Dolch: Q-school's toughest stage? It's not the last one

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Oline Browne, a three-time winner on the PGA TOUR, is one of several veterans playing their way through q-school.

The final stage of the PGA TOUR's q-school has been branded as the most pressure-packed event in sports, a six-day torture chamber you wouldn't want to wish on your worst enemy.

Not true.

The third and final stage isn't the most arduous tournament in golf because that dubious distinction belongs to the second stage of q-school.

Think about it: Virtually every player who makes it to next month's final stage at PGA West earns some type of status for 2009, ranging from fully exempt on the TOUR to conditional status on the Nationwide Tour.

But for those who miss advancing at second stage, even if it's by a shot, they end up with nothing. Nada. Zip. Thanks for coming, folks. Hope to see you at next fall's q-school.

That's what happened to Erik Compton. Just six months shy from receiving his third heart, the Miami Beach resident missed by advancing at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, Fla., by one measly shot.

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Compton now has about as much TOUR status for next year as you and I. Of course, he's certain to receive his share of sponsor exemptions because of his incredible story, but he would rather have made one more putt so he could have earned his way onto the TOUR.

As hard as it is to get through q-school this year, it will be even more difficult next season. That's because every year more talented, younger players are turning professional while veterans are playing longer due to better conditioning and bigger purses on the Champions Tour.

So many players, so few tee times.

Look at some of the former TOUR winners who were forced to tee it up at one of four second-stage q-school qualifiers around the U.S.: Billy Andrade, Len Mattiace (who lost a Masters playoff in 2003 to Mike Weir), Grant Waite, J.L. Lewis, Mike Heinen, Trevor Dodds, J.P. Hayes, Tom Byrum and Dicky Pride.

None of them advanced.

That's because second-stages are now filled with former TOUR winners. Among those who did advance last week were a former major champion (Mark Brooks), a seven-time TOUR winner (John Huston), a four-time winner (Carlos Franco), three-time champs (Olin Browne and Robert Gamez), as well as former winners Michael Bradley, Garrett Willis, Glen Day, Neal Lancaster, Guy Boros, Chris Riley, Robert Damron and Chris Smith.

We could have included a two-time major champion in the group, but John Daly apparently doesn't do q-schools.

The former champions who didn't make it through the second stage will still have some access to the TOUR next year, but they won't be able to play when and where they want. Finishing in the top 125 will require a monumental effort so they aren't looking at another trip to q-school next fall.

For Browne, who finished a career-worst 204th on the money list, it was his first trek to second stage. And he's 49.

"It was a gut check," Browne said by phone Monday from California, where he's playing in this week's Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational. "It wasn't a very good feeling to be there."

Browne finished tied for seventh at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga., to easily advance. But if Browne didn't have good vibes being there, one can only imagine how the former TOUR winners who didn't advance must have felt.

"There are a list of guys who are on the outside looking in that's really sad," Browne said, not bothering to name names. "They have connections, and they will get invitations, but I can assure you nobody wants to be writing those letters (asking for exemptions)."

With the competition becoming so intense on the TOUR, there's only one thing a player can do, as Jackie Burke famously said: "Play better."

Or should we say, "Play a lot better."

"The game has changed so much," Browne said. "It took nine-under to advance at my site. I remember shooting nine-under at this course and finishing in the top 10 when they used to play a TOUR event there."

The misery continues this week, when the final two second-stage events are held in California and Texas. Among the notables trying to keep their careers pumping are former TOUR winners Notah Begay III, Mark Hensby, Bob Burns, Phil Tataurangi, Joel Edwards and David Gossett, as well as 1998 British Open runner-up Brian Watts.

If they're fortunate enough to make it through, they may even look at the final stage with an air of relief.

Imagine that.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His opinion does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the PGA TOUR.