Three Tours, One Gamble

Most pros spend the year fighting for tour status. Most would be thrilled just to hold membership on one major world tour. Jeremy Paul—twin brother of DP World Tour winner Yannik Paul—has status on three, and it has made the start of his season anything but simple.

“It’s very difficult to make an exact plan, but I was hoping to get about 15 events on each tour—15 on the PGA Tour and 15 on the Korn Ferry Tour,” Jeremy says. “That was a vague plan. You kind of have to make adjustments and see where you’re playing better.”

After Monday qualifying for the Farmers Insurance Open, Jeremy spoke with Ryan French from La Jolla, Calif. Jeremy has conditional status on the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, and DP World Tour this season, and despite wanting to compete the previous week, he didn’t play a tournament. On Any Given Monday, he detailed how he ended up on the West Coast trying to Monday qualify at Torrey Pines.

Jeremy began the season in the Bahamas for the Korn Ferry Tour opener and planned to play the second event at the Abaco Club. But when he learned he was in the field for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic—an event with a larger purse and more world ranking points, played the same week—he left the Bahamas and headed for the Middle East. At the time, he was “six or seven” spots out of the field at the PGA Tour’s American Express in Palm Springs and didn’t believe he had any real chance of getting in.

While in Miami en route to Dubai, Jeremy checked the PGA Tour alternate list and saw he’d moved up to third. He then heard that Harry Higgs might receive a sponsor’s exemption, which would move Jeremy to second. Suddenly, the math changed. Jeremy scrapped his plans and flew west to Palm Springs.

“From my position, it’s obviously important to get PGA Tour starts early,” Jeremy says. “So I canceled my plan to go to Dubai and went to AmEx to see if I could get in. The gamble was that I might not play anything—I might not play Abaco, I might not play AmEx, and I might not play Dubai. That’s the risk you take.”

Jeremy spent the week on-site hoping for a withdrawal, but none came. The alternate list never moved. He briefly considered a last-minute dash to Dubai in hopes of making his tee time, but ultimately decided against it.

“In the locker room they always hang up the fields,” Jeremy says. “I was like, ‘How many times have I been to a tournament where there isn’t a name crossed off?’ Never.”

Instead, Jeremy entered the Monday qualifier for the Farmers Insurance Open, hoping to salvage the trip.

“At the end of the day it worked out, because if I had gone to Dubai I wouldn’t have been able to play the Monday for the Farmers.”

At Mission Viejo Country Club, Jeremy got off to a slow start, turning in one-under on his front nine. He believed six-under would likely be the number to qualify, so he freed up his swing on the back nine. An eagle on his 10th hole provided the spark he needed, and he closed in four-under to finish five-under for the day—earning his way into the field by a shot and avoiding a playoff.

“It feels great,” Jeremy says. “When you play well in a Monday, your game’s in a good spot. It’s not easy to Monday.”

Jeremy opened the Farmers Insurance Open with a birdie in the first round and shot even par for the day. There will be more gambles this season—and with a little improvement in Round 2, this one could pay off.

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Listen to Jeremy's full episode of Any Given Monday here.

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