Endycott Cruises to Victory in Final Stage of Q-School

Minnesota

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. -- As far as golf is concerned, the final day of the Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School has more drama than any other day of the year. By far. The thing is that if you do well here, your career is on schedule. If things don't go well, you've just lost a year of your life. Or at least, that's the way it seems.

So there's major drama in this tournament even when there's no suspense about who's going to win the tournament, which was the case on Monday. Harrison Endycott took over first place on Saturday with a third-round 65 (5 under) at Sawgrass Country Club, and he never let go. Heavy rains Saturday night into Sunday morning pushed the final round back a day, thereby giving Endycott and extra night to think about all the water an sand on the Dye Valley Course that he would be playing on Monday. But he showed virtually no signs of nerves as he played his way to a relatively stress-free -- if there is such a thing at Q-School -- 3-under 67 and beat the field by four shots with a 72-hole total of 265 (15 under). 

Having made just one bogey in the first three rounds, the 27-year-old Australian birdied the 555-yard, par-5 first hole Monday, and made his second bogey at the par-4 fourth. But before anyone had time to think he might be letting up, he birdied the par-3 fifth. He made routine pars on the next four holes, but missed the green at the par-4 10th, and his ball ended up in some gnarly rough. For Endycott, it wasn't a problem. He hit a nifty pitch shot to 3 feet and made the putt for par. It was the 18th time in 20 chances during this tournament that he got his ball up and down to save par. He proceeded to hit his tee shot 8 feet from the hole at the 199-yard, par-3 11th and converted the putt for a birdie, and he made a 35-footer for birdie at the par-4 13th. At that point, the tournament was over.

Endycott, who got his rookie season on the PGA Tour off to a fast start, with two top-12 finishes in the fall of 2022, but struggled after that and ended the 2022-23 season at No. 146 on the money list, lipped out a 4-foot birdie putt at the 16th, but birdied the par-4 17th and made a meaningless bogey at the 18th, his third in 72 holes.

In addition to putting him back on the PGA Tour, the victory was worth $50,000 to Endycott. 

Trace Crowe, also 27, finished second, four shots behind at 269. The former University of Auburn star won on the Korn Ferry Tour this year, but inconsistency -- he missed 10 of 19 cuts -- cost him a chance to finish in the top 30 on the money list and move up to the PGA Tour that way. On Monday, however, he was a model of consistency on the front nine, as he made eight pars and a birdie. He bogeyed the 10th, but then birdied the next three holes on his way to a valedictory 67.

Nearly all of the guys who were in contention at the Final Stage were known commodities. They've played on the PGA Tour or the Korn Ferry, or at least some other upper-level mini-tour. But not Blaine Hale, Jr. Basically, he crashed the party. Hale, 25, came to Ponte Vedra with the number 4,117 next to his name in the Official World Golf Rankings. The highlight of his career, before Q-School, was a victory in the Oklahoma Open, which earned him $10,750. But he, like Crowe, was solid from start to finish -- almost. He went 67-66-67 in the first three rounds and would have broken 70 for the fourth consecutive round if it hadn't been for a double bogey on the 421-yard, par-4 18th hole. That gave him a 71 and an aggregate of 271, which was good for third place.

Endycott, Crowe and Hale were pretty much fixtures in those top three spots -- Crowe and Hale in either order -- for most of the round. But beneath them in the standings, things were constatnly changing, and there was enough drama to make a Hollywood director's head spin.

Hayden Springer and Raul Pereda started the day tied for fourth, and they ended it tied for fourth, claiming the last two 2024 PGA Tour Cards. But in both cases, it was an adventure. 

The senimental favorite in the field was Springer. He made a sensational run at the end of the PGA Tour Canada schedule, with a first, a tie for sixth and another first in the last three tournaments, as he came out of nowhere to be No. 1 on the money list and the tour's Player of the Year. But he and his wife lost their 3-year-old daughter to Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome, a month ago.

Springer, 26, couldn't have looked any more solid for the first 11 holes. He played them in 3 under (eight pars and three birdies), and was 10 under for the tournament. At the time, it looked as though the Magic Number would be 8 under, and that Springer could pretty much coast to the finish line and collect his  PGA Tour Card. He hit a good drive on the par-4 12th hole, which is only 362 yards, the third-shortest par-4 on the course. But he missed the green with a wedge and made a bogey. At the 409-yard 13th, he seemed to be back on form as he hit his second shot 15 feet from the cup. He proceeded to roll his first putt 3 feet past the hole -- and then missed the one coming back.  

Suddenly, he didn't have much margin for error. He righted the ship with a birdie at the 202-yard, par-3 14th hole, and he parred the par-4 15th hole and the par-5 16th. But then he put himself in a precarious position once again -- with a tee shot that he pulled into the middle of the pond to the left of the 17th fairway. After taking the one-stroke penalty and his drop, he still had 230 yards to the green. From there, he hit a good shot, considering the circumstances, but it  and just missed the green to the left and ended up in a bunker. It looked like a double bogey waiting to happen, but Springer hit a first-rate bunker shot, and made a 3-foot putt to save his bogey.

