David Micheluzzi – looking to add a PGA Tour card to his DP World Tour status – image Australian Golf Media
Six Australians and one New Zealander are included in a field of 166 golfers chasing one of five PGA Tour cards via the PGA Tour’s Q School beginning at the TPC Sawgrass and the Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida on Thursday.
The PGA Tour might be under pressure at present and suffering from recent defections but it is an amazingly talented bunch chasing the right to play there in 2024, one or two of whom have gone through multiple stages just to reach the final.
Seventy-nine players advanced to Final Stage via Second Stage, while the remainder of the field earned direct access to Final Stage through various exemption categories. Of the 521 players who started at Pre-Qualifying (there were eight sites), only two made it to Final Stage.
Australians Brett Drewitt, Harrison Endycott and Rhein Gibson are chasing a return to the PGA Tour, while David Micheluzzi, Thomas Power Horan, and John Lyras, and New Zealand’s Charlie Hillier are looking to secure their place as a rookie.
Micheluzzi, Power Horan, and Lyras earned their right to play the final via the new pathway formed to allow the leading three on last season’s PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit direct access to the Final Stage.
Micheluzzi has been a prolific winner in Australia over the past eighteen months and has earned DP World Tour status as has Power Horan via the Australasian Tour Oder of Merit but a PGA Tour card would be one hell of a bonus.
Endycott has conditional status on the PGA Tour courtesy of finishing between 126th and 150 in last season’s FedEx Cup standings but he can regain full playing rights by securing one of the cards this week.
Drewitt and Gibson are in the field as a result of finishing outside the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour but having done well enough to make this field.
New Zealand’s Hillier is in after a good season on the Latino Americas Tour where he finished 5th on their Order of Merit including a win in Brasil
The top five finishers and ties after 72 holes will receive PGA Tour cards for the upcoming season.
The next 40 finishers (and ties) will earn exempt status through multiple reshuffles of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season in 2024.
All remaining finishers at Final Stage will have conditional Korn Ferry Tour membership and conditional PGA TOUR Americas membership for the 2024 season.
