Dreams, nightmares will be realized in Fall Series
By John Maginnes, PGATOUR.com Contributor
While the top 30 players were dreaming very real dreams of unfathomable riches at East Lake last week, a much larger group of their colleagues were searching and dreaming of something else entirely.
Some of those later dreams were of reaching new heights in careers, but far more of them were nightmares. Like most nightmares they were accompanied by instant, wide-awake panic and cold sweats.
These nightmares are not about gremlins under the bed or intruders in the closet. They are not of endless falling or being attacked by a vicious clown at the circus. They are far more real than that.
These dreams are about lip outs, chunks, bogeys and, worst of all, q-school. The rest of the best will be playing for the first time in more than a month this week at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in a bid to save their jobs.
Put the points away. The rest of the season is all about cold hard cash and finishing in the top 125 on the money list. Harrison Frazar is the man on the bubble, 125th on the money list, and hasn't played since the Barclays.
Two weeks ago there were 30 exempt PGA TOUR players teeing it up in the Albertsons Boise Open on the Nationwide Tour just to keep the rust off their games. While some players tried to take advantage of that opportunity, others who are outside the top 125 have simply been idle since the Wyndham Championship. Competitively idle doesn't always mean mentally relaxed, especially this time of year.
Whatever the theory a player employed, there are a bunch of players who have enjoyed the game at the most elite level who will be struggling to keep their jobs over the last five events. Currently outside the top 125 are Stuart Appleby, Vaughn Taylor, Chris DiMarco, Corey Pavin and Rocco Mediate to name but a few.
These players find themselves in the unfamiliar position of battling to the finish at a time of year usually reserved for reflection. Playing the game professionally is funny like that. One year you have the world at your feet, and the next you are writing the most painful check in golf. Its not the $4,000 or $5,000 that bothers these guys, they are hardly destitute, it is the idea that they may have to go to q-school at all.
For a veteran, and in the case of the men that I just named, winners of important events writing the check to q-school is the first tangible indication that the year has been a failure. But that comes at a time when there is still hope. Q-school applications were due weeks ago.
Following Turning Stone, there are four more events in which these guys can turn their year around. A win at any of these events will turn a bad year into a triumphant one. A solid finish to the year would mean that they would live to fight another day, or in this case another year.
For these veterans the situation is hardly as dire as it is for some others who have only two legs and 14 clubs to stand on and nothing like money list exemptions and past champion status to lean on. Players like Brendon de Jonge and Chris Stroud have their feet to the fire, and for them the time is now. The situation is simply get it done or lose your job.
There is a small parachute for those players who finish in the 126-150 category. They will be exempt to the finals of q-school and have limited status on the PGA TOUR. Finish outside the top 150 and the situation gets a lot stickier. For those guys it is a straight shot from the PGA TOUR and the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney to the second stage of q-school the next week.
There will be at least a dozen or so players who finish on Friday or Sunday at Disney and have to check their position on the computer to see if they are going home or to one of the six second-stage sites scattered throughout the country.
As a player at this point you have to try to find the positives. There are still five tournaments left, five more chances to find your game and secure your job. The other element is that these guys have all had plenty of time to fix what was ailing their golf games.
Prior to the FedExCup era, a player would play every week in an effort to find the magic, often contributing to their own demise through fatigue and mismanagement. The current schedule forces those who miss the playoffs to sit back and take the inevitable stock of their situations. For some, this forced hiatus will reap the necessary rewards. They will have been able to use the time to quiet the demons that gather momentum in bogeys and push a player toward faulty decision-making.
But when your job is on the line, your career is in jeopardy and your dreams of golf immortality are tested, it is hard to find peace of mind. It is the inevitable nature of things that there will be tremendous highs and devastating lows over the next five tournaments.
The pressure of the situation is inevitable and ever present. When asked, they will downplay the situation, say that they aren't thinking about the big picture, just trying to play solid golf and let the rest take care of itself. Don't drink that Kool-Aid. Because when you are in this situation with your job on the line it eats at you, it bothers you and in this game you have no one to blame but yourself.
As the season grows older and the opportunities become few it keeps you up at night. When sleep comes it can be fitful. If you are one of those veterans having the odd off-year and somehow you manage to turn things around in the Fall Series, there isn't so much joy as there is relief.
Relief comes in many forms. In this case, relief that you have another year in the sun.
Relief that you have -- or still have -- what it takes to play the game at the highest level.
Relief from knowing that you are financially viable for another long chunk of time.
And finally, relief from the nightmares as they make way to dreams of glory the next time the calendar turns.
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