By this time, it looked as though Springer could tie for fifth -- and get his Tour Card -- by finishing at 7 under. That was where Satoshi Kodaira had ended up, after burning the edge of the cup with birdie putts at both 17 and 18. By saving the bogey at 17, Springer had slipped only to 8 under; so he still had one stroke to spare. He didn't need it. He hit a drive down the middle of the18th  fairway, and his short iron second shot to 15 feet. He two-putted from there for a 69, and a 272. 

Pereda's road to 272 and the tie for fourth was no less fraught with episodes of tension and potential disaster. He was sailing along through the first five holes, with birdies at the third and fifth -- and then launched his tee shot out of bounds at the sixth. That led to a double bogey, and he followed it with a bogey on Dye Valley's shortest par-4, the 326-yard seventh. In two holes, he had surrendered three shots, dropped from 9 under to 6 under and become part of a mob that had gathered at the junction of minus 5 and minus 6. There were eight players all jammed together at those two numbers.

He separated himself from that group thanks to two chip-ins for birdies, the first at the 10th hole and the second at the 14th. He hit a wedge shot to 2 feet at the 16th to give himself some insurance, which meant that his bogey at the 18th wasn't going to knock him out of the top 5. As it turned out, the 27-year-old Pereda, who has 11 top-10 finishes to his credit on the PGA Latino-American Tour, could have surrendered one more stroke. If he had, that would have let Kodaira in. They would have tied for fifth at 273.

Instead, Kodaira and everyone else who ended up not in the top 5, but in the next 40 spots plus ties -- 48 in all -- will have status on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024. Those finishing sixth through 37th (the top 25 and ties after the first 5) will be exempt on the KFT for the first 12 tournaments, or until the third re-shuffle. Those finishing 38th through 53rd (the next 15 and ties) will be exempt on the KFT for the first eight tournaments, or until the second re-shuffle. 

After that, the next 20 finishers and ties -- 54th through 81st -- will have conditional status on the Korn Ferry and exempt status for the Latin American part of the new PGA Tour Americas, which will combine what used to the PGA LatinoAmerica and PGA Canada tours. And everyone else will have conditional status on the Korn Ferry and exempt status for the Latin America portion of the PGA Tour Americas.

Two former Minnesota State Amateur champions, Frankie Capan and Van Holmgren, both of whom are 24, both wound up in that 54th-through-81st category, except that Capan played on the Korn Ferry Tour this year and ended up No. 51 on the points list. That makes him fully exempt for the Korn Ferry again in '24.

Capan started Monday's round on the 10th tee at Dye Valley, and was tied for 68th. He made four birdies on the back nine, including three in a row at the 16th, 17th and 18th. But he also made a bogey and a double, his fourth double of the tournament, and he made two more bogeys on the front nine. The result was a 71, which put him at 282 and in a tie for 64th.

As for Holmgren, he parred all nine holes on the back side, then went birdie-bogey-bogey on the first, second and third holes. He got back to even for the round wtih a birdie at the sixth, and he finished at even par for the day -- for the third time in four rounds. The 70 gave him a 72-hole aggregate of 283, and he tied for 72nd.

The former state high school champion from Wayzata -- he also has a State Open title to his credit -- had no status on any of the PGA's feeder tours coming into Q-School. In 2022, he played on the PGA Tour Canada (at 6-foot-8-inch Holmgraen was the tallest player ever to compete on that tour), but he made only CAD8,585 in seven events and lost his exempt status. So even though he's undoubtedly disappointed about not getting onto either the PGA Tour or the Korn Ferry, he will probably be happy to have that exempt status on the PGA Tour Americas next year.    

     

PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Q-School 

Final Stage

At Dye Valley Course (par 70, 6,850 yards)

& at Sawgrass Country Club (par 70, 7,054)

Ponte Vedra, Fla. 

Final results (the top 5 finishers will get PGA Tour status for 2024)

1. Harrison Endycott          $50,000             65-68-65-67--265 (-15)

2. Trace Crowe                   $36,000            69-65-68-67--269

3. Blaine Hale, Jr.               $28,000            67-66-67-71--271

T4. Raul Pereda                 $23,000            70-67-66-69--272

T4. Hayden Springer          $23,000            66-69-68-69--272

6. Satoshi Kodaira              $20,000            72-65-69-67--273          

T7. Doc Redman                 $16,000            66-71-71-66--274

T7. Patrick Cover                 $16,000            67-70-69-68--274

T7. Danny Walker                $16,000             67-69-68-70--274

T10. Spencer Levin              $10,500            72-64-66-73--275

T10. Fred Biondi                   $10,500            70-69-68-68--275

T10. Roberto Diaz                 $10,500            68-69-71-67--275

T10. Kramer Hickok               $10,500           68-69-72-66--275

T64. Frankie Capan III                                  69-72-70-71--282

T72. Van Holmgren                                       70-70-73-70--283

T102. Thomas Longbella                                76-74-66-71--287

T124. Andre Metzger                                     75-72-70-73--290