Q School and Italy

Back in the states and playing some better golf! Just finished up last week at the first stage of PGA Qualifying School in Kannapolis, NC where we played at Irish Creek. It is a very nice course that I have played several times before so I was pretty comfortable going into the week. I ended the week shooting rounds of 67-66-68-69 to finish -14 and was the low player at my first stage site. Definitely a confidence booster going forward. I will be playing in Panama City, FL at the Hombre GC for my second stage of Q School which will start the Nov. 17th.
I should probably explain how this whole "Q School" tournament works. It starts our for some at pre-qualifying. There are a few ways to skip this stage but for the most part it is becoming mandatory for most new professionals. I did this stage a couple years ago when I first turned pro. There are 6 of these sites and roughly 40 of 100 make it though here. Then comes first stage, there are 13 of these sites across the country. At each site there are roughly 85 guys, the low 23 and ties move onto second stage. Second stage is next, there are six sites. Each site has somewhere around 85 players and again roughly 20 will advance on to the final stage. Final stage this year is held in Orlando, FL. The tournament is on two courses and there are around 220 players in the field. At finals 25 PGA Tour cards will be awarded! This is what everyone is aiming for! After the top 25 the next fifty players will receive their Nationwide Tour card for the next year. Not a bad card to have either as you have playing status on one of the main tours in the States. After the top seventy five players everyone else is awarded "conditional" status on the Nationwide Tour. This is still not a bad thing to have just you might not get into many events depending on how far down the line you finished at the final stage. Needless to say this is quite the tournament and one that can be very stressful and nerve racking. Everyone plans their year getting ready for this tournament. It is filled with people like me that are trying to work their way onto one of the main tours as well as well established names that have played and even won on the PGA and Nationwide Tours who are trying to get back onto tour after a disappointing year . This will be my third year playing in Q School, I am hoping to use some of my past experiences to make this year go a little smoother.
This week I am in Fasano, Italy playing in the European Challenge Tour's Grand Final. The field is limited to the top 45 players on the order of merit. Starting the week I am sitting in 38th position. At the end of the week the top 20 players on the order of merit will be given European Tour Cards. For me to get one of these I will need to finish in the top 2. Going to need a good week, it can be done though!