Was it just a few years ago that Hank Haney wrote an article in one of the major golf magazines suggesting that playing college golf was hurting young American golfers? And that was before Ryo Ishikawa, Rory McIlroy and Danny Lee emerged on the international scene, all without college experience. Fowler (Oklahoma State, turned pro after sophomore season) and Lovemark (Southern Cal, 2007 NCAA champ, turned pro after junior season) put the lie to that contention. As do one of Fowler's playing partners on Sunday, Ryan Moore (2004 NCAA champ, winner on the PGA Tour a month ago), and the winner of the Frys.com Open, Troy Matteson (2002 NCAA champ).
Just goes to show what has been true all along: There's more than one way to reach the PGA Tour. Which is demonstrated again this week in the different paths Fowler and Lovemark are taking.
Each earned $440,000 for sharing second place at the Frys.com Open. Fowler finished seventh a week earlier, and his combined earnings in the two starts are $553,700. That bumps him into the Top 150 on the PGA Tour money list. As long as he stays inside the Top 150, he is exempt into Q-School finals - so Fowler will skip the first-stage qualifier in Texas this week that had entered. Instead, he'll play the Viking Classic. Another high finish (or one at the season-ending Disney, assuming he gets into Disney) should get him enough money to earn his card without having to play Q-School at all.
Lovemark's total earnings are at $453,872, not enough to exempt him into Q-School finals. Lovemark's choice was to go ahead and play the first-stage qualifier, or go to the Viking Classic and try to earn enough money to skip Q-School. The problem for Lovemark is that if he skipped this week's qualifier and then didn't earn enough money, he would be ineligible to play in Q-School finals. So Lovemark chose the less risky route of playing the first-stage qualifier.
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