And after successfully negotiating the second stage of qualifying earlier this month, the Parker resident will take another crack at the 108-hole finale this week and early next. The tournament runs Wednesday through Monday (Nov. 28-Dec. 3) at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

Meanwhile, the third and final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying also is on tap this week, with the five-round tournament set for Wednesday through Sunday in Daytona Beach, Fla. There, the competitors with Colorado ties include Kelly Jacques of Longmont, former University of Denver golfers Stephanie Sherlock and Sue Kim, and former University of Colorado standout Emily Talley. More on that event later.

And, to complete the trifecta, the final stage of European Tour qualifying is wrapping up this week. After Monday’s third round of the six-round tournament, Colorado resident and former CU golfer Matt Zions is tied for 118th place out of a 156-man field after rounds of 74-73-74 for a 211 total in Girona, Spain, where the top 25 finishers will be fully exempt next year. A cut to the low 70 and ties will be made after round 4. Zions, winner of a 2011 event on the European Tour, is trying to improve his 2013 status after finishing 146th on the money list this year.

As for Bertsch (pictured above in a USGA photo), he’ll join onetime Golden resident Andrew Svoboda in the finals of PGA Tour Q-school. Svoboda already has a 2013 Tour card secured by virtue of finishing 21st on the 2012 Web.com Tour money list, but he’s hoping to improve his status with a strong showing in La Quinta.

Bertsch, a PGA Tour veteran, knows how it feels to finish just inside or outside the cut line in the finals of Q-school. (The top 25 finishers and ties earn PGA Tour exemptions, while the rest of those in the field have to settle for Web.com Tour status.)

Bertsch, the 1998 Colorado Open champion, has snuck in by three shots or less twice in his career at the finals of Q-school (1996 and 2009). Conversely, last year’s qualifying finals were a heartbreaker for the now-42-year-old Evergreen High School graduate.

Going into the final hole of Q-school last December, Bertsch put himself in position to be fully exempt by playing his previous 35 holes in 8 under par. All he needed was a par on his 108th hole to regain his full status on Tour. But a shot into the water and a closing double bogey left Bertsch with conditional standing on Tour in 2012, and though he still got into 17 Tour events, that was probably 10 fewer than he would have if he finished strong in Q-school.

And this year, there’s even more on the line in the qualifying finals for Bertsch. After he finished 215th on the Tour money list this year, he’d be relegated to playing Web.com events for most of next season if he failed to finish in the top 25 in La Quinta.

Bertsch has won more than $2.3 million in his PGA Tour career, but even though he’s played professionally for more than 15 years, he’s had only five seasons (1996, ’97, 2006, ’08 and ’11) where he’s competed in at least 20 Tour events. His best finish out of 172 starts on the big circuit is a fourth-place at Frys.com Open in the fall of 2011. He’s won twice on the Web.com Tour.

 As for the situation in this week’s LPGA Tour qualifying finals, the top 45 finishers and ties after 90 holes will earn 2013 Tour cards (with the top 20 getting preferred status), while the rest of the field will receive Symetra Tour exemptions. Sherlock has earned LPGA Tour status each of the last two years, but lost her card each time, including by finishing 139th on this year’s money list. A seven-time winner individually at DU, Sherlock recently notched her first professional victory in a SunCoast Ladies Series Tournament in Daytona Beach. The win was worth $3,000.

While Sherlock was exempt into the final stage of qualifying this year, Jacques, Kim and Talley made it there after strong showings in stage II of Q-school. Jacques, a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier this year, finished third out of 157 players there, while Kim was 20th and Talley 28th.

At this week finals, the field will be cut from 122 to the low 70 players and ties after four rounds.
 

Specifically, what’s on the line over the next few weeks are spots on the world’s top tours in 2013. For most of the participating players with strong Colorado ties, how they perform will make the difference whether they compete next year at the very highest level of golf, have another year of scrambling to make a living on mini-tours and state opens, or something in between.

The final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying will take place Nov. 28-Dec. 2 in Daytona Beach, Fla., but of more immediate concern is the second stage of PGA Tour Q-school and the final stage of Champions Tour qualifying, both of which will take place this week.

The PGA Tour second stage will be held at six sites, either Tuesday through Friday (Nov. 13-16) or Wednesday through Saturday (Nov. 14-17) — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in California. Ten golfers with strong Colorado connections will compete, including Highlands Ranch’s Derek Tolan (pictured above), who won his second HealthOne Colorado Open this year and missed advancing to the Q-school finals by a single stroke in 2011.

As for the finals of Champions Tour Q-school, it’s set for Tuesday through Friday in Coral Springs, Fla. Former University of Colorado golfer Steve Jones is the only major champion (1996 U.S. Open) in the field, and onetime Castle Rock resident Esteban Toledo also will be competing.

At stake in the 78-player Champions Tour qualifying are five fully-exempt positions on the 2013 Champions circuit, plus seven conditional spots.

