Tournament Preview: 2022 DP World Tour Q-School (First Stage)
August 30th - September 2nd, 2022 | Rosebud Country Club (North Course)
It’s nearly that time folks. On Tuesday, we officially take our biggest step to date to realizing this dream I’ve been climbing towards and tee off in the first round of the first stage of DP World Tour Q-School.
I’ve been down in Australia since Thursday morning of last week, spending time with my Aussie family in Melbourne and putting in the final prep work on the course. It was a relatively smooth trip down here and I’ve mostly managed to stick to the plan I laid out in my Road to the Q-School post so feeling good about the direction I’m heading. There have been a couple little adjustments that I’ve needed to make since getting into town, but my family has been amazing in helping me out and bending over backwards to help get me prepped. All things considered, I’m as comfortable as I could possibly be going into a tournament (especially one as as big as this) on the other side of the world.
The nerves have started to build a bit as the week has progressed. This isn’t just any old tournament and it certainly isn’t any old trip to go play golf. This has been a massive undertaking that has pushed me far outside my comfort zone … and frankly, it is a bit of a risk. A risk to my wallet (not cheap!), a risk to my family for leaving my wife and son at home alone for nearly two weeks (though they probably are deeming it a “vacation” not having me around :p), and a risk to my long-term golf psyche if sh*t were to hit the fan this week on the course. Don’t think I haven’t thought about the ramifications of playing really badly here and having to deal with that failure and discouragement. It certainly isn’t my default feeling or expectation, but it exists somewhere in the back of my mind.
However, to put myself in this position despite those risks is unquestionably a positive step forward in my journey and will only make me a better player going forward. Regardless of outcome this week, I see this as a necessary and strategic investment into the future of my golf career.
It has also been a really nice reminder of the support I have from the folks around me who have been so encouraging.
My amazing wife, for not hesitating to say “I got this” when I asked if I could leave the country for two weeks to play golf and leave her home with my son. My Mum, who wins the award for best Nana, hands-down, and has stepped up to help us take care of Jack while Kaylie and I are pursuing our careers. Dom, my coach, who is leaving his family for a week to come down to Melbourne, caddy for me, and be my on-course consigliere (not a great analogy but I watched The Godfather on the plane ride over and really wanted to work a mafia reference in to this post). My Dad, who doesn’t totally understand everything I’m doing but has never questioned my desire to chase a dream. And of course my family here in Australia … Nana, Grandad, Jamie, Taylor, Craig … for giving me a place to stay, feeding me, driving me around, telling me how handsome I’ve gotten etc.
None of what I’m doing this week is possible without their support and love … and I’m extremely fortunate to have them by my side. Just as I’m fortunate to have all my readers who have sent through nice messages either here or to me directly. It’s nice to know there are folks out there rooting for me … and for that, I say thank you <3.
The Event
Tournament: 2022 DP World Tour Q-School (First Stage)
Golf Course: Rosebud Country Club (North Course)
Location: Rosebud, Victoria, Australia
Live Scoring: Link Here
I’ll start by answering a question that I’ve gotten one bajillion times since I announced that I was going to play in Q-School … “Q-School” is not a school of any kind, it is simply a golf tournament that has been given that moniker to describe a grueling multi-stage series of tournaments that eventually gives you access to the “big” tour (in this case, the DP World Tour).
This particular event, a.k.a. “first stage”, is the first of the three steps to getting that “access” … or what is referred to as “status” on the DP World Tour (the second biggest professional golf tour in the world and formerly known as the European Tour).
There are NINE first stage sites happening across the world. Somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of all first stage participants will move on to the second stage, meaning I’ll need to finish in the top six or seven out of the thirty-two players at my site to move on to second stage in Spain. It is still TBD on what place I’ll need to finish to move on, but I’ll share that as an update later in the week.
The event this week is FOUR rounds, with a cut after the third round. That cut works a little differently than some of the previous cuts you’ve read about here. Most of the events I’ve played in this year with cuts have required you to finish in the top x amount of players, regardless of scores. In THIS case, the cut is made based on the number of shots away you are from the final qualifying position. If after three rounds you are within seven shots of the last qualifying spot (likely to be sixth or seventh place), you get to move onto the fourth and final round. The idea here is that 7 shots is a reasonable (though a long shot) margin to make up in a single round and move inside the qualifying line. If you are more than seven shots away from that last qualifying position, you’re SOL.
