Q-School Replacement Idea Getting Worse By The Day

Ryan Ballengee talks to Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee, who says players showing up at a Torrey Pines player meeting will get to hear the latest concept for the PGA Tour/Nationwide Tour's three-event fall finish, which is designed to help lure a Nationwide title sponsor and replace PGA Tour Q-School as an annual avenue to the tour.

Check out this:

Beginning in 2013, a total of 50 PGA Tour cards will be awarded through a three-tournament series on the Nationwide Tour schedule. Q-School will only offer status on the Nationwide Tour.

The top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour money list and the first 75 players who fail to qualify for the PGA Tour playoffs will be a part of the series. In addition, Calfee said a number of top amateurs or collegiate players could be invited to take part in the series.

“It’s kind of like our form of the FedEx Cup, in some ways,” he said.

So now they are talking sponsor's invites for college players into the series?

What's next, spots for a few of the Commissioner's favorite players outside the top 125? Former Players Champions who no longer have status?

PGA Tour's Q-School Replacement Requires At Least Three Sentences To Explain

Doug Ferguson says the pieces "are starting to come together" for a plan to end PGA Tour cards from Q-School in the name of trying to legitimize (and fund) the Nationwide Tour.

The final pieces are starting to come together in a plan that would merge the top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour with the 75 players from the PGA Tour who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. They would play a three-tournament series, and the top 50 would earn PGA Tour cards. The rest could go back to Q-school to try to earn status on the Nationwide Tour.

The current Q-School and Nationwide structures each requires one sentence.

Q-School: Write a check, survive three stages and you have a tour card.

Nationwide Tour: Finish in the top 25 and get your card.

Ferguson writes that policy board member Steve Stricker would like to see 10 spots at Q-School still saved for PGA Tour cards, but Stricker also partially endorses the tour's idea.

"I still think it would be nice if somebody had the opportunity to get a quick turn on tour. I believe, though, it's going to be better for a better player. It's going to bring out talent over a longer period of time. If I was a good player, I would love to have the whole year to prove myself for 50 spots."

Except that you work the whole year to prove yourself, yet your graduation status still comes down to a bizarre seeding and three-week window to ultimately prove yourself?  It's kind of like asking a student to gets straight A's just to take the final, which they also have to earn an A on just to get a diploma.

The top 25 from the Nationwide Tour money list - players who previously would have automatically earned PGA Tour cards - would be seeded No. 1 through No. 25. The next seed would be shared by No. 26 on the Nationwide money list and No. 126 on the PGA Tour money list. The PGA Tour player would be assigned the same money as his counterpart from the Nationwide Tour.

Some of the early calculations have shown that top 25 would be virtually assured of finishing among the top 50 to earn their cards; and that anyone winning one of those three tournaments also would be a lock to earn a card.

Virtually assured.

Have we already forgotten how the FedExCup models panned out and how many times the formula has been changed?

So I ask, if the season long play is considered better, then why would you open the door to a "virtually assured" situation?

Oh right, money.

Wrap: Second To Last Q-School We'll Care About

The unbylined AP story on Q-School winner Brendon Todd, who closed with 68.

Rex Hoggard writes about the Georgia grad's success and the incredible number of top players the program has produced of late.

In order, former Georgia players Brendon Todd (pictured above), Brian Harman, Harris English and Kevin Kisner earned Tour cards, and even Hudson Swafford, the final member of the Bulldog five-some at Q-School who missed his card by two strokes, could appreciate the achievement.

“We had seven guys on that team that could play anywhere week to week,” Swafford said. “Our qualifiers my freshman, sophomore, junior years were as intense as any event.”

And that’s saying something considering this year’s Fall Classic was as intense as any on record.

John Strege looks at the Q-School graduating class of 2012 with ages, career highlights and other notes, including some of the notables who missed out on getting a chance to make three, or if they're really lucky, four West Coast starts before the reshuffle.

Strege also notes that David Duval did not make it, along with Lee Janzen and Shaun Micheel. Duval was low major winner for the week at T70.

The PGATour.com folks also list the group, with face shots, college and their total number of tour starts. Bob Estes' 589 do stand out!

Sean Martin leads with the story of Tommy Biershenk who "was working on a North Carolina farm two years ago, earning $500 a week as he tried to keep his golf dreams alive." But he also notes this year's crop of Korean hopefuls, who sound ready to make some noise.

This is the second consecutive year that two 20-somethings from Korea earned PGA Tour cards. Sang-Moon Bae, No. 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and Noh, who’s ranked 101st, were the two top-ranked players in the field. Bae has won three Japan Tour titles this year. Noh won on the European Tour at age 19 and finished 30th at this year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship.

Their graduation came at the same site, PGA West, where Y.E. Yang earned his PGA Tour card at the 2008 Q-School.

Brian Wacker talks to a fortunate few survivors, including Biershenk, along with others who know both heartbreak and jubilation at making it.

The Australian PGA covers the Aussies who made it, including the amazing Jarrod Lyle.

The PGA Tour's excellent notebook from round 6 features a mix of stats and notes.

The final scoreboard for what is likely to be the second to last Q-School anyone pays attention to before the intended change to a Nationwide-only qualifier in 2013.

“My parents still ask me when I’m going to get a job and be like normal folks."

Sean Martin notes the huge scoring average increase Thursday at Q-School where winds created some wild standings swings and one WD.

As eager as I know most are to read about David Duval's appearance in the finals (as profiled by Brian Wacker), I'm partial to Jim Achenbach's look at old guy Paul Claxton, a native of Claxton, Georgia, married to fruit cake company heiress Paula, father of children Paul and Paula, son to parents Paul and Paula. But no brothers named Larry, Darryl or Darryl.

Reflected Paul the golfer, who is witty enough to double as a comedian:

“We’re pretty simple. You only need to know a couple of names, and you can talk to all of us.”

Things can be a little different in the South. “Everybody thought we were related before we got married, but of course we weren’t,” said Claxton, pondering a confusion of names.

Playing on the 2011 Nationwide Tour, Claxton made 17 cuts in 26 tournaments. He won $140,544 to rank 40th on the final money list.

Back in 2008, he played on the PGA Tour but missed 15 cuts in 23 events. He lost his card and has been fighting ever since to get it back.

“My parents still ask me when I’m going to get a job and be like normal folks,” he said.

"Players aren’t in danger at PGA West. Their sanity may be, though."

Sean Martin reports high winds could make day two of Q-School play a nightmare. So far the scores aren't too horrible, so maybe the lads have been spared.

Noh Joy: Q-School Finals Are Here

John Maginnes will be at Q-School for Golf Channel and sums up the final stage starting Wednesday at PGA West:

I honestly get a little queasy now just thinking about it and I haven't been to a Q-School in half a dozen years. I will be there this year on course for the Golf Channel and I feel like I will be returning to the scene of the crime that stole a piece of my soul and my youth. In return, I learned more about myself in a week than I have in any single year since.

Sean Martin previews the name players in the field and as always, I feel slightly dirty poring over the names of the souls who will be grinding it out over the next six days. Oh, but go ahead and look, it's not like they are standing in front of Home Depot looking for work. Yet.

Brian Wacker also looks at some of the better known names at Q-school.

Steve DiMeglio takes the William McGirt angle, talking to the heartbreak veteran who for three consecutive years at the second stage  faced final hole putts to make it to the finals. You'll have to read the story to see how it turned out.

The PGA Tour's leaderboard is here, and their full coverage page can be accessed here.