No School, Same Hard Knocks

We’re barely into the start of the new season and there's already questions on the fairness of the new qualifying method for the PGA Tour.  In this article on the Golf Channel website, Kevin Tway needed an invite for the opening tournament of the year, Frys.com, despite qualifying through the Web.com tour.  Tway qualified 9th in the regular season for the Web.com Tour, but dropped into 46th place after the new “Finals” series, meaning he'll struggle for starts because of his lower ranking in tournament fields.

For those who missed the "Web.com Tour Finals", the PGA Tour have come up with a new way of qualifying for PGA Tour cards.  Players who finished outside the Top 125 in the FedEx Cup go against the top Web.com Tour players.  Four tournaments then decide who gets the places which previously went to Q-Tournament qualifiers.  The Top 25 on the Web.com Tour are guaranteed their cards but are playing for their ranking, which can make a big difference in what tournaments they play in the 2013/14 season, which will now affect Kevin Tway.

The main motivation for the “Finals” was raising the profile of the Web.com Tour but it could be argued it’s a fairer way of giving out Tour cards.  Have a bad day at the Q-Tournament and that could be your chances gone for another year, whereas four tournaments give players more opportunities and mitigate the luck of  a one-off tournament.

It’ll take a few years to know what effect the “Finals” has and whether it’s a better alternative to the Q-School (like the FedEx Cup there will probably be minor changes).  One problem I can see is that very good players will find it difficult to get a card quickly, Rickie Fowler, Anthony Kim and Dustin Johnson being recent Q-Tournament graduates.  This will inevitably raise the importance of the Web.com Tour.  Forcing players to commit to the Web.com more than in the past, invitations and Major finishes will still be there to get a card (Spieth and Lynn being recent examples), but for the most part, the Web.com Tour will be the only way on the PGA Tour.


The European Tour is keeping the Q-School (played in November), so it’s interesting the see how the two methods – Q-School or Feeder tour qualification compare.  Fairness is one thing but which of the two produce the better tour players the following season?

European/PGA Tour Graduates ("Next Year" -no. of players retaining their cards | "Wins" - the total wins in the following season | "Best" - following season's best finishing qualifier)

	Challenge Tour Qualifiers			Euro Q-School Qualifiers
	Next Year	Wins	Best	Next Year	Wins	Best
2011	6/20	2	Quesne (63rd)	5/37	5	Grace (5th)
2010	8/20	1	Olesen (48th)	5/34	0	Coetzee (26th)
2009	9/20	5	E.Molinari (11th)	7/31	2	Anderson Hed (22nd)
2008	10/20	4	Cabrera-Bello (39th)	6/32	2	Chris Wood (44th)
2007	9/20	2	Aguilar (41st)	6/30	2	Larrazabal (18th)

	Web.com/Nationwide Qualifiers			PGA Q-Tournament Qualifiers
	Next Year	Wins	Best	Next Year	Wins	Best
2011	9/25	2	Blixt (35th)	14/29	2	John Huh (29th)
2010	9/25	5	Bradley (13th)	9/29	2	Woodland (17th)
2009	8/25	1	Sim (65th)	11/25	0	Fowler (22nd)
2008	10/25	0	Leishman (47th)	8/28	2	Yang (10th)
2007	5/25	2	N.Thompson (41st)	7/26	3	D.Johnson (42th)

Bradley qualified through the 2010 Nationwide

Over the five years, a Challenge Tour qualifier has a 42% chance of retaining their card but a Euro Q-School qualifier only an 18% chance.  It's a lot different on the PGA Tour, with 33% of Web.com qualifiers retaining their card compared with 36% of Q-Tournament Qualifiers. 

Oddly this would suggest that the European Tour need a change to the Qualifying criteria (although Q-School has arguably produced better players, Grace most recently).  On the PGA Tour, both qualifying criteria created a similar percentage of players who retain their card,  suggesting their equally fair or at least produce players of a similar standard.   This surprised me as I expected the Web.com Tour to produce better players, given it's season long and the Q-Tournament can be a lottery.

The disparity between the two tour schools also highlights the importance of rankings.  The PGA Tour give equal rankings for the two methods of qualification, whereas as the European Tour give the Challenge Tour some precedence over Q-School.  Meaning Q-School players get less opportunities to play and regain their card's on the European Tour.

This does remind you that it's one thing to get a Tour card, another where a player ranks.  To some extent this why you could argue Kevin Tway has been hard done by the "Finals".