Most Mondays on the PGA Tour, some 80-100 players gather at a course and compete in a Monday qualifier. The 18-hole tournament is a simple shootout. The four lowest scores get into that week's PGA Tour event with the four players given a chance to change their lives and professional careers with four spectacular days.
However, the odds of a PGA Tour Monday qualifier making the cut are not good. The odds of finishing in the top 10 are even worse. The odds of a Monday qualifier winning on the PGA Tour are close to astronomical. Dating back to 1980, there have only been five Monday qualifiers to get into a tournament through the 18-hole four-spot on Monday and then win the tournament on Sunday.
The most recent Monday qualifier to win on the PGA Tour is Corey Conners. The Canadian Monday qualified in a six-for-one playoff for the 2019 Valero Texas Open, then went on to win by two shots at TPC San Antonio to earn a berth into the Masters.
The next most-recent Monday qualifier -- at least as we know it today -- to win on the PGA Tour is Arjun Atwal. The India native won the 2010 Wyndham Championship after Monday qualifying. He took the title on Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club with a four-round total of 20-under 260 to beat David Toms by a stroke.
Before Atwal, the mark belonged to is Fred Wadsworth, who won the 1986 Southern Open at Callaway Gardens Resort in Georgia. On Oct. 5, 1986, Wadsworth shot a final-round 67 to win by two shots over Jim Thorpe, John Cook, George Archer and Tim Simpson on 11-under total. Wadsworth got through Monday qualifying on his home course near Ft. Benning with a score of 68. He won in just his second PGA Tour start, with the 1984 Southern Open being his first.
Before Wadsworth, however, Kenny Knox had won as a Monday qualifier earlier that season. In February, Knox entered an 18-hole qualifier with $100 and got into The Honda Classic at TPC Eagle Trace. He opened with a 66 to take the lead, kept it with 71 on Friday and then ballooned to 80 on Saturday in 40- to 45-mph winds. However, in the final round, he shot 2-under 70 to win on 1-under 287.
Back in 1983, the PGA Tour changed Monday qualifying to limit the number of spots in the field to four from the Monday event. Prior to then, a higher percentage of the field came from that qualifying event as the "all-exempt" Tour hadn't yet become what it is now.
Prior to the rule change in 1983, the last Monday qualifier to win on the PGA Tour was Jeff Mitchell when he took the 1980 Phoenix Open.