This will be the first four-round tournament I’ve played this year and it mimics a true tour event. They have the course entirely dedicated to us from Sunday through Friday, meaning we can get out for practice rounds without having to book them on Sunday and Monday, we have total access to the practice facilities, and they provide us with yardage books, brand new Pro V1x range balls (a rarity in the US sometimes!!!), and the rules officials from the PGA Tour of Australia. Getting a glimpse into how a proper tour event works is going to be pretty cool for me. It’ll be funny how often I look over to Dom and say something along the lines of “well, this is cool” and have him laugh at me for being impressed by the stuff he sees every week out on Tour with Lucas Herbert.
The Course
Rosebud Country Club is little gem down on Australia’s Mornington peninsula. It’s not crazy long at 6100 meters and a par of 71 (yeah, there is going to be a lot of math going on this week converting meters to yards … that translates to about 6700 yards) but it winds through fairly tight tree lines and presents some challenging green complexes. It is, however, very soft right now which makes it play longer. Multiple times in my practice round, I had 4, 5 and 6-irons into greens which is not always the case for me. I’m not getting much runout on my drives but it is also a bit easier to hit fairways with things being so soft.
The course has hosted a number of high profile events in past years, including the Australian PGA back in the 70’s and the The Players Series, Victoria, just last year. In fact, the entire final round of that event is on Youtube and I’ve watched it twice now to try and get a better understanding of what to expect come tournament time.
Hitting fairways is going to be a big key this week, as it is fairly easy to get out of position and leave yourself bad angles into greens. Get out of position off the tee and birdie is all but out of the question because of the complexity of some of the greens.
The two nines are fairly comparable in terms of difficulty, but the back nine has back to back par 5’s at 15 and 16 which provide good scoring opportunities towards the end of the round. Seventeen is the hardest hole on the course and eighteen has some tricky hole locations so the course presents a really interesting challenge in the final third of the round. There aren’t a ton of obvious birdie holes out there outside of the par-5’s so I’ll need to take advantage of those when they come around.
The Field
There are 32 players in the field, which is really small for a tournament like this. The vast majority of players are Aussies, though there are three Americans and a couple of folks from elsewhere. Five of us are playing as amateurs with the rest being professionals.
I went down through the list with Dom the other day and he recognized a number of the Australian names. A couple of guys had a lot of success at the junior and amateur levels but haven’t seen their careers take off in the professional ranks the way they may have expected. A handful of others are on the older side (still younger than me) and are likely looking at this as a last gasp attempt to make it in professional golf. If you are playing in first stage, it means that you haven’t yet had a ton of professional success so the limited name recognition here is to be expected (though it doesn’t mean these guys cant play).
The tour also provides the golf clubs each player is affiliated with and there are a handful of guys who play out places like Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath (two of the best courses in the world and probably the two best in Australia) which is pretty cool.
The Preparation
I liken this event to taking a final exam. You’ve spent all semester studying, doing homework, and taking quizzes … you probably even took a mid-term or two … but now you have one more chance to prove you’ve mastered the material. Yes, you have to study, but if you’ve done the work all semester long and remained disciplined, there is no need to cram for the final. Just stay calm and trust that the work you’ve done will shine through.
It is similar here. Yes, I have been working hard these last few days getting my game in order … but we aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel or anything the day before Q-School kicks off. It’s more about fine tuning what has been working and more importantly, determining a strategy for how we’ll get ourselves around Rosebud.
Prior to the event kicking off on Tuesday, I’ll have played practice rounds on both Sunday and Monday where I’ll have spent quite a bit of time thinking through how to play each hole, what to hit off the tees, where to miss shots around the greens, and how changes in wind direction will effect all of the above. I’m spending a lot of time hitting shots from around the greens and getting used to a very different type of turf than what I’m used to back home. And of course trying to find a consistent rhythm with my golf swing that will work under pressure once the tournament kicks off.
I also had an opportunity to play thirteen holes at Eagle Ridge Golf Club with my uncle and cousins on Saturday afternoon which was a nice treat and a good intro to Australian golf. I actually struggled quite a bit to start but got going on the 7th hole and birdied four of five holes to get comfortable. Focus levels were extremely low but it was a great afternoon and exactly what I needed before I go into deep-focus mode for the event.
I’m going to do my best to provide an update after each round of the event, both on instagram (@hazardsascent) and here via the newsletter. They likely won’t be long updates but I’ll do my best to give the highlights and lowlights of each round and keep y’all informed. Keep in mind I’m fourteen hours ahead of my normal time zone updates might be coming out at odd times!
I’ll chat with y’all later in the week … keep climbing y’all!