After almost six rounds at Q-school, it all came down to one hole Monday for Shane Bertsch of Parker.
Bertsch had put himself in position to be fully exempt on the 2012 PGA Tour by playing his previous 35 holes in 8 under par at the final stage of Q-school in La Quinta, Calif. Though he didn’t know it at the time, all he needed was a par on the final hole of the tournament to regain full status on Tour.
Alas, the former Colorado Open champion hit his second shot into the water from the rough on the par-4 18th hole at the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course, took a double bogey and missed qualifying by two strokes.
As Dave Stockton Jr., noted at one point Monday on the Golf Channel telecast, “This tournament is brutal.”
So after three straight years of having a player with major Colorado connections earn a PGA Tour spot through Q-school, local golfers were shut out this time around. With the top 25 players and ties gaining their Tour cards, Bertsch and Andrew Svoboda of Golden tied for 38th, while 13-time Tour winner David Duval of Cherry Hills Village placed 72nd and former University of Denver golfer James Love was 111th.
Svoboda will be fully exempt on the Nationwide Tour for the third straight year in 2012, while Love will have conditional status on that Tour for the first time.
Meanwhile, despite Duval failing to get into the top 25 — he was two strokes out of a qualifying spot for a while Monday before going 6 over par in five holes — he’ll get plenty of PGA Tour starts in 2012 by virtue of what he accomplished during his 20s.
Bertsch’s situation is far more tenuous as he’s never won on the PGA Tour, though he’s earned almost $2.3 million in 155 Tour events. The 41-year-old Colorado native played this past season on a medical extension which gave him 21 tournaments to earn $729,869 in order to remain fully exempt. Given that he made $488,584 in 20 tournaments, he will go into 2012 needing to make $241,285 in his season opener to keep his full status on Tour. But regardless, Bertsch will have conditional Tour status (thanks to finishing 143rd on the 2011 money list) and a Nationwide Tour exemption to fall back on. He’s won two Nationwide events in his career.
Earning a Tour card at Q-school is no small matter as Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe can attest. Last year, Jobe regained his Tour exemption by finishing sixth in the final stage, then went on to earn more than $1.6 million this year on the Tour.
In addition to the 27 players who earned their PGA Tour cards on Monday — top-25 finishers Roberto Castro and Mark Anderson had already gotten cards — the next-nearest number to 50 gain full Nationwide Tour status going into 2012. The rest of the Q-school finalists receive conditional cards on the Nationwide circuit.
Here is how the players with strong Colorado connections fared in the Tour qualifying finals: Shane Bertsch of Parker 67-71-74-76-67-71–426 (38th place); Andrew Svoboda of Golden 70-73-72-74-66-71–426 (38th place); David Duval of Cherry Hills Village 72-72-73-73-68-72–430 (72nd place); former DU golfer James Love 68-74-74-77-72-72–436 (111th place).
