By Joel Beall
Earning a PGA Tour card is a golfer’s dream come true. Unfortunately, that dream is often short-lived.

Since Q school’s overhaul in 2012, the PGA Tour has welcomed 50 new members every season from the Korn Ferry Tour: the top 25 point earners from the regular season and the top 25 from the circuit’s playoff series. (Until this year, it was money, not points, that determined the 50.) That gauntlet is not quite as cannibalistic as the old Q-school framework; if the past was the equivalent of climbing Kilimanjaro solo, the present is like scaling Everest with a team of sherpas with a luxury tent. Nevertheless, it’s still a challenging feat.

But coming down the mountain is an endeavour in itself. And as you will see, one that leads to its share of stumbles.

The 2019 Korn Ferry graduates are the seventh class under the tour’s “new” promotion system. If the past six classes are any indication, many will be back on the developmental tour come fall.

We ran the numbers for the 300 players who have earned their PGA Tour cards through the then-Web.com Tour regular season and its Finals. Here are the odds facing the tour’s 50 newest members, along with several other facts and figures.

For starters, you’re more likely to lose your card than keep it

As a refresher, the top 125 players in the FedEx Cup point standings at the end of the regular season don’t just make the playoffs, they keep their cards for next season. Out of those 300 players, only 42 per cent reached the tour’s postseason, and more important, avoided demotion. That means, on average, 21 players from the 50 get full status. (To clarify, the 50 Korn Ferry graduates don’t technically enjoy full status, as they are subject to a priority rank, which comes in play when trying to enter a tournament. Only one player—this year, Scottie Scheffler—is exempt for finishing atop the full-season and the Finals points list.)

This past season, 19 players were able to make the playoffs, although 20 kept their cards thanks to Martin Trainer’s win at the Puerto Rico Open. Of this 19, only two—Lucas Glover and Sungjae Im—reached East Lake, which comes with its own rewards. Speaking of which …

Reaching the Tour Championship is a difficult ask … but it can be done

Advancing to the season finale earns you an invitation to the Masters and U.S. Open, along with a guaranteed minimum $400,000 bonus … which is more than all but two players made for the entirety of the 2019 Korn Ferry season.

The odds of accomplishing this, however, aren’t great. Just nine players out of the 300—3 per cent—have made it to Atlanta. Though clearly, it can be done. The highest finisher for a first-year graduate is Xander Schauffele, who won the 2017 Tour Championship to finish third in the FedEx Cup standings.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

There are more wins among Korn Ferry grads than you think

On average, the number of PGA Tour events won in a given year by c grads from the previous season is nearly six (5.83, to be exact). This number is slightly inflated thanks to the class of 2016, which submitted 10 trophies from nine players (Schauffele as the two-time winner). Subtract that group the total, however, and the average remains a respectable five wins per year. Which matches the production of the 2018 class, with Trainer, Max Homa, Cameron Champ, Dylan Frittelli and Adam Long winning this past season.

This is a bigger deal than you think given that a PGA Tour win comes with a two-year exemption, regardless of your finish on the FedEx Cup points list.

It is especially rough for true rookies

The term “graduates” might be a tad misleading. A majority of players—60 per cent—who are moving on to the PGA Tour from the Korn Ferry Tour actually have had PGA Tour cards before. According to the numbers, these vets have a better shot at hanging on to their cards in their second (or third) go-around than during their first.

Here are the numbers to back that up: The tour welcomes, on average, 20 true rookies each season. However, an average of seven stays for a sophomore season. Just six made it to the FedEx Cup Playoffs this year, with seven (Trainer) keeping their card.

Of course, those who fail to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs do get a chance at the Korn Ferry Finals. How does that go?

A second, but slim, chance awaits

Out of the 150 players that grabbed their cards through the Korn Ferry Finals, 56 per cent of them were PGA Tour players who finished outside the FedEx Cup 125. That 56 per cent is all tour players, not just recent Korn Ferry graduates. For recent grads, the number is shockingly low: on average, two per year.

The 2019 Korn Ferry graduates begin their tour pushes this week at The Greenbrier. For many of them, it’s the fruition of a life-long dream. Here’s hoping that dream continues a little longer.

The post Most of the 50 new PGA Tour players this season won’t keep their cards. Our statistical analysis appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
There really shouldn’t be anything to get upset about when you shoot a 60 in a professional golf tournament. It’s a 60. It’s an amazing score. It puts you at or near the lead and sets up the potential for victory. It’s a very, very, VERY good thing.

