"I think all of that to make those events the Fall Series and the Asian events FedExCup tournaments, they have to alter the Q‑school."

Players were plenty chatty at Torrey Pines about the PGA Tour's controversial Q-School concept and the ones I spoke to all came away with a similar conclusion: they have more questions now than before, and their sense is that the tour isn't even entirely sure what the point of the initiative is. On the record, a couple of stars were asked about it when they visited the press center.

Phil Mickelson had some interesting things to say about the controversial tour school concept and player meeting.

Q.  How up to speed are you on the Q‑school Nationwide thing and what would your thoughts be on that?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I don't know if I really have an opinion either way.  I don't really see that as being the issue.  I didn't know anything.  I went to the meeting last night just to hear and listen to what's going on.

But I see something different.  I don't see that being the issue.  What I see being the issue is trying to start the new season in October.  I think the only way to do that is to have Q‑school not be part of the TOUR.  You can't have Q‑school in that one wee if you end the TOUR Championship and start the following year in that one week.

So it looks like to me they're wanting to have a non‑calendar year, which means you've got to change the Q‑school.  You want to make the Asian tournaments FedExCup events, and I believe they're going to add another couple in the short term to try to have four or five in Asia.

I think all of that to make those events the Fall Series and the Asian events FedExCup tournaments, they have to alter the Q‑school, so that's what I see.

Q.  Do you like the idea of starting the season in the fall?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I don't have an opinion.  I'm just telling you what I see.  I think you always have to have change to have growth.  So I'm sure there are some good things to it.  I just don't know.  I just listen to what I heard last night, and I see them talking about the Q‑school thing.  My mind keeps going that it looks to me like they're trying to set it up to have an Asian swing, to have the Fall Series be bigger events.
The only way to do that is that Q‑school‑‑ you couldn't have Q‑school after the season's already started for a couple of months.

And Geoff Ogilvy offered a different take.

Q.  Your thoughts on the Q‑school and Nationwide proposal from last night?

GEOFF OGILVY:  I don't know.  I quite like the way it is now.  But I quite liked the way the TOUR was before the FedExCup was, and I actually like the TOUR better now with the FedExCup.  I thought it was ridiculous having the FedExCup, but now it happened and I'm like this is pretty good.  Every year it's gotten better, and I really like it.

So the TOUR hasn't made that many missteps in the last 20 or 30 years.  They've put in a lot of work and time and thought into this.  It's probably going to end up the right thing to do.  It's not really going to affect most guys who‑‑ the bunch of guys who stay on TOUR every year and play.  It's not going to affect them too much.

It's going to be interesting to see how people get on to how they choose to get on the TOUR and is everyone going to have to do that stepping stone through the Nationwide Tour?  Or is there realistically a way to get to those playoff events without doing all of that?  And how the Europeans choose to‑‑ if less of them choose to come and play here because it might be more difficult for them too, I don't know.

But as I said, the TOUR has a history of making pretty sensible decisions about the big structure changes.  So I'll probably just go with them and trust them on it.