With the assistance of a fourth round 59, Harrison Frazar earned himself a place to play after a final round 67 left him atop the list of 28 players earning Tour cards at PGA Tour qualifying tournament. Or Q School as it is more commonly known among those who get winded just attempting to say PGA Tour qualifying tournament much less type it repeatedly.
Mr. Frazar has zero wins in 300 starts on the PGA Tour, and while this doesn’t count as an official win it’ll do nicely for now, thank you very much. “It means I have a place to go play golf next year,” he said. “It means I have a place to go try to earn a living. I came into this week having fallen so far back that I had pretty much lost all my status. This week means a lot.”
You might assume from that statement that had he not qualified for the Tour this week Mr. Frazar would have had to find a real job; you would be wrong. He’s won $8.8 million in those 300 Tour events so he wouldn’t have been moving into a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere near his alma mater the University of Texas any time soon. Now Brian Vranesh, another of the qualifiers might not have been as fortunate had he failed this week. He’s been waiting tables for the past year after earning $3300 in 12 Nationwide Tour events. Now he’s headed for an arena where he can never win a tournament in 300 tries and still make $8.8 million. Nice work if you can get it, eh.
Jay Williamson, another non winner in 12 years on tour with over $5 million in career earnings, three putted the final hole to earn his card on the number at 19 under par. “Christmas has started as of right now for me,” Williamson said. That’s as descriptively accurate a statement as you’re likely to hear anywhere.
Notah Begay III, who’s won four times on tour, was 2 shots below the cut line with four holes to play. Three birdies in those four holes put him at 20 under par and back on tour. Best known as a college teammate of Tiger Woods and for putting left and right handed, Mr. Begay has dealt with a number of injuries over the years. “Tiger and I always talk about, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’ I was thinking about him the last day,” Begay said. “I’ve got to get this done. Those last three (birdies) out of four holes were great.” I have to agree, to respond under that kind of pressure is more like a Tony the Tiger "GREEAATT". than "great". But that’s only my opinion.
Other previous winners to earn trips back to the tour are John Huston, who can light up a golf course when his putter is hot which doesn’t happen often enough. Glen Day, whose nickname is "All" befitting his status as poster child of slow play. I’ve taken a nap between some of his shots. Ted Purdy finished at 19 under and will likely be giving up his Golf Channel job. Most surprisingly to me was Chris Riley whose game vanished into a witness protection program sometime during the 2004 Ryder Cup matches.
Of all those who didn’t make it to the big show, the most disappointing to me was Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey. I like Mr. Gainey from his Big Break appearances, right down to his " I’m gonna hit this ball as hard as I can and go chase it and hit it hard again" game. He strikes me as good people which still counts for something in my book. Here’s hoping he keeps working and grinding so that someday I can see him at the Western Open. Oh, yeah, I forgot the Western Open is no more. Never mind that last part then, hopefully I’ll see him somewhere on Tour soon.
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