By Sunday morning, Matt Holuta was less than 48 hours from teeing it up in the most important tournament of his year, the first stage of PGA Tour Q-school.

There was just one problem. His golf clubs were 1,500 miles away.

Holuta had arrived in Nebraska, but his clubs hadn't. Breeze Airways had failed to get them on his flight from Orlando, and according to the AirTag in his bag, they were still sitting at the airport back home.

Now, with the clock ticking, Holuta faced a decision. Trust the airline to get his clubs to Nebraska in time for his opening round, or fly 1,500 miles back to Orlando himself, hoping the AirTag was right and his clubs were actually there.

Holuta has had success at times on the mini-tours, but success at Q-school has been harder to come by. The former Rutgers standout knows that Q-school week often brings the unexpected. And for the 31-year-old, the unexpected started early.

Last Saturday, after boarding his Breeze Airways flight from Orlando, Holuta began to panic when the AirTag he had placed in his travel bag showed his clubs were still at the airline's ticket counter as the plane pushed away from the gate.

Resigned to the fact that his clubs weren't on the plane, and with no Wi-Fi available on the discount airline, there was nothing Holuta could do during the flight.

When the plane landed in Nebraska, he turned on his phone, hoping that somehow the AirTag had been wrong.

It hadn't.

His clubs were still sitting just feet from where he had left them at the Breeze ticket counter in Orlando.

Clubs not making flights is a somewhat common occurrence for professional golfers. But at Q-school, getting them back as quickly as possible is vital. Still, there wasn't any real panic. Yet.

A call to the Breeze Airways ticket counter brought a few seconds of relief when an associate promised to put his clubs on the very next flight to Omaha.

That relief quickly turned to anxiety when Holuta learned the next Breeze flight to Omaha wasn't until Wednesday, right in the middle of his second round.

“They were so calm about it and offered to pay for a rental set,” Holuta told me while recalling the conversation.

Now, the panic was starting to set in.

Multiple phone calls eventually led to Holuta getting the personal cell phone number of an Orlando airport employee. A few hours later, the employee called back, promising the clubs would be on a United Airlines flight Sunday morning.

Still concerned that wouldn't happen, Holuta's wife, Emily, headed to the Orlando airport armed with a crisp $100 bill, hoping to bribe a Breeze Airways employee into retrieving the clubs.

The plan was simple. If Emily could get the clubs, she would ship them overnight, no matter the cost, and they would still arrive in Nebraska before Tuesday's opening round.

But despite standing just feet from the bag, which the AirTag showed was sitting right behind the ticket counter wall, Emily couldn't get anyone to hand over the clubs. Instead, employees assured her the clubs would be on the United flight the next morning.

Emily left the airport empty-handed.

Sunday morning, Matt woke up and did what was quickly becoming part of his routine. He checked his phone. Unfortunately, the AirTag showed his clubs hadn't moved. A call to the airport employee confirmed the bad news. United Airlines wouldn't take them.

Now, he was desperate. And Matt made the only decision he thought he had left. He booked a one-way ticket back to Florida.

The $500 ticket would get him back to Florida, but not Orlando. Instead, he'd be landing in Sanford, about 45 minutes away from where his clubs were still sitting.

It wasn't ideal, but it was the only option he had. So he took it.

With little time to spare, Holuta jumped in his rental car, drove an hour to Omaha and narrowly made the 11:30 a.m. flight.

After landing in Sanford, he quickly secured an Uber and headed to Orlando International Airport. The Uber dropped him off, and Holuta ran to the Breeze Airways counter, his AirTag still indicating the clubs were just behind the wall.

After he explained the situation, the counter representative made the roughly 15-yard walk to a door next to the luggage belt, opened it and found Holuta's bag.

It hadn't moved since he'd dropped it off Saturday morning.

Now he had to find a way back to Omaha.

Holuta hadn't booked a return flight, unsure of how long it would take to retrieve his clubs. Scanning his options, he found a United flight connecting through Chicago that would get him back to Omaha after midnight.

The ticket was $1,100.

With no other choice, Holuta booked it.

He was concerned about the short layover in Chicago, but for the first time all weekend, his AirTag notifications brought good news. His clubs had made it onto the flight to Omaha with him.

After 16 hours of travel and nearly 3,000 miles in the air, Holuta finally made it back to his hotel, falling asleep in the early morning hours Monday.

The next day, he played a practice round. “I was tired and played like shit,” Holuta said, laughing.

But the relief of having his clubs back far outweighed any frustration from the poor practice round.

On Tuesday, after a good night's sleep, Holuta fired a 3-under 68 on the difficult layout. He followed it up with three more solid rounds, finishing 11-under and advancing to Second Stage by a comfortable six shots.

As we were finishing up our call, I asked Holuta where he hoped to play Second Stage.

Hammock Beach in Florida, he told me.

“I'll be driving, so I know I'll have my clubs.”