And yet, Chris Baker, might have walked away from the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday a little bummed with his second-round 10-under 60 at the Web.com Tour’s Rex Hospital Open. That’s because it came oh so close to being even better. Maybe even WAY better.

Sitting at 11 under par through 15 holes, having made seven straight birdies in one stretch and 11 in 13 holes, the 33-year-old from Seymour, Ind., had three more birdie looks on the last three holes that could have gotten him to golf’s magic number. Or even lower. Historically lower. Just making one would have gotten him to 59, and if he made all three, well, 57 turns you suddenly into a household figure in golf even if you’re currently just 28th on the Web.com Tour money list.

Unfortunately for Baker, his luck ran out over those final three holes, as you can see here:

Chris Baker (@ChrisBakerGolf) needed to birdie one of his final three holes Friday @RexHospitalOpen to shoot golf’s magic number … pic.twitter.com/EBfWKeyvui

— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) May 31, 2019

Each time Baker just missed to the right of the hole. The one on No. 18 feels painful because it was the shortest, but the one on No. 16 felt most cruel given it looked like it was just about to drop at the end.

“I did everything I could,” Baker said. “It’s just exciting when you’re playing great and everything is going well. You almost just want to get out of your own way and let it go. It was a blast. I had a lot of fun today.”

While Baker failed to become the eighth golfer in Web.com Tour history to shoot a sub-60 score, he does lead the rain-delayed event by three strokes. This is his 131st Web.com Tour start dating back to 2009, and the Iowa State grad is still looking for his first Web.com victory, with his best finish thus far being a playoff loss at the 2017 Panama Championship. He might not have shot a 59 on Friday, but a 60 goes a long way to giving him a chance to have a career-defining moment this weekend.

The post Watch Web.com Tour pro Chris Baker painfully miss three birdie tries for a 59 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Akshay Bhatia might not be an amateur for much longer. If his recent results are any indication, the fledgeling talent should assimilate into the pro ranks just fine.

Bhatia, the 17-year-old who made his PGA Tour debut last month at the Valspar Championship, was able to Monday qualify into the Web.com Tour’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Championship and has made the most of his opportunity by making the cut at the rain-delayed event.

“It’s great out here,” Bhatia told the Montgomery Advertiser. “Anytime I can step up and play against pros, guys who have been on the tour, it’s great. I get a little taste of it before I actually turn pro. It’s cool.”

A first-round 73 left Bhatia outside the top 100, but the homeschooler from North Carolina bounced back in Round 2 with a two-under 70, moving into a tie for 40th and good enough to advance to Saturday play.

“I just felt like I hit a lot of greens,” Bhatia said. “I feel like I’m not playing very well, but to manage a two-under today was pretty decent.”

Bhatia, who is expected to turn professional by the end of the year, had the benefit of playing with Davis Riley, the former Alabama All-American who’s in his first year as a pro. “I asked him about college. ‘How was it?’ The decision to turn pro now vs. after you graduate,” Bhatia said. “It was fun because he’s in my age division, sort of. He kind of understands my language.”

Bhatia intends to enter Monday qualifying at a handful of PGA Tour and Web.com Tour events this spring and summer before making his decision. Up next after the RTJ Championship: defending his title at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club.

The post 17-year-old am Akshay Bhatia makes Web.com Tour cut after Monday qualifying into field appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There are many layers to probe in the Canadian’s past, from his improbable success to his quick vanishment. But now, in the present, only one question comes to mind, and Mike knows it too:

Why is a Masters champion playing on the Web.com Tour?

• • •

The query arose two weeks ago when Weir’s name popped up on the Panama Championship leaderboard, fuelled by a first-round 66. You’re excused if you did a double-take at the sighting, or believed this was a case of mistaken identity, that another Mike Weir was working his way up the ranks.

After all, the Mike Weir made a total of 10 starts on the PGA Tour since 2015, making the cut on only one occasion. He hadn’t reached the tour’s postseason in a decade. He’s 48 years old, 49 in May, double the typical age for a player on the development circuit.

Besides, the man has a green jacket in his closet. Major champs don’t do minor leagues.

Except there it was again, “WEIR,” among the leaders at last week’s LECOM Suncoast Classic with opening scores of 66 and 68. His final standing was hurt by a stumble on Sunday, but the matter could no longer be chalked up as an aberration.

So, what gives?

