The First Look: PGA TOUR Q-School's Second Stage

Alex Scott knows golf’s mental side can be fickle.

This season, Scott missed six cuts in seven starts as a conditional Korn Ferry Tour member, struggling with the formula to maximize his potential. The Michigan native rebooted during a summer on PGA TOUR Canada, finishing No. 55 on the season-long Fortinet Cup to secure guaranteed starts on 2024 PGA TOUR Americas.

Now he seeks a promotion. Scott earned site medalist honors at First Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, four strokes clear of the field in Lincoln, Nebraska, and now he turns his focus to Q-School’s Second Stage later this month. Medalists and ties at all five Second Stage sites will earn guaranteed starts on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour, with approximately the top 25% of each site advancing to Q-School’s Final Stage in December. The top five and ties at Final Stage (Dec. 14-17, contested across TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club) will earn 2024 PGA TOUR membership. The next 40 and ties will earn guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, with the next 20 and ties earning exempt status for PGA TOUR Americas' Latin America Swing. The remainder of finishers will earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Americas.

There’s plenty on the line at Second Stage, and Scott is up for the challenge.

"I think the only person who's ever told me I can't do it is myself,” Scott said during a practice session at TPC Sawgrass (whose Dye’s Valley Course will co-host Q-School’s Final Stage). “So instead of being like my own worst enemy, I'm trying to be more friendly to myself, trying to understand all the work that I put in. It's going to come around and, you know, finish this season off strong."

PGA TOUR Q-School’s Second Stage will be contested across five sites – three from Nov. 14-17; two from Nov. 28-Dec. 1. The number of finishers (and ties) to advance from each site will be finalized once all competitors tee off at that site.

Second Stage is traditionally known as one of professional golf’s most strenuous weeks. Players who fail to advance from Second Stage (without status based on prior merit) will face the next season without TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour status. This year’s Q-School ramps up the stakes – for the first time since 2012, PGA TOUR cards are available at Final Stage. The cut-and-dry nature of Second Stage is now magnified (if that were even possible).

“Second Stage of Q School is the most pressure a normal pro golfer can feel,” Johnson Wagner said recently on X, formerly known as Twitter. “If you get through you have status, if you don’t, you have to wait an entire year to try again.”

Wagner now spends much of his time in the golf media, but the veteran of 362 PGA TOUR starts (including three victories) speaks from a place of authority.

Second Stage fields bring an eclectic mix of young pros and wily veterans, duking it out to survive golf’s ultimate cut line. Here’s a capsule look at notables set to compete at each of five Second Stage sites.

(Note: After the top 125 on the final FedExCup Fall standings, all of whom secure exempt PGA TOUR status, the next 40 who elect to compete at Q-School will earn direct access to Final Stage. These players will be elevated to Final Stage after the FedExCup Fall standings are finalized at the conclusion of The RSM Classic. Hence, some players currently in Second Stage fields will not need to compete at Second Stage.)

Nov. 14-17

Site: Dothan, Alabama

Full field

Course(s): Highland Oaks Golf Course (Highlands/Marshwood)

Notables: Michael Arnaud, 42, winner of the Korn Ferry Tour's 2018 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX, remains in pursuit of his first PGA TOUR card ... Blayne Barber is continuing to chase a TOUR return. The Auburn University alum played 12 events on the Korn Ferry Tour this season as he attempted to break back into pro golf after nearly opening a gym … Marcus Byrd is teeing it up after four wins on the Advocates Professional Golf Association this year. Byrd teed it up four times on the PGA TOUR in 2022-23 ... Zack Fischer is a two-time medalist at Q-School's Final Stage (2013, 2021), but neither iteration offered PGA TOUR cards. He's eyeing TOUR membership for the first time ... Garett Reband, who played collegiately at the University of Oklahoma, finished No. 5 on the inaugural PGA TOUR University Ranking in 2021 ... Daniel Wetterich is in action in Alabama after two top-25 results on PGA TOUR Canada this year. Wetterich’s cousin is Brett Wetterich, who represented the United States at the 2006 Ryder Cup and won that year’s AT&T Byron Nelson.

