The nearly-three-month-long process known as PGA Tour qualifying is approaching the home stretch, so some of the thoroughbreds are starting to enter the picture.
Pre-qualifying — which began in mid-September — and the first stage have been completed, and three weeks from today we’ll find out who will lay their hands on what many professional tournament players consider the Holy Grail: a PGA Tour card.
Next up are second-stage tournaments set for six sites around the country this week. The 72-hole events run Wednesday through Saturday. The best performers at each site will advance to the final stage Dec. 2-7 in West Palm Beach, Fla., where the top 25 finishers and ties will earn their 2010 PGA Tour playing privileges. All the other final-stage participants will receive some status on the Nationwide Tour.
The second-stage tournaments will mark the 2009 Q-school debut for some of this year’s PGA Tour players, and three local competitors who fall into that category are entered. Two former Colorado Open champions who have played on the PGA Tour more than 10 years — ex-University of Colorado golfer Jonathan Kaye (pictured) and Kent Denver High School graduate Brandt Jobe — are beginning their quest to regain their fully-exempt status. Golden native Leif Olson, a Tour rookie in 2009, is in the same situation.
Kaye is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour — the victories coming in 2003 and 2004 — and has earned more than $10.5 million in his Tour career. While Jobe has never won a Tour event — he’s finished second three times — he’s accumulated nearly $6.7 million in official earnings. Recently, he’s been competing on the Japanese Tour. As for Olson, in his first year on Tour he earned almost $413,000.
All three players lost their fully-exempt status on Tour this year, with Kaye and Jobe doing so after failing to make the money required by the medical extension they received.
Those three are among the 15 players with strong Colorado connections who will be competing in the second-stage tournaments this week. The total is up from the 11 who advanced to the same event last year, when Olson was the only local competitor to earn a Tour card by going through Q-school.
Six players with major Colorado ties qualified for the second stage for at least the second straight year: Olson; 2009 Canadian Tour Championship winner James Love and fellow former University of Denver golfer Barrett Jarosch; ex-CU golfer John Douma; Dustin White of Pueblo West; and former longtime Coloradan Tom Kalinowski. Douma, however, did not get the chance to compete in the second stage in 2008 as he suffered an appendicitis attack on the eve of his tournament.
The other local players who will be competing this week are brothers Brian and Bret Guetz, both former Littleton residents; ex-CU golfers Pat Grady, Mike Troyer and Kenny Coakley; former Colorado State player Aaron Weston; and ex-DU golfer Daniel Wax. Brian Guetz has the distinction of being the only player to win the HealthOne Colorado Open as both an amateur (1994) and a pro (2008). He won one of the first-stage tournaments last month.
Approximately 80 players will compete at each of the six second-stage tournament sites — Brooksville, Fla.; Panama Beach, Fla.; Pine Mountain, Ga.; Kingwood, Texas; McKinney, Texas; and Beaumont, Calif. The number of players who advance at each venue will be announced later this week.
Here’s the rundown on where each of the local golfers will play:
Brooksville, Fla. (81 players) — Golden native Leif Olson.
Panama City Beach, Fla. (79 players) — Former Littleton residents Brian Guetz and Bret Guetz.
Pine Mountain, Ga. (77 players) — James Love of Denver; former University of Colorado golfer Mike Troyer.
Kingwood, Texas (76 players) — Former Colorado State golfer Aaron Weston, Kent Denver High School graduate Brandt Jobe; former CU golfers John Douma and Kenny Coakley.
McKinney, Texas (80 players) — Pat Grady of Broomfield; former Durango resident Tom Kalinowski.
Beaumont, Calif. (79 players) — Dustin White of Pueblo West; former University of Denver golfers Daniel Wax and Barrett Jarosch; former CU golfer Jonathan Kaye.
