Golf: Don't Miss Your Q

108 holes.

14 rounds.

3 stages.

Equals one magic number.

The PGA Tour has some of the most complex and challenging qualifying criteria for its members in all of professional sports. On the simple basis of dollars earned during the previous season the top 125 players on the money list have their Tour Card renewed for the following year. The Tour Card allows the holder almost unrestricted access into PGA events. A few lucky players are granted exemptions for tournament wins that range from 2 years, for the relatively minor tournaments, to 10 years for winning one of golf's four major events.

Everybody else has to go though the hell of Qualifying School, or Q School for short.

And they pay the PGA $4,000 US for the privilege.

If a player manages to advance through the first two rounds of the event, which are held throughout the US, he earns the right to compete against 167 other golfers in the 6 round final stage. The six-day pressure cooker is dicey enough to unnerve even seasoned golfers. The top 35 and ties get PGA Tour Cards. The rest get to go to the developmental Buy.com Tour that was formerly known as the Nike Tour.

Obviously, with the stakes as high as they are, every shot in this tournament is a heart-wrenching affair. One bad bounce, one duffed approach and lifelong dreams are tossed uncaringly aside. Every year at Q School heartbreaking stories proliferate about near misses and "what might have been."

Two years ago, Jaxon Brigman shot a 65 in the final round to earn his card. Unbeknownst to Brigman his scorekeeper put him down for a 4 instead of a 3 on one hole. Brigman signed the card and was forced to keep the score. A year ago, Joe Daley dropped a four-foot putt into the cup and stared with disbelief as the ball, apparently defying the laws of physics, popped back out. After slamming his cap to the ground he made the next putt. Incredibly both players missed qualifying for their tour cards by one single stroke.

The 2001 version of the event featured more of the same.

Bud Still took one small misstep that cost him his card. The cut-off at that point was 17-under-par and Still had just hit a beautiful 9-iron out of a bunker to set up a birdie on 16 to put his score at 16-under.

Next up was a par five he felt he could reach in two. He hit his approach shot dead at the flag and figured it was either in the bunker or had just cleared the other side. Searching for his ball he took one step forward and felt something under his foot.

Oops.

"I look down and it's my golf ball," Still said. "No way this can happen. I was so mad at myself, I about started crying. At Q School you can not make this mistake." He was assessed a one stroke penalty and made par on the hole. He finished the tournament at 416.

He finished out of the top 35 by one shot.

Roland Thatcher probably felt even worse.

He came to the final hole of the tournament at 17-under-par on the verge of earning his card. His second shot was downwind and over a lake to the green guarded by a bunker. It was a 190-yard shot and Thatcher chose a 7-iron.

Against odds that would have to be called astronomical at best, the ball sailed over the green, bounced up in the air off a cart path and onto the roof of the clubhouse. Thatcher was given a free drop but from there things went from bad to worse.

As Thatcher dropped the ball level from his shoulder it hit a tee in the ground and ricocheted into the tall grass surrounding a nearby tree. Having no shot, Thatcher took an unplayable lie and returned to the fairway now hitting his fourth shot. He laid up, dropped a wedge onto the green and two-putted for a triple bogey 7.

"Strange," Thatcher said. "It all came down to one after I worked 107 and it didn't end up working out for me."

Thatcher missed his card by those three penalty strokes.

Some stories from Q School are a little more positive.

17 years old phenom, Ty Tyron, became the youngest player to ever qualify for the PGA Tour after this year's tournament. He shot an 18-under-par and easily qualified for his card. The only problem, however, is that the PGA Tour recently passed a resolution stating that it requires members to be 18. He will be allowed to play some tournaments under a sponsor's exemption until he turns 18 on June 2. After that it's fair game.

Tyron should be reminded, however, that success at Q School does not necessarily guarantee success on the Tour.

Recent Q School graduates are afforded the lowest status on Tour. They don't always get into tournaments at the start of the year and are often scrambling to make up dollars during the back half of the schedule.

Case in point is Stephen Allan. Allan, who won the 2000 event, played in 31 tournaments in the 2001 season, finished 185th on the money list and was sent back to Q School. With a 19-under-par he was able to retain his status as a full member. This year's champion, Pat Perez, pocketed $50,000 US for his troubles.

There still is a backdoor for some players who fail to advance through Q School. Players who finished 126-150 on the PGA money list for 2001 receive partial exemptions. The rest, as they say, are history.

Those players on the bubble are simply hoping history doesn't repeat itself.