On the semantics front, it’s simple: The Web.com Tour has an exemption that offers status to past PGA Tour members aged 48-49. An exemption Weir plans to utilise, hoping for 20 or so starts this campaign.

As to why … well, as mentioned above, it’s a question Weir expects and has pondered. Spending a decade on the sport’s outskirts presents plenty of time for that. So when he responds, there’s no doubt it emanates from somewhere deep.

“I’m still motivated,” Weir told Golf Digest on Tuesday. “I love to compete. I love the game. You know it’s just … I’m happy to be able to play, I’m happy to be working on my game. You can stand on the range all you want, but you have to get out there and play.

“I’m not 25, I might not be able to do what I used to do. But I still love it.”

Harry How

That reads like a veteran platitude; know it was not in delivery. Throughout the conversation, Weir’s voice skipped with effervescence, an inflexion reminiscent of a rookie in humble awe of his surroundings. To be fair, Weir had just left Augusta National after a two-day visit—what soul wouldn’t feel renewed—but Weir’s buoyancy is fueled by more than the mystique of the Georgia pines.

He has battled injuries since 2011, wrist and elbow ailments zapping the vitality at the tail of his prime. Just three years ago, his body was so wrecked he was forced to take leave of absence. There were moments he didn’t think he would play again, on any level.

“I haven’t played a full schedule in a number of years, or even had a schedule, really,” Weir said after the Suncoast. “The last couple of years it’s always been like, ‘I wonder if I’ll get in next week.’ It’s hard to prepare that way. It’s hard to be at home for a month and wonder when you’re going to play next.”

Given his sabbatical, it’s a statement not particularly staggering. Weir’s star has long past dimmed. It does, however, belie the stature Weir once held.

Though Weir is primarily known for his 2003 Masters triumph—where he shot a final-round 68 and beat Len Mattiace in a playoff to become the first left-handed winner in tournament history—it far from encapsulates his career. Despite not reaching the PGA Tour until 29, he won eight times, including a Tour Championship and WGC Championship. The Masters was his only major victory, but he was a frequent contender at golf’s biggest events with 12 top-10s in majors, highlighted by six in a nine-tournament span. He was honoured as Canada’s Athlete of the Year three times, a frequency topped only by Wayne Gretzky and Ferguson Jenkins. Weir played in five Presidents Cups, and once defeated Tiger Woods in an epic 2007 Sunday’s singles match in front of his countrymen at Royal Montreal Golf Club.

In short, a player of such prestige should not be in a place like this, where young guns and journeymen aspire to accomplish a tenth of what Weir has.

But if his pride was shattered by his surroundings, Weir’s not letting on. Quite the opposite.

“It’s refreshing for me, in a good way,” Weir asserts. “I was in a lot of these guys shoes you know 20, 25 years ago when I was coming out of college and turning pro. It’s great to see the young guys that are out there and watch them and compete against them.”

Teeing it up again has been a rejuvenation, yes, but so too has the communal ambience of the tour. It speaks to Weir, after being on the outside for so long, citing it as a catalyst to his play. In turn, he has tried to reciprocate. Make no mistake, Weir wants to beat them—has to, if he wants to go where he wants to go—yet he has been something of a mentor to a host of players, doing what he can to catapult these fledgling talents.

“Guys come up and ask me questions about how to make it, what to do out of the bunker … just gave a lesson on chip shots last week,” Weir said. “I want them to play well, and I want them to see their dreams fulfilled.”

As for Weir’s dreams?

Matt Sullivan

This foray is more than keeping the competitive fires lit.

He wants to make that clear, and does so multiple times. The PGA Tour Champions may beckon, but the sole ambition through the windshield is a return to the PGA Tour.

Weir concedes though, even if he sustains the flashes from the past few weeks, it’s not an easy road back for any player, and Father Time hasn’t alleviated those concerns. Save for Phil Mickelson and his dark magic, Weir’s age is a purgatory for golfers. He’s not old enough for the senior circuit, but more and more PGA Tour events are awarding sponsor’s exemptions to up-and-comers. Complicating things is a changing landscape. Power is no longer an asset on tour; it’s a prerequisite. One that hampers the 40-and-older crowd’s capability to hang with their younger professional brethren.

“The power advantage is more pronounced at this stage of the evolution of golf,” said Weir, who was never mistaken for a long hitter. “That’s a huge factor. Just the way the golf courses are set up now reward that more. There used to be more premium on accuracy. It’s just the way it is.”

