Brian Quackenbush Golf

Yesterday I shot a final round 69 in nasty, rainy conditions in the final round of Q-School Stage 1. My round yesterday was the 6th lowest of the day and that moved me up from 14th to 9th place, well within the top 27 and ties that advance to the Second Stage.

In the morning we really weren’t sure how many holes we would finish. The forecast for rain was that bad, and thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon. I decided to go with rain gloves as soon as I stepped on the practice tee…those things really work. I started off strong with a birdie on the very difficult par-3 second hole. Then, I gave one back on the equally difficult third. Still, going into number 5 I felt good. I had a mental lapse on 5 and three putted for bogey from short range. Then, I made another bogey on 6 from the middle of the fairway. So, after 6 holes, despite hitting very good shots, I was 2 over par. The last 12 were when I started to heat up. I birdied 7, 9, 14 and 18 against one bogey at 13. I made a ton of short to mid range putts over the last 12 and generally controlled my game very well.

Ben Case did a great job on the bag this week. I couldn’t have asked for better caddy skills in dealing with the variety of crappy weather we had this week.

Stage 2 will be November 15-18 or 16-19 depending on which site I am assigned to. Since I finished well, I should get my first choice for Stage 2. Unfortunately, I don’t remember which site was my first choice. I’m thinking it was Lake Jovita in Dade City, FL. I guess I’ll find out when they send out the assignments in a week or two.

I’ll be taking a break for a day or two…these things really wear you out.

We finally got some pretty good weather today. It got up to 64 degrees in the afternoon, and the wind laid down a bit. There were some lower scores, and the field separated a bit. I made some progress today with a 68 to move into 14th place. It was an interesting round of ups and downs. I got a lucky ruling on 9 when I got relief from a fire ant hill. Instead of having to chip out from next to a tree I had a wedge in my hand with an open stance and swing. Then, the ball came off the club funky, and I ended up making bogey. I made 3 birdies but felt like I should have made several more. I made 1 bogey but also made several very good par saves. So, I think everything evened out pretty well.

The big story is how the weather will hold up tomorrow. At some point tomorrow it’s going to start raining and will eventually come down very hard. There’s a 100% chance of rain with projected rainfall totals of 1-2 inches through Saturday morning. It all depends on when it starts…right now it’s projected to start sometime in the late morning. The basic Q-School policy is that the event can be extended one additional day due to inclement weather. So, we may end up playing Saturday.

31 degrees. Let me repeat - 31 degrees! That was the temperature on the practice tee 25 minutes before my tee time when I walked over to the putting green. I walked through frosted grass next to the 10th tee 5 minutes before the first tee time at 8:30. It was outrageously cold. Most definitely the coldest temperature I have ever played competitive golf in. I had a “cold gear” compression shirt, heavy mock turtleneck, windshirt, winter hat and winter golf mits with hand warmers…and was still freezing cold for the first 3 holes.

Several of us are seriously wondering if the local tournament directors have any idea what they’re doing. With only 2 hours of tee times (double tee, less than 80 players) and no chance of rain, they easily could have pushed back tee times 2 hours. That would have given the temperature time to warm up and allow for a tolerable first couple of holes. Don’t get me started on pace of play. Two straight 5 hour 15 minute rounds so far. I confronted an official today who actually told me “we hate it when it’s like this” (referring to pace of play). This is coming from the only group of people that have the authority to do anything about it. For some reason, pace of play guidelines and enforcment are forgotten by both players and officials during q-school. This combined with the obscenely cold weather makes for a tournament that is not representative of what we train and play in all year.

Anyway…on to my round today. After a miserable start (3 over on the first 2…4 over through 6), I clawed back to shoot an even par 70. I was very pleased with how I hang in there today. I’m guessing the cold weather was a factor for most of the field because the scoring was slightly higher despite easier hole locations and less wind. I actually made up ground moving from 31st to 24th place.

Tomorrow should be a bit warmer…more like the first round. Friday looks like it could be nasty.

Cold was the operative word for the day. Cold weather and cold putter. I got to the course 75 minutes before my tee time… temperature was in the upper 30’s. It was 42 degrees when I put the peg in the ground on my first hole. It eventually got into the upper 50’s, but with a strong northwest wind it was still bitter.

I got off to a reasonable start with a one over par 71. I hit plenty of greens (14), but didn’t give myself a lot of close birdie opportunities. It was a conservatively played round. I had a few chances, but despite some good strokes didn’t make many midrange putts.

You always seem to have a round in an event where things are a challenge, and I think today’s round was the one. I’m hitting it well and putting it well, so I feel good about the rest of the event.

