The Cost of Q School

At the end of each summer, professional golfers take stock of their golf games, tournament results and finances, and make the most important decisions of the year: which qualifying school to enter. The entry fees are steep, the travel costs high, and the competition merciless. While tournament expenses are significant, the toll on players’ mental health can be worse. To accept a tour card at the end of Q school is to experience a state of cathartic rapture where the anxiety of playing for your professional life is replaced with hopeful possibilities. To come up short, at any stage, means disappointment, sleepless nights, and uncertainty. 

The DPWT and PGA Tour Q schools begin at the end of August and conclude in November and December respectively. Both have three main stages to navigate, and for PGA Tour qualifying newcomers, an additional pre-qualifying stage. At the end of PGA Tour Q school, the top five finishers and ties earn PGA Tour status, and the next 40 and ties win guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour. At DPWT Q school, the leading 20 players and ties earn playing privileges for the season. 

Many players choose to embark on a global qualifying odyssey, playing both qualifiers to maximize their chances of gaining status somewhere. Jhared Hack is one such player. Jhared joined the Any Given Monday podcast this week to talk about his Q school plans and break down expected costs. 

The 35-year-old has held status on both the Korn Ferry Tour and the DP World Tour’s equivalent, the Hotel Planner Tour. Jhared has been to dozens of Q schools and knows how to travel on a shoestring budget. He plans to take Ubers, borrow cars, stay with friends, eat simply, and carry his own bag where possible. Despite this, Jhared still estimates his costs between the two schools to run around $25,000 if he makes it to all three stages of each school. Next week, Jhared will play his first stage of DPWT qualifying at The Northumberland Golf Club in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. 

Here’s how he broke his expected costs down:

DP entry: $3600

Flight $1400

Hotel: $560

Food and Ubers: $500

Second Stage Expenses with caddie: $3250

Final Stage Expenses with caddie: $3250

Total: $12,560

Jhared’s first stage of PGA Tour Q school is at Galloping Hill Golf Course in New Jersey in mid-October. The tree-lined, traditional layout suited Jhared’s game, and because it’s never played host to Q school before, other players won’t have the advantage of having competed there in past years.

“My thought is always run as far away from that red line that’s chasing you,” Jhared says of the Q school cut. Each stage allows a certain number of players to advance and competitors keep a close eye on that all-important number on the leaderboard. “You have four days. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to win. You have to stay patient,” Jhared says. 

Here are his expected PGA Tour Q school expenses:

Entry fee: $5500

Flight: $600

Food: $600

Free Accomodation

Jhared will take his own car to Second Stage in Tucson and thinks he may have a free place to stay. He expects his second stage to be the least expensive week of Q school at under $1,000. Second Stage ends on a Friday and official practice rounds for Final Stage at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., begin the following Monday. Players who successfully navigate Second Stage in Tucson, may have to purchase a last minute, expensive flight to Jacksonville. 

Accommodations around Ponte Vedra in early December are also pricey, and at Final Stage, players spare no expense. If staying closer to the course and in a nicer bed gives you peace of mind, you’re willing to spend more for it. Between hotel, flight, caddie, rental car, food, and yardage books, Jhared estimated the final stage to be, by far, his most expensive week of Q school. 

By the time the final putts are holed and tour cards are handed out, some players will have emptied their bank accounts or maxed out credit cards. The reality is that the vast majority of competitors will spend dearly to chase a dream and miss out. Thousands will enter and only about 65 players across both tours will emerge with a guaranteed place to play in 2026. Anticipation and hope builds throughout the year until the start of Q school, and most seasons will end in a broken heart. For the believers who remain ahead of the cut lines after months of hard work, exhausting travel and straining competition, the work has just begun. 

“If I just stay level and focus on my process, I am really excited about it,” Jhared says. “I think this is my year to get status back.”

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