The dream starts here as a total of 54 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 alumni have advanced to play on the PGA Tour since 2013 with 16 PGA Tour victories between them. More than 250 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 alumni have gone on to play on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2013 with more than 50 victories between them.
The venerable Victoria pro tournament was established in 1981 and is now known as the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by the sa国际传媒. It’s the longest-tenured tournament on the PGA Tour sa国际传媒.
But first you have to get there. Aspirants will have six chances to make the 2023 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 through qualifying tournaments, sometimes referred to as Q Schools, concluding with the traditional lone Canadian stop at Crown Isle in Courtenay. It will be the eighth time Crown Isle has hosted a qualifying tournament.
The qualifying process announced this week begins Feb. 21-24 at The Club at Weston Hills in Florida through to the Crown Isle qualifier June 6-9. In between will be qualifying tournaments at Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, from Feb. 28 to March 3, Highlands/Marshwood in Dothan, Alabama, from March 7-10, Wigam Club in Litchfield Park, Arizona, from April 4-7 and Soboba Springs in San Jacinto, California, from April 11-14.
“The first steps are at our qualifying tournaments, where players can get on the path that will take them to their ultimate destination, which is the PGA Tour,” said PGA Tour sa国际传媒 executive-director Scott Pritchard, in a statement.
“We anticipate there will be strong demand by players to come to our Tour.”
Recent PGA Tour players who have come out of the PGA Tour sa国际传媒 qualifiers include Carson Young, Cameron Young and Alex Smalley in 2020 and Will Zalatoris, Hayden Buckley and Philip Knowles in 2019.
The top five players on the PGA Tour sa国际传媒 2023 Fortinet Cup season points standings will earn 2024 Korn Ferry Tour membership, with the season-points champion earning fully exempt status. The top five players will also earn berths into the final stage of the 2024 PGA Tour qualifying tournament as another bonus in their chase of PGA Tour cards. Those sixth through 25th in the season points standings will be exempt into the second stage of the 2024 PGA Tour qualifying school. The top 60 players will retain their PGA Tour sa国际传媒 playing berths for 2024.
Wil Bateman of Edmonton won the 2022 Fortinet Cup as PGA Tour sa国际传媒 season-points champion and will perform in 2023 as a fully exempt player on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The 2023 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 schedule will be announced early next year with the Royal Beach Victoria Open expected to retain its traditional role as the season-starting tournament in June at Uplands. (Victoria organizers will again conduct a special qualifier on the Monday before, at Gorge Vale, out of which the top eight will receive berths into the Royal Beach Victoria Open beginning that Thursday at Uplands).
Eventual PGA Tour players to come out of the Victoria pro tournament over four decades include Steve Stricker, Mike Weir, Scott McCarron, Craig Parry, Brandt Jobe, Ken Duke, Stuart Appleby, Todd Hamilton, Kirk Triplett, Chris DiMarco, Tim Clark and Tim Herron with Weir, Hamilton and Michael Campbell having gone on to win majors.
The more recent generation out of the Victoria tournament has included the likes of Tony Finau and Corey Conners. The 2019 Victoria Open produced winner Paul Barjon and runner-up Doc Redman, who both went on to the PGA Tour.
The defending 2022 Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by the sa国际传媒 champion is Scott Stevens of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a 2019 graduate of the NCAA Div. 1 University of South Carolina Fighting Gamecocks, who pocketed $36,000 of the $200,000 purse.
“The money is a nice bonus but the ultimate goal is the Korn Ferry Tour and then the PGA Tour,” Stevens said, after winning at Uplands last year.
The chase begins anew next year, starting with the qualifying process, which will conclude at Crown Isle.
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