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By John Maginnes, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
Over the next three weeks, the first stage of the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament will play out at 13 different sites across the country. For most of the more than 1,000 players who wrote the big check -- enough to buy a decent used car -- their entire q-school experience will last four short days. Those who are successful, though, are just getting started.
At each site there will be roughly 70 to 80 players vying for 18 to 22 spots at the second stage. The format is simple enough. Everyone plays 72 holes of medal play with about 20 percent advancing to the next round in mid-November. A successful trip through the first stage is just a step in the right direction, though. Making it to the second stage doesn't give you anything more than another chance.
If there is an "easier" stage of q-school it is the first. Established players have probably done something in their careers that has exempted them through stage one. Consequently the first stage is filled with players who either are just starting out or who spent the year playing on one of the many mini-tours throughout the country. Regardless of experience, the failure to make it through the first stage should certainly come with some reflection about one's chosen path. Failure to make it through the first stage invariably invokes the professional golfer's most hated word -- job.
As you might imagine, nerves are high at the first stage. Dreams are on the line. And unlike at most other tournaments you don't have to win to advance. Qualifying school is pass-fail, not winner-take-all. But if you do advance, where you finish does have some impact on your immediate future. There are a large number of players exempt through the first stage, so you may not get your first choice of sites for the second. In other words, if you live in Texas and barely advance you may end up playing in Florida or California rather than your first choice in the Lone Star State; it all depends on the preference of the players whose priority is ahead of yours.
But that is a happy problem and one to be considered after the fact. Each player is responsible for his own travel expenses so every stage is a financial investment beyond the entry fee. But it is the emotional toll that far exceeds the monetary commitment. Most of the players in the first stage have either been there before and failed to advance or have never played in q-school before and don't know what to expect. There are no tricks at q-school -- it is just golf, pure and simple, on pretty good courses. If you happen to have chosen one with which you are familiar all the better for you.
What is different about q-school is the finality of it all. If you finish 15th you advance. If you finish 25th not only is your year over before it even starts so are your hopes and possibly your dreams. There are many talented players who have tried and failed. Players who were good enough -- who are good enough -- to be successful on the PGA TOUR who will never get the chance. Former British Open champion David Duval never made it through q-school. He went in 2003 and again last year but has secured his card for 2011.
Other players, some would say lesser ones by comparison, rise to the occasion of q-school. Some may equate that success to mental toughness and they wouldn't be completely wrong. But for those who were -- or who are -- good at q-school it isn't as much about being tougher than the others as it is about the ability to compartmentalize the pressure. To be successful at q-school you have to be able to put aside the finality and just play golf for those four days. Easier said than done, though, and as you advance the stakes go up exponentially.
If there is one thing, an intangible, that separates those who advance and those who don't it is simple self-confidence. You have to believe that you belong in the next stage or the finals or on the PGA TOUR. Good players who have been playing well have failed in every stage without that belief. Players who have been struggling have been able to turn it around at q-school because they believe that they belong. Belief isn't something that a teacher, sports psychologist, girlfriend or mother or father can instill. It comes from within.
No one can do it for you at q-school. Q-school is the loneliest tournament of the year. Your phone stops ringing. Your friends aren't texting you. It is you, your caddie and the golf course for four days. But if it was easy, everyone would do it.
Kent Jones has made it through the 1st round of 6 at the final stage of Q-School in 16th place. If he can hold that position through Monday he'll be a full fledged member of the PGA Tour again - a status he hasn't enjoyed since 2009.
