Throwing (nit)BO Down the Well
I'll do my best not to be a prick but I will be honest. Although I can't give firsthand PGA Tour experience like JTrout can.
BO
21 Replies
Guess I should try to finish this up seeing as how it's 6 months later!
Walk to the scorer's building and add up a bunch of large numbers. Then thank the walking scorer and standard bearer and give them each an autographed ball which is standard in tour events.
It's dinner time and I'm hungry, thankfully the USGA has provided us with a heckuva good taco bar to sink our teeth into. We all dive in as it's been a long day. Eventually we get to chatting about the round touching on both the good and the bad. Girlfriend and caddy attack some beers while my mom takes on a glass of wine.
After a while things are pretty loose all throughout player dining. MAJ comes strolling through cradling a glass filled with something stronger than his usual wine. He looks my girlfriend straight in the eye, lifts his glass and announces "SALUD!" She stares him right back and announces the same. He gives her a big smile and continues on his way.
We stick around until way after dark before returning to the hotel for a well deserved stress free night of sleep.
Sleep in the next morning before heading out to the course about 10. We still have full access to everything, I can even use the practice facilities after the players who made the cut have teed off although I chose not to. Have breakfast before wandering out to the range to see who's in form and who might not be. Probably half the players are hitting on the far left where there are no spectators allowed nearby to disturb them.
With tons of people outside the ropes I have little interest in venturing out on the course, so we all migrate back to player dining. About 11 both girlfriend and caddie attack the beers which keeps the table loose for the rest of the day. We watch the action on a closed circuit feed.
That night I take everybody to a nice steakhouse inside a remodeled railroad car. Food was good but not great. Really the only remotely disappointing meal we had during the week plus.
The next day we do it all again although I do choose to venture out to 17 and 18 to watch the last couple of groups fight it out and try to see exactly what it feels like inside the ropes late on a Sunday.
Monday morning we leave town and I am forced to return my Lexus courtesy car. Sadness. Didn't have to fill it with gas beforehand however! Process took about 20 seconds, there were probably 150 of them sitting in a side lot. The two flights home seemed like they took a day although it was only a few hours.
So that's pretty much that, what a great time for a hack that couldn't break 80! I'll touch on what all I learned and what I need to improve on in order to properly compete out there.
Did getting to play that open any other doors for you going forward?
Not really. Nowadays when signing up for state opens they require a playing resume, so this summer I just quickly threw down 2023 U.S. Senior Open and was instantly accepted. But it's not like I wasn't going to be accepted anyway.
This was a fun and interesting read throughout, thanks for sharing!
After a while things are pretty loose all throughout player dining. MAJ comes strolling through cradling a glass filled with something stronger than his usual wine. He looks my girlfriend straight in the eye, lifts his glass and announces "SALUD!" She stares him right back and announces the same. He gives her a big smile and continues on his way.
what an interesting golf life lived by Jiménez
nine major top 10 finishes
can you imagine the payne being tied with Els, fresh off a Masters win, for second place in a US Open
and the winner was one stroke better every five holes you played because of his woods
Wasn’t sure where to post the following, but considering it’s going to end up with me bitching a crapton, might as well put it in my well.
The PGA Tour is going to kill Champions Tour Q School effective immediately. Simply put, they don’t want guys like me to potentially take a spot from some former PGA Tour player. In other words, you get to play if you were great 20 years ago, otherwise **** off.
It’s always been an open secret that they didn’t want anybody out there that never played the big tour. Now they’re just slapping us in the face with it.
But the way they’re going about it is embarrassing. Plenty of guys have been grinding their asses off to get ready for Q school and at this late hour they’re just going to drop the hammer on all their dreams.
Furthermore, supposedly the tour policy board is meeting this week to vote on the matter. However here’s the rub. Q school finals were scheduled for November 30th through December 5th. And until 10-14 days ago there were no tee times available for that week at TPC Scottsdale Champions Course. But early this month, all of a sudden that week was available for public play.
So it’s already been decided. Unless of course the course screwed up by releasing those times. But the writing on the wall is obvious.
But of course crickets from the tour on this. My guess is that they will announce it late in the day tomorrow to avoid the news cycle. Or they release it next week in the hopes it gets ignored by the golfing press due to the Ryder Cup.
So I’m insulted and pissed. Looking for a national platform to debate this with those in Ponte Vedra. And of course if I’m wrong about all this I’ll post a sincere apology.
BO - i totally agree with your position if things in fact they play out that way
the following question partly a result of being too lazy to conduct my own research but more because curious how your description of the process might expand if given an open ended question
what percentage of spots before changing were previously available out of Q school and what was required to hold one once you got there?
Most events have 78 players with no cut. For at least the last 10 years there have been 5 spots available at Q school. Not very many but at least it's a possibility for somebody who never played the big tour. And there are 3 spots in approximately 2/3rds of the events for the Monday qualifiers.
Even if you get through the deck is still stacked against you however. This year there are 25 regular season tournaments before the 3 tournament playoff. But a Q school grad only gets into 17 of those based on that alone. Whereas someone who has played the PGA Tour for many years is fully exempt into everything. So a Q school grad has 17 events to make his money and secure his card for the following year while others have as many as 25 events to do the same.
Keep in mind that if someone like me gets through Q school I'm only getting in 17 events. But if someone who already has some sort of status through the big tour gets through Q school he might get in 23 events or similar. There are rankings that can get you in events from both the PGA all time money list and the Champions Tour all time money list. It can be pretty confusing.