In that same breath, there’s no sense of sour grapes or surrender, from Weir. He insists there remains a place in golf for strategy and ball-striking and a lights-out short game. His recent performances in Panama and Lakewood Ranch prove it can be done.

Weir states he’s in the acclimation phase with his game and his body. He’s finally healthy, just not seasoned to playing this much, his strong Web starts extinguished on the weekend by sloppy, perhaps gassed, play.

“Just getting in that tournament rhythm again,” Weir said. “It’s about managing my time, managing practice.”

Not that he’s complaining. There’s joy in the process, especially when you haven’t worked in seemingly forever. “There’s nothing like the flow of playing tournament golf,” Weir said. “You take the good things on to the next week and learn from maybe the not so good things. And move forward.”

Which is where Weir is focused, refusing to dwell on what was. All that matters is he’s here, finally, playing golf again.

“Playing three weeks? Man, I hadn’t done that in a few years,” Weir says with cheery wonder.

Why is a Masters champion playing on the Web.com Tour? As Weir counters, why not?

The post Why is a Masters champion playing on the Web.com Tour? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
Erik Compton was in his car Sunday afternoon, driving across Florida from Sarasota—where he had just finished T-47 in the Web.com Tour’s LECOM Suncoast Classic—to his home in Miami.

“I’ll have time to do my laundry, re-pack and then wake up at 2:30 to catch a flight to Puerto Rico,” he said with a laugh. “I hope my eyes will be open on the first tee.”

Compton was pushing himself to try and qualify for the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open. While the tour’s stars will be in Mexico this week for the WGC-Mexico Championship—with more than $10 million on the line and no cut—the tour’s non-stars will tee it up in Puerto Rico for a $3 million purse.

Compton was hoping he could be one of the non-stars in that field. “It’s 19 for one,” said the 39-year-old Florida native, referencing the fact that 19 players had entered the Monday qualifier with one spot in the field available. “Odds are against me, but heck, I’m used to that. I’ve done it before, maybe I can do it again. It’s been a while since I got a start on the PGA Tour.”

And it would continue to be so, Compton shooting a one-under 71 at TPC Dorado Beach on Monday that left him tied for fourth, three strokes back of medalist Alexander Hicks.

Compton’s last PGA Tour start was in October 2016, when he missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Classic. He had just lost his full status on the PGA Tour after finishing 173rd on the money list that year in 24 starts. Even though he finished tied for second in the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, he has no status on the tour currently and can only get into a field by Monday qualifying or by receiving sponsor’s exemptions.

“There are times when I feel forgotten,” Compton admitted. “Then, other times I see people wondering why I withdrew from an event or questioning whether I’m really still committed to playing. I guess the good news is that they’re noticing that I am playing. Believe me, I’m committed, I’m grinding.”

The questions about his commitment date to the end of the 2016 season when he went to the four-event Web.com Tour Final Series and failed to play his way back to the PGA Tour. Walking to his car after dropping from a tie for sixth to a tie for 24th during the last round of the Nationwide Children’s Championships in Columbus, Ohio, Compton told Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski: “I’m thinking about packing it in. I just can’t get it done anymore.” A moment later he added, “I’ve become a three-round player.”

The last comment was important and instructive. Although people in golf seem to have somehow forgotten, Compton has been through two heart transplants—one at 12 and one at 28. His profile on the PGA Tour’s website makes no mention of the two transplants although it does say that he visits severely ill children almost every week he plays on tour—PGA or Web.com.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Compton’s runner-up finish at the 2014 U.S. Open remains a headlight of his career.

Compton takes major doses of medication every day of his life—often between 20 and 30 pills. His meds are constantly being adjusted by doctors who monitor his heart regularly to try to prevent his body from rejecting the transplanted organ. The meds affect him in different ways, but fatigue has often been a problem during his career. Compton doesn’t like to complain about it, but there have been times when he has been forced to withdraw from tournaments—even when playing well—because he’s simply too sick on a given morning to play 18 holes of golf.

“Right now, I feel good,” he said Sunday. “In fact, I’m playing well. I’m hitting the ball very well, but struggling with the putter. The difference between succeeding out here [on the Web.com] and the big tour isn’t very much. The golf courses are different; you never know what you’re going to get from week-to-week. But you have to play very well out here to succeed, same as on the PGA Tour.”

