Two of the three golfers with strong Colorado connections who will be competing in the final stage of PGA Tour qualifying are no strangers to local golf fans.
Denver native and former University of Colorado golfer Jonathan Kaye has won twice on Tour and earned more than $10.5 million in his career. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe, who lived in the state for 29 years, racked up $6.7 million in earnings in about a decade on Tour.
But while Kaye and Jobe are forty-somethings trying to regain fully-exempt status on Tour, former University of Denver golfer Danny Wax is an up-and-coming player attempting to gain a foothold on the most prominent golf circuit in the world.
All three will determine where they compete in 2011 based on their play Wednesday through Monday (Dec. 1-6) at the PGA Tour Q-school finals in Winter Garden, Fla. A field of 164 players will start, and the top 25 finishers and ties after six rounds will gain their 2011 Tour cards. Roughly the next 50 players will be fully exempt on the Nationwide Tour next year, while the rest of the finishers will have partially-exempt status on the 2011 Nationwide circuit.
Wax, who graduated from DU last year, comes into the Q-school finale on a roll. On Nov. 20, the Pacific Palisades, Calif., resident won the second stage of Tour qualifying in Seaside, Calif., where a field of 75 competed in one of the six second-stage tournaments.
Wax “has got all the skills to (qualify for the PGA Tour),” said Eric Hoos, a one-time Nationwide Tour winner who coached Wax at DU. “But no matter what kind of skills you have, that (final stage) pressure can turn great players into guys who don’t look so great. But the biggest thing with Daniel is that winning (the second stage) gives you confidence that you can do it against good players. After what he did, I think he has a really good chance.”
Besides winning the second-stage tournament, Wax gained momentum last month when he Monday-qualified for his first PGA Tour event, the Frys.com Open in San Martin, Calif. Not only that, he went on to make the cut and finish 44th, earning $14,450. In addition, Wax has played in five Nationwide Tour events since leaving DU a year and a half ago, making four cuts and finishing as high as 17th.
“He hits it as good as anyone I’ve ever seen,” Hoos said of the 24-year-old Wax. “We’ve had some great players here (at DU) — James Love, Charlie Soule, Daniel and Espen Kofstad– but Daniel was probably the best pure ball-striker on the team. He was a streaky putter; when he putted well he’d tear it up.
“The only thing that kept him back was course management and — I think he’d tell you this — not working as hard as he had to.”
Wax won one tournament during his college days — the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in the southern California desert during his senior year. But, like other players Hoos has coached at DU, trying to make a living as a playing professional has helped spur Wax’s dedication to improving.
“I ask him what the difference is now and then (during his days at DU) and he says, “˜losing money,'” Hoos said. “Some guys — like James and Espen — really listened, but others don’t listen. They think they have it all figured out, but then they get slapped in the face.”
As with many of his former players, Hoos still stays in contact with Wax. And when Wax competed in the HealthOne Colorado Open this past summer — he finished 36th — he stayed at Hoos’ house.
“I think he’ll do good in Tour school because it’s a big event,” Hoos said. “I don’t think his heart is always in it if it’s a mini-tour event. And if he gets on a course that demands good ball-striking, that puts him ahead of the game.”
As for Kaye and Jobe, they’ll try to regain their full PGA Tour cards after losing that status in 2009. Though Kaye played in six Tour events in 2010 — by virtue of his past-champions status — both he and Jobe competed primarily on the Nationwide circuit this year. Jobe finished 30th on the Nationwide money list and Kaye 102nd.
The last three rounds of the final stage of Tour qualifying will be televised live on the Golf Channel from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday.
