School Is Out, Rob Oppenheim Is In!
Rob Oppenheim has moved up the ladder of professional golf in hopes of one day playing on the PGA Tour. On Monday, December 7, 2010 Rob took a huge step toward that goal by finishing tied for 64th place (-3) in the Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School. After the fourth round in which he shot a five under par 67 to move to seven under for the tournament he was in great position to finish inside the Top 25 but the pressure of rounds five and six might have gotten the best of him. Rob finished with rounds of 72-73-69-67-75-73 (-3 overall) which was good enough to finish inside the Next 50 after the Top 25 (basically inside the top 75) earning Rob unconditional status Nationwide Tour for the 2010 season.
The other three New Englanders in the field did not fair so well this week, however Trevor Murphy battled back in round six firing a six under par 66 which almost put him inside the "Next 50." The Vermont native will have to work his way through the reshuffles as he has conditional staus for 2010. Patrick Sheehan played unlike himself this week finishing a long way down from the Top 25 which was his goal. Patrick will have unconditional status on the Nationwide Tour in 2010 as he finished 36th on the 2009 money list. He will also play in a fair number of PGA Tour events as he did in 2009. Justin Peters finished strong closing with rounds of 70-71-71-70 (-6) but could not recover from a disappointing start of 79-77. Justin will also have conditional status on the Nationwide Tour in 2010.
On behalf of New England Golf Monthly and all the New Englanders who rooted our boys on this week I would like to congratulate Rob, Trevor, Patrick and Justin on a job well done. Q-School is by far the hardest test in professional golf to graduate from and to make it this far is a huge accomplishment in itself. Good luck in 2010.
Some Interesting Facts
According to PGATour.com the Final Stage 1300 applications were taken for the TOUR Qualifying Tournament in 2010, which included five pre-qualifying sites, 13 first-stage sites and six second-stage sites. Listed is a breakdown of the numbers for 2010 according to the PGA Tour:
436 players participated at five pre-qualifying sites (224 successful)
908 players participated at 13 first-stage sites (305 successful)
469 players participated at six second-stage sites (132 successful)
170 players playing in Final Stage (including 34 exempt players and four Nationwide Tour Top 25)
To view the Final Leaderboard: click here