It didn’t take Compton long after his “I may pack it in,” comment to realize he had no desire to pack it in. He still loved to play and compete and was a long way from being ready to become a full-time motivational speaker.

“I was in a very bad place in my life when I said that,” Compton said. “I was going through a divorce, and I’d played badly all year. Did the divorce affect my golf? Probably, but a lot of guys go through those kinds of issues.”

But NO ONE in golf—check that, no one in professional sports—has ever gone through the health issues Compton has faced, and still faces. He had his first transplant at 12 after contracting viral cardiomyopathy, which ended his career as a promising young baseball player. Instead, he became a very good golfer, going to the University of Georgia and then turning pro after two years of college, nervous his pro career would be played on borrowed time.

Compton was working his way up the professional ladder when he had a heart attack in the fall of 2007 while in his car. He drove to the emergency room and called his parents to say goodbye before being taken into surgery because he thought there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive.

He did and then had to wait six months until doctors could find a heart to replace the one that had failed after 16 years. He knows he’s likely to face another crisis at some point in his 40s, but refuses to obsess about it.

“All I can do is worry about how I feel today,” he said. “I have to go in for a heart check-up again soon, but that’s just part of my life. For now, I’m trying to focus on my daughter [Petra] and my golf.”

His golf steadily improved after the second transplant. He won the Mexico Open on the Web.com Tour in 2011 and that helped him finish 13th on the money list for the year, elevating him to the PGA Tour in 2012. He finished 163rd on the money list that year, but finished T-7 in the Q-school finals that year (arguably his most impressive performance since he had to play six rounds) to get his status back for 2013.

“There are times when I feel forgotten. Then, other times I see people wondering why I withdrew from an event or questioning whether I’m really still committed to playing. I guess the good news is that they’re noticing that I am playing. Believe me, I’m committed, I’m grinding.”

His performance at the Open at Pinehurst in 2014, helped him finish 64th on the money list with just almost $1.8 million in official money and allowed him to live his dream of playing in the Masters. He made the cut there in 2015 and finished T-51.

But his health soon became an issue again. The doctors kept adjusting his meds to lessen the side-effects, and the grind of tour life made it difficult for him to play with any consistency.

“I always knew I was never going to be one of those guys who’s on a leader board every single week,” he said. “But I can pop up there every once in a while, especially on difficult golf courses when I’m feeling good. That last year still on tour [2016] was just difficult in a lot of ways.”

In addition to his “normal” health issues, Compton had a bout with gout (initially misdiagnosed) that led to a serious problem with arthritis in his foot. By the time the year ended, he was a hot mess.

After he and his wife, Barbara, separated, Compton lived over his parents’ garage for a while. He had made a lot of money during his five full years on the tour, but much of it—and his house—went away in the divorce. Now, he has a new house, a new girlfriend and spends a good deal of time with Petra—who’s now 10. She was with him this past weekend in Sarasota.

Stacy Revere

Five years ago, after he and Rickie Fowler finished tied for second at Pinehurst, Compton was a media darling. There were calls about potential documentaries on his life, and he became the “Tuesday story” for the local media at almost every tour stop. It had been that way early in his career, when he often received sponsor’s exemptions (30 in all) before he was an exempt player because of the uniqueness of his story.

Now, it seems as if tournament directors who once saw him as a potential ticket-seller, have forgotten about him. He’s stopped writing to ask for exemptions because he knows what the answer will be.

But he’s a long way from packing it in. A year ago, he finished 59th on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list, with three top-15 finishes, including a T-3 in Portland.

In the second tournament of 2019, he shot 69-65 the first two rounds of the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic to take the lead. He was still tied for the lead after three rounds but then blew to a final-round 83, dropping him to a tie for 25th.

“I don’t think it was fatigue,” he said. “It’s more about anxiety because I never know day-to-day how I’m going to feel. That round was very disappointing to say the least. I got off to a bad start, two three-putts the first four holes in the wind. Then, it went completely bad on the eighth hole.”

Compton hit his drive way left on that tee and ended up making a quintuple-bogey 10 after taking two unplayable lies on the hole. The rest of the day was almost as disastrous.

“But I know I can still play,” he said. “That’s what I took away from that week. I’ve already beaten the odds in my life in a lot of ways. I don’t think I’m done doing that yet.”

And so, even if nobody is noticing these days, Erik Compton keeps grinding. There’s no give-up in him. If there was, he probably wouldn’t still be around.

