“Well, that sucks.”
Those were the words of James Nicholas as he climbed into his car, his PGA Tour Q-School run having come to a frustrating end at second stage in Valdosta, Georgia.
The 28-year-old Nicholas had charged into the top 15 and ties—the cutoff to advance to next week’s final stage—before weather suspended Friday’s final round shortly after noon ET with Nicholas through 13 holes at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club. Just over two hours later, officials scrapped the entire round, with scores reverting to 54 holes per Q-School bylaws.
Nicholas ended up missing by a single shot.
He wasn’t alone in his disappointment. Several players who had climbed inside the cut line when the horn sounded were instead headed home, their clutch performances erased. The Valdosta site was one of two second-stage qualifiers to complete only three rounds. Officials didn’t even attempt the final round in Dothan, Alabama, after storms delayed Thursday’s third round, which was completed Friday. The three other sites—Palm Coast, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Tucson, Arizona—each completed all 72 holes.
The PGA Tour Q-School bylaws are clear on this situation: A round of an “official” First or Second Qualifying Stage that is not completed by the end of the last scheduled competitive day will be canceled and the results through the last completed round shall stand, unless at least half the field has completed the round, in which case, play should be temporarily suspended and completed when conditions permit.
In Valdosta, no groups had finished when play was suspended. The first groups were on their penultimate holes and the final group had only reached the eighth hole. When officials determined play couldn’t resume until 2:45 p.m. ET at the earliest, there was no chance to complete the round before the 5:31 p.m. sunset.
“This is a really hard situation for the rules officials to be in,” Nicholas said in a video on his Instagram page. “They don’t make the rules. It’s in the bylaws that this is how things go. I personally think we need to change them.”
Nicholas was 4 under with just one par through his 13 holes on Friday, though the online leaderboard when play was stopped only reflected his score through nine holes since there wasn’t hole-by-hole live scoring. He was still shown a shot inside the cut line, at 6 under, along with five other players, including Gunnar Broin, who went out in 4 under and was still inside the number with three holes to play.
The situation was likely even more painful for Broin and his playing partner Jonathan Brightwell. Broin finished 133rd in PGA Tour Americas points this season and was looking to secure at least conditional Korn Ferry Tour status by advancing to final stage. Brightwell was reportedly 7 under on his round, 5 under through five holes of his back nine, and safe by a few shots before being called off the course. He hasn’t had status on a PGA Tour-sanctioned tour since 2022 on the KFT.
Nicholas, at least, has a safety net. He already kept his full KFT card by making the KFT Championship this fall. He was only competing in second stage for a shot at one of five PGA Tour cards available at final stage, which begins Thursday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
“I have a full Korn Ferry Tour card for next year, so I’m not as upset,” Nicholas said, “but if I didn’t—and there are a lot of players that were playing great today that moved themselves inside the number and now don’t have a chance. You work all year, your whole career, to get through Q-School, and then to have it just be a call that a meteorologist says we can’t get out there and play, or a rules official says we can’t get out there and play.”
“It sucks, it’s not easy, it’s not fun, but those are the rules.”
North Carolina alum Ryan Burnett medaled in Valdosta at 14 under, two shots clear of Tennessee product Hunter Wolcott. Former PGA Tour pros Doc Redman, Roger Sloan and Joey Garber were among those to also advance.
Other notables advancing from the other four sites include Ryo Ishikawa, Fred Biondi, Norman Xiong, Ted Potter Jr., Jim Herman, Brandon Wu, Turk Pettit, Nick Gabrelcik, Luke Guthrie and Spencer Levin.
Among those missing the cut across the five sites were Blades Brown, Jimmy Walker, Nick Watney, Scott Piercy, Andrew Landry, Austin Cook, Sung Kang, Anthony Paolucci, Cole Hammer and Dylan Meyer. Meyer, a former standout at Illinois, was 9 under through 36 holes in Dothan, Alabama, before shooting 10-over 82 in his third and final round. He dropped from third to T-44 and missed the cut by seven shots at 1 over.
