How to Earn My PGA Tour Card

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Kevin Battersby with battersbygolf.com in Coconut Creek, Florida. Let's talk about how to earn your PGA tour card. Each year on the tour there is 175 cards or so, 125 of the players will remain exempt and retain their cards for the following year. Those players between 125 and up will have to go back into the tour qualifying school. The advantage they have though like the players on the nationwide tours, they'll be seated in the third qualifying stage which is called the finals so if you're starting out as a young pro you'll have to go through the first stage which is considered a local stage. If you get through the first stage which isn't too difficult for a golf pro, you go to the second stage. Once you get to the second stage the competition is a little bit tighter and there is less spots but as you qualify through that you'll go through the third stage which is a final tour of qualifying which is a six round event. Now you are in with the big boys. You've got your nationwide players that aren't exempt, similar to the tour, you've got your tour players that just lost their card so to speak from 125 and up and then you have the other players. Typically you want to try to qualify in the tour qualifying final stage, you want to get a low number. That gets you into the events for sure because as you get up to 50 and higher on the tour qualifying, the final stage you won't be getting in the first few events but then also there are other ways you get into the events such as exemptions and open qualifyings and invitations. In some aspects the tour qualifying school is actually much more difficult than playing in the tour. Now you're playing a week event with six rounds but this is to determine what you do for the next year. For a golf professional in the United States if he doesn't qualify for the U.S. tour he has got to go elsewhere to Europe which incurs more expenses or Asia, certainly good competition now but the cream of the crop is to qualify for the U.S. tour going through all three stages and getting your tour card to play on the tour."