SITE: Port St. Lucie, Florida

Full field

Course(s): The Tesoro Club (Palmer)

Notables: Matt Hill continues his chase for PGA TOUR status for the first time. Hill won eight times while at North Carolina State University in 2009 (including the NCAA Division I championship) and was ranked the world No. 1 amateur in the world. … Bo Hoag is looking to rekindle some Q-School magic from last year. Hoag earned medalist honors at Final Stage of Q-School in 2022, securing full 2023 Korn Ferry Tour status. His best result was a tie for 11th at the season-opening Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, and he finished No. 125 on the season-long standings. … Willie Mack III is also looking to make some more Q-School magic. The APGA veteran earned Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time via 2022 Q-School, finishing No. 151 on this year’s season-long standings. He also teed it up twice on the PGA TOUR in 2023. … Celebrated collegiate star John Pak (who swept the college golf awards in 2021, winning the Haskins Award, Ben Hogan Award and Jack Nicklaus Award) will look to take the next step in his career. Pak won on PGA TOUR Canada this season and finished eighth in the season-long Fortinet Cup standings. … Ryan Ruffels will see if he can replicate some of his sister’s fine results from this year’s Epson Tour. Ruffels, who finished No. 141 on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour standings to lose his card, returns to Second Stage while sister Gabriela notched three wins on the 2023 Epson Tour (the LPGA’s premier pathway circuit) and was No. 1 in the Epson Tour’s Race to the Card season-long money list. … Kristoffer Ventura, who finished No. 87 on this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Points List, hopes to channel the blazing form that saw him win twice on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour – in just 11 starts – to quickly earn a PGA TOUR card.

SITE: Savannah, Georgia (Georgia I)

Full field

Course(s): The Landings Golf & Athletic Club – Deer Creek

Notables: Ryan Blaum, 40, is ready to keep up the chase for a TOUR return. Blaum played 17 events on the Korn Ferry Tour this season and notched two top-25 finishes. … Alistair Docherty will be playing with a heavy heart after the passing of his close friend Kevin McAlpine in late October. Docherty will be the first to admit that he had a solid, if unspectacular, season on the Korn Ferry Tour with one top-10 finish. … Joey Garber has returned to the Q-School grind once again. He had two top-10 results on the Korn Ferry Tour this season and finished No. 72 on the Points List after just missing out on a PGA TOUR card in 2022. Needing a three-way T12 in the 2022 season finale, Garber ended up in a five-way T12. … While Mac Meissner earned a PGA TOUR card for next year, his brother Mitchell Meissner is eager to join him. He’s teeing it up in Savannah. … Nicholas Thompson, the brother and sometimes-caddie to LPGA star Lexi Thompson, is in the field.

Nov. 28-Dec. 1

SITE: Valencia, California

Full field

Course(s): Valencia Country Club

Notables: Alex Chiarella, who is from Hawaii and put in a solid fundraising effort this season after the wildfires in Maui, is back to Second Stage after two top-25 finishes on the Korn Ferry Tour this season. … After finishing in the heartbreaking No. 26 spot on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Points List – one position shy of a TOUR card at the time – Brandon Harkins returned to the circuit and notched a pair of top-10 finishes in 2023 but is back at Second Stage. After finishing No. 70 on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, he’s fully exempt on the circuit for 2024 if he doesn’t earn a TOUR card. … Peter Kuest is signed up to compete at Valencia CC after an impressive run on the PGA TOUR this summer. He parlayed Monday qualifying into the Rocket Mortgage Classic into a tie for fourth, which set him up nicely for the rest of the season. (If his TOUR non-member points fall between Nos. 126-150 on the FedExCup Fall standings after The RSM Classic, he’ll advance directly to Final Stage without needing to compete at Second Stage.) … TOUR veterans Sean O’Hair, D.J. Trahan, Nick Watney and Bo Van Pelt are in action in California. … Former college star Braden Thornberry, who won the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship (also ascending to world No. 1 amateur the next year, in addition to winning the Haskins Award and Mark H. McCormack Medal) will return to Second Stage. … Kyle Westmoreland, an Air Force Academy graduate who finished No. 25 on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points List to earn his first PGA TOUR card, is signed up to compete at Second Stage in California.

SITE: Valdosta, Georgia (Georgia II)

Full field

Course(s): Kinderlou Forest Golf Club

Notables: Brothers George Bryan and Wesley Bryan are set to tee it up together in Georgia at Second Stage, although both are in the field of a PGA TOUR event (this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship) for the first time. … Plenty of long-time TOUR talent will head to Georgia to try to nab a promotion including Derek Ernst, Matt Every, David Hearn, Hank Lebioda, Ted Potter Jr. and Tag Ridings. … Alabama's First Stage site medalist James Nicholas will tee it up in Georgia after competing at Final Stage of DP World Tour Q-School in Spain. … Luke Schniederjans – brother of Ollie – will look to earn a PGA TOUR card for the first time. … Curtis Thompson, whose brother Nicholas is at the other Georgia site, is teeing it up.