The post Erik Compton isn’t done chasing his dream appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Boo Weekley is one of the more gregarious personalities in golf. But the former U.S. Ryder Cup star has a reason to be especially good-natured this season.

The 45-year-old, who rose to fame at the 2008 Ryder Cup when he did the “bull dance” from Happy Gilmore, is playing in this week’s Web.com Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic. The event marks Weekley’s fourth appearance since missing 18 months of action. Speaking in Lakewood Ranch, Fla., Weekley revealed the reason for his absence.

“I had cancer,” he told reporters.

Weekley was initially sidelined with tendonitis in his right elbow in 2017, which led to surgery. But in his comeback from that injury, doctors discovered cancer in Weekley’s shoulder. The second procedure to remove a cyst that had filled with fluid in that area kept him from hitting balls until last November.

“There was a lot of rust,” Weekley told the Golf Channel. “Heck, my clubs were even all rusted up. They’re still rusted.”

Because Weekley finished outside the FedEx Cup standings in 2017, he doesn’t have much status to speak of on the PGA Tour. He’ll likely get starts at Harbour Town and Colonial, two sites where Weekley is a former winner, but the rest of the schedule might be tough sledding.

“I’m going to try playing as much as I can out here (on the Web.com Tour) and whatever I get out there on (the PGA Tour),” Weekley told the Bradenton Herald.

In his previous three starts on the Web circuit, Weekley has missed two cuts and finished T-41 at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic. But after going through his ordeal, Weekley sounds happy just to be back on the course.

“I love being able to come back out here,” Weekley said. “I like the grind. I don’t like it as much as I used to, but I like the competition.”

The post Former Ryder Cup star Boo Weekley reveals absence caused by cancer appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Blick etched his name into Q School lore on Sunday with a performance quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. On a day filled with its usual share of heroic — and tragic — rounds, the San Jose State product’s 63 stood out because he did it without his golf clubs, which he realized were stolen a couple hours before his final-round tee time. Turns out, rental-home garages aren’t the safest places to leave valuables. . .

Anyway, thanks to his unlikely low score with borrowed clubs, Blick will graduate from the Mackenzie Tour to the Web.com Tour next season. But before that, we caught up with him to hear all about his wild experience at an Arizona golf course fittingly named Whirlwind. The Golf Digest crew also debated the Q School system and offered up our Christmas golf wish lists. Please have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/cody-blick-tells-his-crazy-q-school-story-our-christmas-wish-lists

The post Cody Blick tells his crazy Q School stolen clubs story, and our Christmas golf wish lists appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The nightmares suffered at Q-School are too frightful for even the most sadistic of “American Horror Story” episodes. While some players are able to escape from such hell—including Cody Blick, who bounced back from having his clubs stolen to shoot a final-round 63—for others, they are victims of inexorable fates.

Case in point: the plight of Patrick Sullivan.

Sullivan, a 35-year-old journeyman who missed 20 of 23 cuts on the Web.com Tour last season, looked to be in fine standing to retain Web status for 2019, in 23rd place heading into the final round of Q-School at Whirlwind G.C. in Chandler, Ariz. Unfortunately for Sullivan, on a day when the field went low, he hovered around par for 13 holes, and then had the bad fortune of finding the water on the 14th hole.

From the green:

We’ve heard all the QSchool horror stories over the years. I was wondering if anyone had ever putted it into the water on the back nine to miss by one? If not…..dibs. ?‍

— Patrick Sullivan (@sullivangolf) December 9, 2018

Sullivan ultimately made a double, and followed with a bogey on the 15th. And while he did mount a commendable charge, answering with a birdie on the 16th and eagle on the 17th, Sullivan missed a four-footer on the final hole:

The fine line can be cruel.

Patrick Sullivan (@sullivangolf) went birdie-eagle on holes 16 and 17 Sunday to move within a shot of the current projected top-40.

This was his birdie try at the last. pic.twitter.com/jSlnrf55ni

— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) December 9, 2018

As Sullivan’s Tweet alluded to, he finished with a final-round 70, 17 under for the tournament…and one shot out of the top 40, which would have bestowed guaranteed starts on the Web.com circuit.

It’s not a total lost cause for Sullivan; he does have conditional status for next season. But there will be a lot of Monday qualifiers in his future. Let’s hope it’s a future that doesn’t serve as another Q-School cautionary tale.

The post Pro putts ball into water at Q-School, misses four-footer on the 18th hole to lose status by one shot appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.