We got some good news at the end of the round. The low 27 players (including ties) will advance from this site to stage 2. Usually stage 1 sites advance 18-22 players (including ties). It looks like the pre-qualifying helped in this respect. There are only 11 stage 1 sites this year compared to 14 last year. So, the total number of spots available for stage 2 are divided among fewer sites.

I’m in Florence, SC this week for the First Stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at Florence Country Club. I arrived Saturday afternoon and hit some putts. Today we played 5 very wet holes in the morning before they closed the course because of excessive rain. I waited out the storm in a movie theater before coming back in the afternoon to play the back nine.

I’ve played two previous Q-School events at Florence in 2003 and 2004. I made it through First Stage here in 2004, so I have good memories. The greens are always great and this year is no exception. Another constant is that the weather doesn’t look like it’s going to be ideal. I remember it was either cold or rainy in 2003 and 2004. They expect colder than normal temperatures this week. The big difference is the rough does not look as severe as previous years.

The tournament starts on Tuesday. I’ll have my friend Ben Case (Tarheel Tour player and “yardage book guy”) on the bag. Normally, Dad would be on the bag but he’s recovering from a muscle strain. Ben will be a good replacement this week.

Scoring updates will be available on the PGA Q-School Website (www.qualifyingtournament.com).

I just sent a donation to the Capital Hospice for $794.17. This is 10% of my earnings for the last few months.

Total donations since we started the program are $4,559.35. Thanks to all of my sponsors for allowing me to do this. I’m thrilled that our efforts can benefit a cause as worthy as this.

I finished 17th in the Tarheel Tour event at Bermuda Run yesterday with a second round 73. Bermuda Run Main played over 3 shots harder than the first round West course which explains a lot of the difference between my first and second round scores. I felt like I played about the same both days.

Everything feels pretty good going into Q-School. I need to make a little tweak to my full swing, but nothing exceptional.

Congratulations to “Johnny Mac” who won the event yesterday. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

It seems that a few more people have been reading my website lately. Regardless of the cause, I feel a need to clarify my views on mini tours and the ones I consider worthy of playing.

First, mini tours will never be the PGA Tour. The budgets, staff and purse money are substantially smaller than any PGA or Nationwide Tour event. You will never get your courtesy car and you can never expect things to run absolutely perfectly. There are always things you would want to see improved, but the plain fact is that the good mini tours do an exceptional job with the resources they have available.

That said, there are a few who do it better than the rest. I have direct experience with 3 such tours: The Tarheel Tour, the Gateway Tour and the NGA Hooters Tour. What these tours have in common are fair purse breakdowns, competent administration and reasonably good courses. There are subtle differences between the three and each player makes a decision about which one to play based on these differences.

Here are my views on each of these three:

• Tarheel Tour
  • Lowest cost to play
  • Easy travel if you’re based near the Carolinas
  • Probably slightly better conditioned and hardest setup courses of the three
  • Excellent level of service to the players…they are very personal
  • Adminstration on-site is very good considering the staff level. I have had a few experiences with this tour which really made me appreciate their credibility and integrity.
• Gateway Tour
  • Highest cost to play
  • Probably the easiest travel schedule…at least for the Phoenix-based events.
  • Very good conditioned courses, but I would have to place them a close second to the Tarheel Tour
  • Administration on-site - at least in Phoenix - was slightly worse than Tarheel and NGA Hooters.
• NGA Hooters Tour
  • High cost to play, but not as high as Gateway.
  • Extensive travel required…though this should get better with their schedule next year. Regardless, you can expect to be on the road for 3 weeks at a time.
  • Probably the best on-site administration. They seem to have the largest staff, so perhaps this is the reason.
  • Course quality and conditioning - at least when I played in 2003 - was the worst of the three.

So, based on this, I have chosen the Tarheel Tour as the mini tour I prefer to play. Personally, I have had exceptionally good experiences with this tour and their directors. I prefer the easier travel schedule, lower entry fees and better courses. I also really believe the directors are acting in the best interest of the players (not that I think the other two tours aren’t acting in the best interest of the players…I just have more direct personal experience with Tarheel).

Next year I would like to give a different tour a try…the PGA Tour. I’ve heard things are pretty good out there.

I really started hitting some good shots in today’s Tarheel Tour event at Bermuda Run CC. It seems that things are starting to come together with the swing changes and the timing is very good.

I shot two-under 68 and am 3 shots back of everyone except John McAllister who carded an incredible round of 61. Johnny Mac has really had it going lately. It’s rare that you see a guy lap the field by 4 shots, but I’ve played with John lately and can testify that his game is on.

Round two, the final round because the event was rain-shortened, is tomorrow.

We’re getting poured on today at Bermuda Run CC in the Tarheel Tour event. Round one has been cancelled thereby shortening the event to two rounds.