08goodbye;to;a;tortuous;week
sentimentalists have lamented for a while how next month’s final stage of pga tour
Qualifying school will be the last time golfers can make the rags-to-riches journey
to the big leagues. Yet no one was growing weepy last week about another aspect of
qualifying that came to an end. the tormenting second stage—final stage’s ugly step-
sister—had evolved into the most dreaded four days of the year for aspiring tour pros.
advance and the next 12 months look bright with no worse than the web.com tour
to fall back on. stumble and the next year looks bleak, with no better than mini-tours
and monday qualifiers to fall back on. it’s the difference between having the chance
to play for millions and playing for thousands, literally. this week’s survivors included
several promising young pros (patrick cantlay (shown), Kevin tway, scott langley
and Kelly Kraft) and a handful of veterans (ross fisher, tom pernice, todd Hamilton
and shaun micheel). conversely, former pga tour winners notah begay iii, frank
lickliter and lee Janzen, along with collegian Jordan spieth, weren’t so lucky and now
must reassess their 2013 plans. (chances are spieth turns pro anyway rather than
return to texas.) no matter their fates, most second-stage participants had the same
salutation: goodbye and good riddance. —Ryan Herrington (@GWCampusInsider)
cHris condon/pga tour
cover // contents // 10 things // lpga tour // european tour // eQuipment // tim rosaforte
