Don't Go to a Tour Qualifying School Unless You Can Achieve This Minimum Standard

"A score average of 72.00 just won’t cut it on the major golf tours, so getting around your local golf course in even par or slightly better won’t be good enough to go to tour school as you will just spend a lot of money to find out that you are not ready yet." 

Zac Fisher Medalist 2014 Web.Com Tour Q School

24 year old Zac Fisher was lead medalist at the recent Web.Com Tour Qualifying Tournament at PGA West in La Quinta, California. 

Zac started with a 75 to be tied 130th in the 152 man field with 5 rounds to play, and then shot 34 under par for the next 5 rounds with 33 birdies, 2 eagles and just 3 bogies.

I bet you'll agree that that’s some very hot scoring, but it is not at all unusual for the golfers who get through all the stages of qualifying school because that is the one thing that they all have in common; the ability to go low at any time and consistently.



They don’t fear going low they love it! 

And if you want to be a successful tour player then you must love going low too! And often!

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Carlos del Moral Medalist 2014 European Tour Q School

On the PGA Tour in 2013 Lee Westwood had a scoring average (actual) of 71.00 and ranked 84th. 
Think about it, 83 guys had a better score average than Lee's 71.00. On the Web.Com Tour in 2013 Martin Piller also had a scoring average of 71.00 and he ranked 91. 90 guys had a better scoring average than Martin. 

On the European Tour you were ranked 48th if you had a score average of 71.00, and in every case these fine tour golfers had played a lot more than 50 competitive tournament rounds to produce this great score average.


What Do 968 Golfers All Have in Common?
A total of 968 players took part in the European Tour Qualifying School over the 3 stages. 770 golfers competed in Stage 1 and they were joined by 114 for Stage 2, and 84 golfers were given exemptions for the Final Stage.

Like the Web.Com Tour 25 golfers plus ties earned their full European Tour cards for the 2014 season. Spanish tour golfer Carlos del Moral shot 26 under par over 6 rounds to be lead medalist, and if you averaged 71.00 for 6 rounds at European Tour School you would not have got a tour card as that would have ranked you 37th, and 27th place got the last card.

And a score average of 71.00 (- 6) at Web.Com Tour School would have left you tied for 85th. You needed to shoot 16 under or better for the 6 rounds, or average 2.67 under par each round to get your full card.

I think you can see what is going on here, you must have the ability to break 70 often if you are considering going to a tour school anytime soon.

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36 Countries and Counting...
Consider that there are more than 700 golfers registered to go through qualifying school this year to try and gain a card on the Asian Golf Tour. 

All the top tier tour schools have similar enrollment numbers and the minor tour schools are similar.

Like I have mentioned in previous articles, you need to be tour score ready to compete at tour school, so you have to get your score average in tournaments down to the standard where you have a very high chance of playing well enough to gain a card.

So getting onto a major golf tour would seem to be a lot more challenging than staying on a major golf tour if you have a score average of 71.00 or better.


The odds are against you qualifying unless you have truly got the game to go low often.

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A score average of 72.00 just won’t cut it on the major golf tours, so getting around your local golf course in even par or slightly better won’t be good enough to go to tour school as you will just spend a lot of money to find out that you are not ready yet.

Regularly scoring 72 will seem like a great score to your friends and the members at your golf club but it’s simply not good enough to play competitively on a pro tour. 




Here’s what you need to be able to do, and nothing less...

• Break par at least 50 percent of the time on difficult layouts over 7000 yards in tournaments
• Have a high score average of 3 over par or better on difficult layouts over 7000 yards in tournaments 
• Have a low score average of 4 under par or better on difficult layouts over 7000 yards in tournaments

This standard is the minimum standard required for considering becoming a tour golfer and this standard will confirm that you can not only qualify to play on a professional tour but you will also be able to do the 2 things that tour golfers have to be able to do really well;

1.      Make a lot more cuts than you miss

2.      Make a lot more money than you spend

Next week I’ll show you how to build a game for the tour from the ground up, with practice strategies that set you up to break par often, and with this information it will help you to live your dream of playing golf successfully on a professional golf tour one day soon.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business

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