Why is PGA Tour Q-School called a school? How did it get its name?
PGA Tour

Why is PGA Tour Q-School called a school? How did it get its name?



Golf fans just take for granted that there is such a thing as Q-Schools in golf.

Some people don't even know that Q-School means "qualifying school," and in modern times, it represents the name for a grinder of a tournament by which players qualify for status on a professional golf tour.

However, it's always been a bit of a mystery to me why the word "school" is in there. The modern term is really "qualifying tournament," but the colloquial term for it has been used so long and blindly by most people. We just accept the name without wondering how it got that name.

Fortunately, there's a good explanation for why Q-School has that name, and it goes back to the beginning of the modern PGA Tour.

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According to Sean Martin of the PGA Tour, the first PGA Tour Q-School was conducted in 1965 and originally called the PGA Tour Approval Tournament. Players weren't qualifying to play on the PGA Tour so much as they were demonstrating they could play that caliber of golf. The inaugural Q-School was a 144-hole -- or eight-round -- tournament that featured 48 players competing for 17 PGA Tour cards.

However, the eight-round tournament was not the only determining factor in which 17 players got PGA Tour status. Players also had to participate in classroom sessions, learning about how a professional golfer would be expected to behave inside and outside the ropes, as well as other facets of being a professional golfer. A candidate player was expected to demonstrate some of what they learned in these seminars, and that demonstration played a factor in players earning their cards.

Ultimately, John Schlee was the first Q-School medalist for the event held at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Since then, the name Q-School has applied to such tournament across major tours around the world -- even long after the end of the educational component.

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he has covered dozens of major championships and professional golf tournaments. He likes writing about golf and making it more accessible by answering the complex questions fans have about the pro game or who want to understand how to play golf better.

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