New Q-School-NW Playoff news...

Maybe a lot of people missed it, but within Tim Finchem's presser today there was some news in the qualifying for guys coming out of college.

In one respect he said "They expect a few less guys to make the PGA Tour from the other Mini-Tours and College".

HOWEVER - Finchem did in effect say that the opportunity for non-members is expanded because now a non-member who earns money equivalent to #200 gets into the 3 event playoff series. This is significant because in the past a college guy like Bud Cauley had to earn around $650-700 thousand... but if he stayed Amateur for the U.S. AM and Walker Cup he had only the Fall series to do it. NOW a guy won't have the fall series available, BUT he only has to earn about $175K to get into those playoffs. My guess is this may affect is the U.S. Amateur and the Walker Cup negatively as more college guys might turn pro right after the NCAAs. Just looking at the summer schedule... I'm guessing a guy who turns pro right after the NCAA's in the first week of June, probably has a good chance of getting up to the full 7 non-member sponsor exemption maximum... and if he's deserving of a PGA Tour card... earning $175K then getting through the 3-event playoff should be very doable.

Robo

Was there not talk of "virtual" money earned for the amateur college guys?

As in they are in the rankings as if they earned the money but dont actually get it.

McLaren wrote:Robo

Was there not talk of "virtual" money earned for the amateur college guys?

As in they are in the rankings as if they earned the money but dont actually get it.

Yes there was talk and a LOT of it about the "faux money list". But not a peep for a while now and nobody I can find knows anything one way or the other. Only a guess, but I'm thinking that must be dead. This larger issue is being discussed among a LOT of players, not just the ones on the PAC or Policy Board, and I have pretty decent access to quite a few of the "border line type vets" who this might affect the most, I would think at least ONE of them would be talking about the "faux" list if it was still alive.

But then again... I hadn't heard a peep about non-members getting to the 3-event playoff via top-200 equivalent earnings until today either... so who the heck knows?

robo,
The top 200 wrinkle came up before, perhaps in the press conference when the FedEx guy dropped Finchem in it with his talk about the "Fall Series", I know we discussed it on here about 8 weeks ago. A redeeming feature though for the college guys.

Imagine the rank-and-file will be lobbying very quietly, keeping their powder dry until the final solution's on the table. They need Azinger to represent them!