Jones, who is missing his induction into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame this week because of the tournament, is hoping to become an exempt Champions Tour player for the first time. He turned 50 on Dec. 27, 2008, but didn’t return to competition until more than two years later because of a case of tennis elbow. Jones, winner of eight PGA Tour events, was recently voted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

At the PGA Tour’s second stage, the number of players who will advance to the final stage of Q-school hasn’t yet been announced, but last year about 20 moved on from each site.

But the second stage is crucial in many respects. While most of those who fail to advance will be left with no tour status next year, the players who do move on to the final stage — set for Nov. 28-Dec. 3 in La Quinta, Calif. — will be guaranteed at least some Web.com status in 2013.

The big prize, of course, will be the PGA Tour cards which will be awarded to the top 25 finishers and ties after the final stage. But there is also a lot of money and opportunities on the Web.com Tour, so being assured a spot there is a major hurdle for many players.

Among the local golfers joining Tolan in this week’s second stage are Shane Bertsch of Parker, who lost his exempt status on the PGA Tour this year, and 2012 Web.com Tour player James Love of Denver.

David Duval of Cherry Hills Village, winner of 13 PGA Tour events in his career but none in the last 11 years, was scheduled to play in the second-stage tournament in Murrieta, Calif., this week, but he withdrew. Golfweek magazine reported it was due to a broken toe.

Here is the rundown on all the local golfers competing in the second stage, along with their site:

Nov. 13-16 in McKinney, Texas — James Love of Denver, Derek Tolan of Highlands Ranch.

Nov. 13-16 in Humble, Texas — former Denver resident Mark Hubbard, former Colorado State University golfer Dustin Morris.

Nov. 14-17 in Panama City, Fla. — Shane Bertsch of Parker, Kyle McCarthy of Denver.

Nov. 14-17 in Murrieta, Calif. — former Colorado School of Mines golfer Marty Jertson, former Fort Collins resident Drew Stoltz, former University of Denver golfer Danny Wax, Gunner Wiebe of Aurora.

As for the Nov. 13-16 Champions Tour final stage in Coral Springs, Fla. — former University of Colorado golfer Steve Jones, onetime Castle Rock resident Esteban Toledo.

Meanwhile, at the recently completed second stage of European Tour qualifying, former CU golfer Sebastian Heisele failed to be one of 19 players to advance in Alicante, Spain as he finished 41st.
 

Next year, there will still be a PGA Tour qualifying process, of course, but it will be through a series of four August/September tournaments — dubbed the Web.com Tour Finals — which are limited to the top 75 Web.com Tour players and the 75 PGA Tour competitors who finish 126-200 on the FedEx Cup points list. They’ll battle it out for 25 PGA Tour cards for the following season. Twenty-five more PGA Tour spots will be guaranteed to the top money winners in the Web.com Tour regular season.

No longer will there be a Q-school as a direct route to the PGA Tour. In other words, your basic mini-tour or non-tour player won’t be able to catch lightning in a bottle and make it immediately to the PGA Tour through one fall of Q-school. There will still be a Q-school next year, but Web.com Tour cards — not those for the PGA Tour — will be the highest prizes at stake.

For this year, the set-up for Tour qualifying is the same it’s been in recent years, with pre-qualifying followed by three more stages of Q-school. At the final stage — Nov. 28-Dec. 3 in La Quinta, Calif., the top 25 finishers and ties will earn 2013 PGA Tour cards, and the other competitors will gain some status on the Web.com Tour.

The first step, the 54-hole pre-qualifying, will be held at eight sites. The first of those tournaments starts on Tuesday (Sept. 11), though the Coloradans involved won’t compete until next week. The number of players from each site who will advance has yet to be announced, but typically more than 30 from each tournament gain berths into the “first” stage.

First-stage competitions will be held in mid-to-late October at 13 sites, with many of the players exempt from pre-qualifying beginning Q-school at that point. Then six second-stage tournaments are scheduled in mid-November, when the spots for the Q-school finals will be up for grabs.

Six players with strong Colorado ties have signed up to play in pre-qualifying, most in Nebraska City Sept. 19-21. Among those competing there is Jim Knous (pictured above), the former Colorado School of Mines golfer who finished second in the NCAA-Division II National Championships this year.

On those same dates in Dallas, 2011 CGA Player of the Year Zahkai Brown of Arvada will take his shot.

Here are all the players with strong Colorado ties competing in PGA Tour pre-qualifying this month:

Dallas, Sept. 19-21 — Former CSU golfer Zahkai Brown of Arvada.

Nebraska City, Neb., Sept. 19-21 — Tommy Carpenter of Greenwood Village, Nicholas Hodge of Littleton, Jim Knous of Lakewood, former CSU golfer Ryan Peterson, former CU golfer Luke Symons of Aurora.

As for the other major tours, the LPGA began its qualifying last week, with Kelly Jacques of Longmont and former CU golfer Emily Talley advancing to the second of three stages Oct. 9-12. Champions Tour Regional Qualifying will be held Oct. 16-19 and Oct. 30-Nov. 2. The European Tour begins its first stage of Q-school on Tuesday, while the first stage of Ladies European Tour qualifying is scheduled for Dec. 6-9.