And Yet Another Compromise To The Q-School Demise: Larger, Slower & Fewer Internationals Playing Fields In 2013!

Doug Ferguson on the latest mop-up move by the PGA Tour to put lipstick on the oinker that is the elimination of Q-School as a path to the PGA Tour in favor of the Nationwide Web.com Tour. I'd go back and list the various compromises, oddities, quirks and other assorted nonsense that has come with this change, but there are only so many hours in the day.

In a nutshell, this latest move: because the "fiscal year" calendar means the Fall Finish events in 2013 will actually be the start of the 2013-14 season, playing opportunities in 2013 will be reduced by four weeks. Got that?

The PGA Tour’s policy board is asking certain tournaments to expand their fields for only 2013. Tournaments in March and April typically have 144 players because of earlier sunsets. Some of them are being asked to expand those fields to 156 players.

Pazder conceded that it puts the tournaments in a “precarious position” to make the cut on Friday. The pace is so slow at some spots that they can’t make the cut by Friday even without expanding the fields.

This added element would also seem to mean fewer spots for foreign players who are not PGA Tour members to get into fields:

Tournaments typically have eight sponsor exemptions — two designated for tour members not eligible (such as John Daly), two for Q-school and Web.com graduates and four unrestricted. The formula for next year will be only two unrestricted exemptions, and four exemptions set aside for Q-school and Web.com grads. The tour is also doing away with the commissioner’s exemption for foreign players, which is not used very much, anyway.