NORTH Vancouver's Eugene Wong advanced through the first stage of PGA Tour Q-School last week, finishing tied for 14th at his qualifier at Dayton Valley Golf Club in Nevada.
Wong shot rounds of 70-70-70-72 to end the competition at six under par. The top 19 players plus ties advanced to the second qualifying stage - Wong was one shot under the cut.
"It's definitely a big relief to be one stage through," Wong wrote in a scoregolf.com guest blog. "I went in trying to win the tournament so I'd always be ahead of the cut line and that's where I was the entire time. Heading into the final round I was probably a little more nervous than I was starting the tournament because I wanted to finish well and get through easily. You could say I was antsy, but I calmed down after a few holes."
Wong birdied the 16th hole to get to six-under and then had to wait for the rest of the players to finish to make sure he was safe.
"Even though I thought that would be good enough because it had become so windy on the back nine I didn't know for sure," he wrote. "It was definitely nerve-wracking heading to the scoring tent wondering if my score was good enough because you feel like you've done all you can and your fate is in the hands of the players behind you. The scorers told me six under should be fine, but I waited around to be sure and then about 10 minutes later when the cutoff went to five under the scorers said there's a spot for you in second stage and here's all the information you need. I said, 'Sweet!'"
Wong will now be assigned to one of six second stage venues for mid-November tournaments that will include a lot more fulltime pro players. If he makes it through the second stage he'll move on to the final stage scheduled for Nov. 28-Dec. 3 at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.
Wong, a Handsworth grad, turned pro this summer after a stellar four-year career at the University of Oregon. He won three pro tournaments in a row, including the Canadian Tour Championship, before heading to Q-School.
To read more of Wong's blog posts detailing his run through Q-School go to scoregolf.com/blog/guest-blogger.
