Final Stage of Q-School

The field is set for the final stage of Q-School. 132 Players will try to attain 25 tour cards. David Duvall and Paul Stankowski are two notibals trying to get back to the big stage. The final stage of the PGA TOUR Q-School will be held on Dec. 2-7 at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, FL. The event will be contested over 108 holes and only the low 25 scores and ties will earn their PGA TOUR cards for 2010. The rest of the field will have some degree of status on the Nationwide Tour.

The purse for the event is $1,012,500 with $50,000 going to the champion. Following is a list of players entered at Bear Lakes who were exempt into the final stage:

Lee Westwood continued his dominant play this year by capturing the Debai World Cup. His last round of 64 helped him secure the order of Merritt. Westwood led by two shots entering the final round and opened it with five birdies in his first seven holes. He later revealed caddy Billy Foster had given him some advice at the beginning of the week in Dubai. "Billy told me to go out and bully other people. To make them take notice of me, rather than the other way around."

With that said we will have no skins game this year. I miss the old days with Jack, Lee, Tom and Arnold on Thankgiving. We probably will never see a skins game again until Phil, Tiger, Sergio and Padraig get to be 50.

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I hope everyone has a Happy Turkey Day! Be Safe and Thankful!

Let's Talk Q-School

I am back from the PGA Annual Meeting in New Orleans. This was my first ever and it was well worth the wait! I spent 3 days playing two tour courses, English Turn, TPC of Louisiana and the historical New Orleans Country Club. The area has bounced back some but still has a long way to go. The devistation from Katrina is still everywhere you look even four years after... My heart goes out to all the people who suffered through that horrible disaster. My many thanks to the Golf Coast Section for their hospitality.

Enough of that, let's talk Q-School.

The first two stages consist of 72-hole tournaments. A predetermined number of players from each first-stage event advance to the second-stage and from the second to the all-important final stage at Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach, FL. The final stage will be held December 2-7, 2009.

The finale is contested over 108 mind-numbing and stomach-churning holes that determine where a player will work in 2010. Every player who reaches the finale has some degree of status on the Nationwide Tour, but only the low 25 and ties are exempt on the PGA TOUR for next year.

Recent Q-School Medalists and how they did...

2008 Harrison Frazar - The veteran PGA TOUR player was on the top 125 bubble until he tied for seventh at the Turning Stone Resort Championship. He's No. 104 on the money list.

2007 Frank Lickliter II - Lickliter, who has graduated from Q-School four times, failed to retain his TOUR card for 2009 and is outside the top 125 again this year, having played 14 events this season.

2006 George McNeill - After getting his TOUR card, McNeill won the Frys.com Open in 2007. He has surpassed $1 million each of the last three seasons.

2005 J.B. Holmes - The long driver won the FBR Open twice, in 2006 and 2008, and added a secondplace finish when he lost to Paul Casey in a playoff at theis year's Shell Houston Open.

2004 Brian Davis - Davis came over from the European Tour in 2005 and has retained his TOUR card each year since with three runner-up finishes.

2003 Mathias Gronberg - Since 2003, the Swede has successfully navigated Q-School twice (2005, 2008). He won a Nationwide Tour event this year and is a pretty safe bet to make "THE 25".

2002 Jeff Brehaut - Brehaut hasn't been a full TOUR member since 2005. He reappeared this year and led the U.S. Open after a rain-soaked Thursday and tied for 58th.

2001 Pat Perez - Perez has been a mainstay on TOUR since medaling. He broke through with his first win at the 50th Bob Hope Classic in 2009. He's a poster boy for Q-School success stories.
2000 Steve Allan - The Australian worked his way up to post runner-up finishes in 2003 and 2004, but has faded since. He's made one cut in 17 PGA TOUR events this year.

This year will be some of the most fierce competition we have seen in recent years. Players are bigger, stronger and hit it further than ever before. The groove change from box grooves to the traditional v grooves will make driving the ball in the fairway a must. Stay tuned next week for the results!

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World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions

First Time in history Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be teeing it up on Asian Soil. The field is loaded with 7 of the top 10 players in the world. Sheshan Golf Club will host the event. The course is noted as having some of the most difficult greens in Asia, rolling close to 12.5 on the stimpmeter. Measuring 7200 yards: A wide open front nine and a tight tree lined back nine proves to be a true test. Interesting note: the Grinko trees that line the back nine are over a thousand years old.

MY 3 PICKS

1. Tiger Woods coming off a dominating performance for the Americans in the President's Cup, he was undefeated in his 5 matches. This title has eluded Tiger, but not for long.

2. Ian Poulter won last week's Singapore Open coming in confident and loves to compete against Tiger.

3. Phil Mickelson, Lefty, tied for eighth here last year and reportedly is coming in sharp and focused!

Tip of the Week

HITTING THE BALL LONGER: Getting more distance is what everyone wants. Here are a few tips that might help you achieve getting more distance.

At address, keep most of your weight on your right foot (right handed golfers) ~ Widen your stance ~ Tee ball high and hit it with an ascending blow ~ Use a strong grip and light grip pressure ~ Waggle to relax muscles and rehearse hinging of the right wrist ~ Make a wide arc and strive for maximum extension ~ Maximize coil, place left shoulder and hip behind ball on backswing keeping the right knee flexed will help maximize the coiling ~ To maximize coiling, don't lift left foot on backswing ~ Hinge wrists fully at top of backswing ~ Be sure to complete the backswing to put the club in the right position ~ Don't let your left are bend at the top of the backswing ~ Start your downswing by pointing the butt end of the club toward the ball ~ Relax arms, make a shallow approach, delay turning of shoulders on downswing, let arms extend and pull shoulders into finish ~ Accelerate the club slowly on downswing ~ Rotate shaft through impact ~ Try to generate maximum clubhead speed when the clubhead passes the ball, not at or before impact ~ Keep head and upper body behind ball throughout swing ~ Try to keep your right heel on the ground longer on downswing to help keep your body back ~ Hit the ball on the upswing ~ Throughout the swing, the only pressure point in your grip should be at the point where the lower pad of your right thumb meets the knuckle of your left thumb.

All of these components can help create extra distance that we all want and need!