Down under hopefuls prepare for Stage Two Q-School
IN: News | US PGA | USPGA Tour Q-School - Stage Two (2007) | Preview | by Bruce Young | 12 Nov 2007
Stage Two of USPGA Tour qualifying gets underway this Wednesday at six different venues across the USA and, for many Australasians, offers the chance to advance to the Final Stage and therefore increase the possibility of a place to play in 2008, whether on the PGA or Nationwide Tour.
In Dade City, Florida, Scott Hend, who is the leading Australian in Asia this season looks to get back to the USPGA Tour where he played in 2003 and 2004. The Nationwide Tour’s Aron Price from Sydney and New Zealanders, Brad Heaven, Mike Hendry and Grant Waite will also line up at this venue looking for one of the 14 or so places available at each venue through to the Final Stage.
At that point, twenty-five USPGA Tour cards for season 2008 will be issued, a reduction on previous year’s numbers due to the increase in cards (25) given to Nationwide Tour graduates. Waite has played several events on the USPGA Tour in 2007 under the category of number of career cuts made previously but he will be keen to have a more permanent status in 2008.
In Panama City in the northwest of Florida, Paul Gow, Steve Dartnall, Bradley Hughes and Bronson La Cassie will be joined by New Zealanders Tim Wilkinson, Doug Holloway and Josh Carmichael. Dartnall and La Cassie have not long been professionals, Queenslander, La Cassie, being one of the standouts at the University of Minnesota and Dartnall, a member of last year’s Australian Eisenhower Trophy team.
In Dallas, Texas, Steve Bowditch, David Lutterus, Cameron Percy, Kane Webber and Phil Tataurangi are the down-under hopefuls. Tataurangi looks to resurrect a career plagued by injury and illness but one in which he won the Invensys Classic in Las Vegas in 2002. He has finally run out of Medical Exemption and now faces the task of regaining his full status via this process. He has the advantage of playing in his home city of Dallas. Webber from northern New South Wales played well at the recent Singapore Open and is a winner on the Asian Tour.
In Houston, Andrew Bonhomme, and Ben Ferguson fly the Australian flag. Bonhomme comes off a Von Nida Tour win on the Gold Coast two weeks ago and is playing some of the best golf of his life. Ferguson plays the Canadian Tour for the most part.
In Macricopa, Arizona, Brad Lamb, Michael Sim and New Zealander Brad Iles are in the field. Sim has been plagued with injury for a good part of this year and may be eligible for some form of medical exemption next season but has the chance to avoid those worries by graduating this week and again in three weeks time.
In Beaumont, California, the biggest number of Australian hopefuls will take their place in the field at the Oak Valley Golf Club.
Kurt Barnes, Greg Chalmers, David Diaz, Luke Hickmott, Steve Jeffress, Marc Leishman, Aaron Pike, Aaron Townsend and Andrew Tschudin are those with their 2008 season, and perhaps even their golfing future, on the line. Pike, who finished 4th at the MasterCard Masters behind Justin Rose twelve months ago, has only just turned professional and graduated successfully through Stage One in Alabama.
Those successful will move forward to the final stage in Winter Garden in Florida starting on November 28th where some 150 players will line up over 108 holes looking to secure a place on the PGA or Nationwide Tours in 2008.
