion Nick Gabrelcik (70) and LSU’s Drew Doyle (66).

Pierre Viallaneix of Florida Gulf Coast (71) finished fourth at 4 under and Ben Woodruff (73) of Charlotte and Kieran Vincent (72) of Liberty tied for fifth at 3 under. Jacksonville’s Alexandre Vandermoten (68) had four birdies and an eagle on the front nine, his back, and finished solo seventh at 2 under.

The difference in the tournament was how the top two players for UNF and Charlotte played the hit the par-5 holes. Gabrelcik was 9 under and Higgins 7 under on the par-5s for the week, while Woodruff and Park combined to go 8 under.

At No. 18, Gabrelcik and Higgins were a combined 5 under (Higgins birdied the hole each round), while Woodruff and Park combined to go 3 under.

Doyle, who was playing as an individual, made two eagles — the first on the par-4 10th on his second shot of the day — to catch Gabrelcik, who had a four-shot lead with three holes to play.

Gabrelcik then bogeyed No. 17 after his second shot caught a horrendous lie in a bunker, and bogeyed the 18th when his pitch rolled past the hole and over the back bank. Gabrelcik flubbed his fourth shot and two-putted from the top of the bank for bogey.

In the meantime, Doyle eagled No. 8 on a 6-foot putt after smacking an 6-iron from 183 yards onto the green, and parred No. 9.

Gabrelcik, who won his fifth college title, became the first player to win or tie for the individual Hayt title in back-to-back since UNF’s David Bennett in 2000 and 2001.

One other player has won The Hayt two years in a row, Clint Jensen of Tulsa in 1996 and 1997.

Gabrelcik took his lead with a run of four birdies from Nos. 6-11. Despite sharing the individual title, he said the team victory, the first since last year’s Sea Best Invitational, more than made up for Doyle chasing him down.

”We’re all Division I players,” Gabrelcik said. “Even if [Doyle] didn’t qualify to start for his team this week doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player. Everyone has a chance to win. I’m really happy for Robbie and the way he pulled off that last shot. We won as a team and that’s what’s important.”

Doyle made his eagle-two at the 10th from 103 yards out with a 54-degree wedge, then birdied two of his next three holes.

He had back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 but birdied the 18th, turned and played bogey-free golf on the front, with another birdie at No. 2 and his eagle at the eighth.

”I think playing as an individual meant I could go out there with no pressure,” Doyle said. “Just go out and play.”

LSU coach Ryan Blagg said Doyle will get more chances if he starts believing him himself.

”He’s a great ball-striker,” Blagg said. “When he starts putting all the other parts together he’ll be a great player.”

It was the fourth team victory by one shot in tournament history and the first since Auburn beat North Carolina in 2018. Florida had back-to-back one-shot victories over Augusta State in 2001 and UNF in 2002.

Schroeder said getting the first victory in more than a calendar year was crucial for a team that starts four underclassmen.

”We have a lot of talent but we need to keep growing,” Schroeder said. “It’s learning how to play in these moments.”

Schroeder said Gabrelcik was simply pushing it on his last few holes trying to make birdies and give the team a cushion.

”All good players try to make birdies and he knew the team score was pretty tight,” Schroeder said. “He still had another very good week.”

[listicle id=778163959]