"With the Middle East swing, those at the top are going to, if anything, stretch their lead."

Ah yes, 2012 is here and with such a short off season it's a bit tough to get excited about Friday's kickoff, but at least Pond Scummers Huggan and Elling haven't lost their cynical touch while bouncing around several topics.

This exchange about the world ranking points up for grabs early in the season could play an interesting part in determining where some big names (Els, Goosen) play, how the final Masters field shapes up and how Americans playing the PGA Tour may fall behind.

Elling: Damned unlikely. For one thing, the fields over the first six to eight weeks of the season are frequently stronger on the European Tour than in the States. The ebb and flow of the world rankings at this time of year often see a slew of Euros rise to the top because of the points on offer early in the season. Then as the bigger U.S. events start kicking off, especially in March, the points start to swing back to this side of the Pond and the Yanks start to move up a few pegs in the pecking order. OK, there's your technical explanation, anyway. As for the emotional portion, read onward.

Huggan: I'd like to see an American make the top three or four of the rankings if only to stop the whining noise that has been emanating from your side of the Pond ever since it became clear that the very best players are no longer nephews of Uncle Sam. My goodness, can you guys not give it a rest? Does it really matter that much where the top players hail from?

Elling: Yeah, it matters. Ever since Francis Ouimet, we Yanks have believed we were the best of the best. It's been a rough three or four years. Men's tennis had ceased to exist as a sport here, in large part because there are zero American players at the top of the totem pole.

Huggan: I tell you one thing about the rankings: Any American wanting to be in the top five by the Masters is going to have to pull his finger out. With the Middle East swing, those at the top are going to, if anything, stretch their lead.

Wrap: Second To Last Q-School We'll Care About

The unbylined AP story on Q-School winner Brendon Todd, who closed with 68.

Rex Hoggard writes about the Georgia grad's success and the incredible number of top players the program has produced of late.

In order, former Georgia players Brendon Todd (pictured above), Brian Harman, Harris English and Kevin Kisner earned Tour cards, and even Hudson Swafford, the final member of the Bulldog five-some at Q-School who missed his card by two strokes, could appreciate the achievement.

“We had seven guys on that team that could play anywhere week to week,” Swafford said. “Our qualifiers my freshman, sophomore, junior years were as intense as any event.”

And that’s saying something considering this year’s Fall Classic was as intense as any on record.

John Strege looks at the Q-School graduating class of 2012 with ages, career highlights and other notes, including some of the notables who missed out on getting a chance to make three, or if they're really lucky, four West Coast starts before the reshuffle.

Strege also notes that David Duval did not make it, along with Lee Janzen and Shaun Micheel. Duval was low major winner for the week at T70.

The PGATour.com folks also list the group, with face shots, college and their total number of tour starts. Bob Estes' 589 do stand out!

Sean Martin leads with the story of Tommy Biershenk who "was working on a North Carolina farm two years ago, earning $500 a week as he tried to keep his golf dreams alive." But he also notes this year's crop of Korean hopefuls, who sound ready to make some noise.

This is the second consecutive year that two 20-somethings from Korea earned PGA Tour cards. Sang-Moon Bae, No. 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and Noh, who’s ranked 101st, were the two top-ranked players in the field. Bae has won three Japan Tour titles this year. Noh won on the European Tour at age 19 and finished 30th at this year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship.

Their graduation came at the same site, PGA West, where Y.E. Yang earned his PGA Tour card at the 2008 Q-School.

Brian Wacker talks to a fortunate few survivors, including Biershenk, along with others who know both heartbreak and jubilation at making it.

The Australian PGA covers the Aussies who made it, including the amazing Jarrod Lyle.

The PGA Tour's excellent notebook from round 6 features a mix of stats and notes.

The final scoreboard for what is likely to be the second to last Q-School anyone pays attention to before the intended change to a Nationwide-only qualifier in 2013.

Noh Joy: Q-School Finals Are Here

John Maginnes will be at Q-School for Golf Channel and sums up the final stage starting Wednesday at PGA West:

I honestly get a little queasy now just thinking about it and I haven't been to a Q-School in half a dozen years. I will be there this year on course for the Golf Channel and I feel like I will be returning to the scene of the crime that stole a piece of my soul and my youth. In return, I learned more about myself in a week than I have in any single year since.

Sean Martin previews the name players in the field and as always, I feel slightly dirty poring over the names of the souls who will be grinding it out over the next six days. Oh, but go ahead and look, it's not like they are standing in front of Home Depot looking for work. Yet.

Brian Wacker also looks at some of the better known names at Q-school.

Steve DiMeglio takes the William McGirt angle, talking to the heartbreak veteran who for three consecutive years at the second stage  faced final hole putts to make it to the finals. You'll have to read the story to see how it turned out.

The PGA Tour's leaderboard is here, and their full coverage page can be accessed here.

PGA Tour Announces 2011 Schedule For 2012

The 2012 list includes a Monday finish at Kapalua, flipping of the Dallas swing events, a July 4th weekend date for the Greenbrier and a delayed finish to the Fall Finish to work around the new Asia event.

Oh and this organic quote from Commissioner Pizzazz:

"The 2012 schedule again demonstrates the strength of our sport with a very strong collection of tournaments, venues and sponsors that provide outstanding playing opportunities for our members and attractive viewing options for our fans," PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said. "The FedExCup and the PGA TOUR Playoffs continue to generate interest and excitement through September, with the Fall Series focusing on the drama of players fighting for their playing privileges."

I know status quo is comforting for a lot of folks and sponsor retention in this economy is a minor miracle, but shouldn't there be more twists along the lines of the Monday finish for Kapalua? Something to prevent us from going all Harry Belafonte on this schedule?

Update on 2011-10-20 02:17 by Geoff

**Sean Martin explains why the Disney event was moved back, adding a lot of time for players on the cusp of retaining their card even more time to think about what could go wrong.

Kapalua Field May Benefit From New Exception?

Robert Collias on changes to the PGA Tour's kickoff event at Kapalua, currently sponsored by Hyundai, says the tour's Championship Management will be taking over the operation (here come the military festivities!) and that scorned Hawaii lover Mark Rolfing is mulling whether he'll pretend to act like he wasn't run out after one year as tournament director.

There is also hope that an expanded exception for non-members might entice more of the previous year's tournament winners (Rory, Darren?) to appear.

Another change that Rolfing had campaigned for is in the works, Pazder said. Nonmembers of the PGA Tour may get to compete in two more tour events, bringing that number to 12. European Tour members, including U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, often skip Kapalua because of the limit.

"We will be making a proposal to our policy board here in a couple weeks," Pazder said.