Web.com Players Lukewarm About Q-School Change

We've heard from the PGA Tour players, and they are positively giddy to send Q-School to the remainder shelves because four cushy fall events were saved. But Garry Smits talks to Web.com players at this week's Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open and the new qualifying structure isn't generating many positive reviews.

This gets to the fundamental issue I have with the whole mess, that you are eliminating one of the things that made the supposedly free-market PGA Tour the ultimate market-based sport.

“I always loved the idea that a guy could come out of the college, like Webb Simpson and Rickie Fowler, and make it through Q-School,” said Len Mattiace of Jacksonville. “That was great for golf. It’s what made the sport unique. Now, the Tour is saying this is the way it needs to be, the way it has to be and that option is gone, and that I don’t like.”

And as Aron Price points out, the other befuddling thing about this is the potential for discouraging international players at a time the game is going global and the last thing you want to be is an insulated tour.

“I think a lot less guys from Asia and Europe will be coming over here,” he said.

“They had that lure of Q-School to get to the PGA Tour but they’re not going to go to Q-School to get a Web.com Tour card when they can stay home and play on the European Tour or the Asian Tour.”

Comments

[Hawkeye]

I haven't studied this in detail, but it seens to me that most international players who have made it on the PGA Tour recently have either done so by playing well in majors, WGC's and the odd invite, thereby making the equivalent of 125th place money and getting a card, or by playing well on the Web.com Tour (like my compatriot Jonas Blixt). I know some Korean players have taken the Q-school route, but it feels like they're in a minority. But maybe someone has better facts to refute my claim!

[LeeWatson]

One question I had that perhaps can be answered here is with the end result of Q-School being a lesser reward or prize if you will, does that mean the entry fee(s) will reflect this?

[No Longer Used to be Former Stack & Tilt Convert]

The main reason I hate the demise of Tour School is not the fairness to players factor, it is the event itself. It is nothing like a regular tour event or major, it cannot be replicated, and will be dead once the changes are made.

[Steve Elling]

Hawkeye is pretty much right on. Bigger-name guys (Ishikawa and Colsaerts this year, for example) have gone the "temporary membership" route here most commonly and used their earnings from majors and WGC events to hijack a spot on the money list and thus earn a US tour card for the next season.

But this is the romance of the meritocracy we are losing here -- the notion that a guy can bootstrap his way from minor-league oblivion to the big leagues.

I will never forget the year in West Palm that Ty Tryon, Boo Weekley and future world No. 1 Luke Donald all made it through the finals in the same week. Talk about some storylines.

Why should a college star HAVE to play a year in triple-A? In my view, turnover and fresh meat are good for the game.

Why would a foreign player blow off the money in Asia to spend a year playing in Web.com Tour locales like Boise and Jacksonville? That's some weak wasabe, boys.

[JJ]

The Tour exists to maximize revenue for its members. That means TV and sponsors are the "real" customers that must be kept happy. It is not PC to say so, but I suspect the Tour has looked at the LPGA dilemma and asked themselves how they can keep that from happening. More barriers to foreign players (other than the proven elite) helps keep the Tour attractive to the majority of American fans and sponsors. And that keeps the money well above the other tours, which means the very best from other tours will always come to the US to play. And the rest, that may have talent but limited money and English skills, will stay home rather than tackle the one year apprenticeship. I am not supporting the policy, just stating the obvious results.

[Hawkeye]

JJ, you may be right. The PGA Tour will always want the international stars, but I think they prefer if the journeymen are American rather than Korean. It's a spinable story that the average Joe can relate to if Ted Potter Jr wins a tournament, but not so much if Sang Moon Bae does so.

[FOX TV]

Uncle Timmy, and side kick Arnie Palmer need to shut off Q-School now, they have all the foreign flags they need flapping on the leader boards now in their pursuit to sell the Golf Channel globally. Wait, I just remembered, they have concluded the Buy.com events in Australia and New Zeland in favor of South America, Panama, Bogata, Chile. Obviously they haven't sold enough South American Golf Channel subscriptions.

Maybe Q-School can be reinstated once Timmy is gone.

[Joey]

The European Tour could exploit this Q-school change by having a Euro Tour Q School right here in the good ol' USA with 5 spots or thereabouts on that tour. After some good players choose the Euro Tour instead of a year in purgatory on the web.com, that'll pretty much kill off this nonsense.

[Pat Burke]

LeeWatson
No way. Qschool entries pay way to much in to the general fund

[M.T. MacGregor]

@Joey

You must work for the Euro Tour.

[E9golf]

@joey, euro tour lost 6 events last year and will struggle to add new ones with the economic mess that Europe is in. I'd say a year on the web.com with a clear path to the huge paydays on the PGA tour is far better than endless purgatory on the euro tour.