No Margin for Error

Sean O’Hair and Kyle Stanley stood together on the second tee at Starr Pass in Tucson, Ariz., talking quietly. Behind them stretched a setting straight out of a John Ford film: a tapestry of saguaros, jagged mountain peaks, and pale blue sky.

They had been waiting on the group ahead for some time. Between them they own six PGA Tour wins and more than $43 million in career earnings. A dozen years ago, this group might have signaled a late weekend tee time on the PGA Tour. Now, a few extra pounds and gray beards marked the passage of time. These former stars were fighting simply to stay in the game at Second Stage of Q-School.

Players who advance from Second Stage earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and a shot at five PGA Tour cards at Final Stage. Even the consolation prize is meaningful: anyone who reaches Final Stage can accumulate points and becomes eligible for more tournaments. Those who fall short at Second Stage are condemned to the mini tours.

It was just under 50 degrees when the group teed off. It would’ve felt cold had there been any breeze, but the air was breathless. O’Hair nearly holed a wedge on the second hole and tapped in for birdie. Stanley’s flat wedge trajectory was ill-suited to Starr Pass’s new greens—the ball skidded forward like a billiards ball on felt.

Kansas native Andrew Beckler, 28, played alongside them. He stuffed his approach at the second hole, then chipped in from a tricky lie over the third green to move to two-under. Another deft chip at the par-5 fifth moved him to three-under for the day and inside the top 14, the magic number.

Beckler’s former coach from Washburn University, Ronnie McHenry, was on the bag. The two remained close after college and qualified for the U.S. Open at The Country Club together three years ago. McHenry’s wife had flown in from Kansas for the final round to support them.

On the fifth, O’Hair looked cooked after blocking his second shot into the desert. He disappeared into the brush, but the crisp crack of a club striking hardpan echoed across the green. His ball landed a couple paces short of the flag and stopped dead—a miraculous up-and-down.

“You know how hard the game is when you see these names back at Q-School,” said a volunteer taking scores.

O’Hair, carrying his own bag with a relaxed swagger, looked like he was settling in. His mid-iron covered the flag on six before bounding onto the back fringe. He burned the edges on seven and eight.

Beckler, meanwhile, was handling the pressure better than the decorated veterans in his group. His approach on nine climbed onto a back tier before rolling back to the middle of the green, leaving an awkward 40-footer over a mound. A three-putt robbed him of momentum.

The back nine at Q-School is where dreams are realized, or where they slip away. For those falling out of contention, you can see it in their gait—heads sag, sighs grow audible, and eyes wander toward the distant mountains, searching for something. Some players don’t begin the grieving process until they’re mathematically out of it; others start bargaining as they walk down the final fairways. Thousands spent, and dreams fading one swing at a time.

Australian Grant Booth mounted a charge. The former Arizona Open champion and PGA Tour Americas member eagled the fifth to reach three-under for the day, one outside the projected cut. Six steady pars brought him to the perilous 12th, a tee shot with no margin for error. He striped his drive—arguably the best of the day—finding the exact center of the fairway. He would’ve done anything to bottle that swing for the next hole.

The 13th is equally intimidating: a half-blind dogleg left with desert canyon on one side and out-of-bounds on the other. One player hit driver, another a driving iron. Booth chose 3-wood. It was his only poor swing of the day and came at the worst moment—a flare right that landed on a cartpath and bounded O.B. The resulting double bogey moved him four off the projected number, and a couple of burned edges sealed his fate.

The last time I saw Ryo Ishikawa was at the Vegas PGA Tour stop 11 years ago. He was surrounded by a throng of Japanese media and was one of Japan’s great athletic hopes. Twenty wins on the Japan Tour have followed, but U.S. success has remained elusive. On Friday, as his ball shot over the 10th green, he was riding the cut line. Only two fans followed him now.

From a slight downslope and with little green to work with, Ishikawa played a perfect lob that rolled six feet past. He made the critical save bringing his fans to life. Their applause grew when he birdied the 11th. He would finish inside the number.

Eddy Lai had the worst warm-up he could remember. The UCLA alum’s swing felt foreign walking to the first tee—but the release of expectation calmed him. From the opening shot, the ball started flying where he was looking.

Lai began on the 10th and birdied his first three holes, then added two more at 17 and 18. Nothing had fallen for him the first three days, but on Friday, he couldn’t miss.

Last year, at Second Stage in Alabama, Lai stood on the final hole on the number. Nerves overtook him—he flared his tee shot into the trees, got a fortunate kick, hit it up near the green and left himself a slippery six-footer for par. The crippling nerves returned, and he missed.

At Starr Pass, he reached the final hole seven-under for the day and again, on the number. His tee shot found the fairway and his approach finished on the back fringe, 30 feet away. The putt was fast and he had two feet of fringe in front of him. He made a cautious stroke and again, left himself the same uncomfortable distance as last year.

This time he wasn’t as nervous. Experience prevailed. He buried the putt and hugged his caddie.

“Where does that put me?” he asked on the walk to scoring. Even par—right on the number. Lai was anxious, but also happy, and most of all, proud.

Soon after, O’Hair doubled the par-3 16th to slide outside the top 14. Beckler made an untimely bogey on the reachable par-5 17th, dropping him out as well. Sickening for them; fortunate for Lai.

“Would this be your first time with Korn Ferry status?” I asked Lai while we waited.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I don’t have it yet,” he said with a laugh. His score was good enough. He'll be headed to Final Stage.

Marquette product Tyler Leach may have played the best nine holes in Second Stage history. He reached the back nine in Round 4 at two-over for the tournament. Then he birdied 10, 11, 12, 13, paused for par at 14, and birdied 15, 16, and 17. He closed with a tidy par for a seven-under 28; from barely inside the top 20 to co-medalist. Playing the best nine of your life when you need it most is vibrating on another frequency.

For every triumph at Q-School, there are heartbreakers. Zander Winston began the day one shot inside the number and faced a five-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole to advance to Final Stage. Make it and he was through; miss and his season was over. He’d started the year with almost no money, won on the Dakotas Tour, and had the best season of his career on the mini tours. He finished T5 at First Stage. His year came down to five feet.

“Hit the hole and plopped out,” he wrote on Instagram. “Golf is truly a game of inches and I don’t think there are words to describe my feelings. This one hurts.”

If you look around as you leave the grounds at Q-School, you’ll see tears.

Only four shots separated the final qualifiers from the medalists—practically unheard of. Starr Pass wouldn’t let anyone run away. It ground everyone down.

The celebration for those who advanced is short-lived. Final Stage begins next week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., where they’ll get to do it all over again.

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