Top 72 for the regular season make the first playoff event. Top 54 after that make the second event while the top 36 make the final playoff event. Top 36 are guaranteed cards for the following season. In reality, 37-54 will get in most events but perhaps not all based on previous season's finish alone. 55-72 will get in a few but not many, again just based on prior season. 37-75 are exempt into Q school finals.
So what the tour wants to do is take the 5 spots from Q school and scatter them out to players who played the PGA Tour 20 years ago but don't quite get in to many of the events currently. And guess what? The people supposedly voting on this are currently PGA Tour players. Just how do you think they are going to vote?
One thing I don't know right now is what they're going to do with Monday qualifying. If there's still pre Q's and Monday Q's then there's still a way for guys like me to get into individual events. But I suppose they could take that away as well if all they want is former PGA Tour players.
If this comes to pass, I'd love to ask those in charge if they're going to name this the LIV Champions Tour, because it will be a closed shop. Something that the PGA Tour complained bitterly about and one of the reasons why the LIV Tour doesn't get world ranking points. It's just bad form to have a closed shop.
As you can tell, I'm pretty pissed about all this and nothing has been officially announced as of yet. Not really because it affects me that much any more, but there's lots of guys that can really play that won't get a chance if this comes to pass. And there's still a non-zero chance I'm wrong about all this. But I wouldn't have started mentioning all this early if I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.
and that is exactly the sort of background perspective i was hoping you would provide
thank you BO
One thing I don't know right now is what they're going to do with Monday qualifying. If there's still pre Q's and Monday Q's then there's still a way for guys like me to get into individual events. But I suppose they could take that away as well if all they want is former PGA Tour players.
Given that they're rapidly killing off Monday Qs on the regular tour, I would expect the same on the Champions Tour. All part of the same theme, this is our Tour, no gate crashers allowed. Awful. Seems like every change since 2020 has been anti-meritocracy.
between you and ship--this, can't y'all just relentlessly harangue them into fixing this? I would not want the two of you pissed at me!
Ha! Good point.
To me, it's just a matter of getting all this information out in front of a big golf audience so they can see just how bad the tour looks in making a decision such as this. If that can be done, then there could be enough repercussions that they might change their mind. Ship certainly has a better platform than I do to start that ball rolling.
The worst thing a golf ruling body can do is to look bad in front of the general public.
And again, I must continue to say, especially in this day and age, that no decision has been put forth publicly as of yet. I'm just trying to get ahead of things when the expected decision is released.
Or I'm going to have a lot of egg on my face.
Most events have 78 players with no cut. For at least the last 10 years there have been 5 spots available at Q school. Not very many but at least it's a possibility for somebody who never played the big tour. And there are 3 spots in approximately 2/3rds of the events for the Monday qualifiers.Even if you get through the deck is still stacked against you however. This year
Seems like the tour should make those guys qualify like everyone else for those 5 spots.
Given my recent golf addiction I've taken to watching a lot of golf, and being older I like the Champions Tour. Perhaps it gives me hope. Watching someone who was a nobody 25 years ago qualify for a Champions Tour event and mix it up with the likes of Els, Jimenez, etc would be great to watch in my view. Too bad they may be making that an impossibility.
golf channel champions tour commercials focus solely on a nostalgia factor and not who is current playing the best golf at an advanced age
News is kind of out. I’ve seen a seemingly official statement from the tour(posted on IG by ship) but no press release or anything yet. They are going to try like crazy to bury this under all the Ryder Cup hubbub.
95% of the comments I’ve seen are negative.
New to the forum so sorry if this has been asked, and sorry if I am missing the point of this forum.
1. Favorite courses you have played?
2. Bucket list courses that you have yet to play?
3. Biggest pet peeve on the golf course?
sorry to hear all that
perhaps pointing out the hype the nhl gets whenever the ebug ends up playing and does well could help in any arguments made to dissuade them?
From May 2023.
The other two players and one caddy are outwardly very happy for me and we all shake hands. They both shot in the 80’s but knew how to conduct themselves and deliberately stayed out of my way the entire back nine. The one caddy was the daughter of the player and just starting her college career playing for the University of Texas. She did an excellent job on the bag.
https://www.wagr.com/playerprofile/farah...
Caddy is one helluva player, been in the world's amateur top 10 for a while now.
Caddied the US girls Jr in 2023 and we were paired in a practice round with Farrah - she was so impressive
Had an interesting thing happen on the course today while playing a casual 9 with friends on a windy Texas afternoon. Par 5, 527 downwind with mostly dormant grass. Solid drive down the right side and see it land just off the cart path and from there it disappeared past an overhanging tree. Look for the ball and it’s nowhere to be found. Until my buddy waved at me from way, way down the fairway. Drive up and find my ball just off the path an absurdly short distance from the green. 99 yards to the hole. 99. Drove it 428. At age 57. Longest drive ever.
Couldn’t focus over the 2nd shot, didn’t know how to process what had happened. Slopped a 55 degree on the green and two putted for birdie. Still shaking my head hours later. Ball probably rolled down the path for 150 yards with no curbs.
Had an interesting thing happen on the course today while playing a casual 9 with friends on a windy Texas afternoon. Par 5, 527 downwind with mostly dormant grass. Solid drive down the right side and see it land just off the cart path and from there it disappeared past an overhanging tree. Look for the ball and it’s nowhere to be found. Until my buddy waved at me from way, way
calling all scott not farah fawcetts to recalibrate their dispersion patterns
