Song wins LPGA Q-School; teen Korda 2nd

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jessica Korda huddled with her parents and swing coach Saturday night, going over the pros and cons of turning professional. A rules official had told her father, Petr, earlier that day that they’d need to make a decision immediately after play had finished on Sunday.

“I knew that I wanted to turn pro and go down that road,” Jessica Korda said. “I never actually thought I would do it this early.”

When asked for an example of a con to turning pro early, Korda immediately said schoolwork. The high school senior took two weeks off for LPGA Q-School and will pay the price when she returns, working through Christmas break. She’s taking three classes at the moment, but can only name two: English and Marine Science.

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LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament (Final Rd.)

Aree Song held off Jessica Korda and the wind and rain in the final 18 holes to take medalist honors at LPGA Qualifying School.

“That tells you how much work I’m doing,” she said with a laugh.

Korda, 17, spoke with a rules official moments after walking out of the scoring tent on Dec. 12 and declared that she’s now a professional. She closed with a 5-over 77 on a miserably cold and windy day at LPGA International, finishing two strokes behind Aree Song, the first prodigy to enter Q-School as a 17-year-old in 2003.

Korda turns 18 on Feb. 27. Should she receive a sponsor exemption into Thailand or Singapore, she can play as a 17-year-old. However, the money she earns will not be official.

For years, Korda has been decked out in Adidas attire from head to toe. She’s played with TaylorMade clubs since Ivan Lendl took Korda and his youngest daughter, Daniela, to get fitted when she was 13. Still, when asked about contracts and agents, Petr Korda said the only thing he’s certain of is that Jessica will be putting her clubs in the corner until Christmas.

“I think she is ready for the next step,” said Petr, who learned in tennis that it’s best not to think too far ahead. He let his daughter face each challenge as it came. Only now will they map out the year ahead.

Song has a unique perspective on what’s next for Korda, having been there herself several years ago. Professional golf has been a constant fight for Song, who has battled injuries and burnout much of the time. Looking back, she wishes she had gone to college for a couple years. Right now she’s taking online classes with the University of Phoenix, though at 24 she’s still considered a freshman.

Last year Song hit a tree midswing at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic and injured her left shoulder. The nerve traction injury caused her to lose her feel on the greens and some distance off the tee. In the last month and a half, her game has started to return.

“When I step on the course I feel like I can make birdies and that’s key for me,” Song said. “Playing too defensively the last two years.”

Last month Song, who is half Korean, half Thai, earned her card at KLPGA Q-School. The first stage had 324 players, and Song said conditions were cold and slow, with rounds taking seven hours.

“I think I took like seven bananas,” she said.

Song and her twin sister, Naree, have been open about talking about the lack of balance they had younger players. They’re mental outlook has changed dramatically over the years.

Photo Gallery

Aree Song: Through the years

Take a look back at the career of former child prodigy Aree Song.

For two years the young Song twins strapped pink sand bags to their ankles and walked down the 11 flights of stairs at the family hotel in Thailand. They wore the sand bags under their pants to school from 7 a.m.-2 p.m., taking them off for golf practice. Their father thought it would help develop their size,

Every night from ages 8-14, the twins were asked to bid their father goodnight by telling him one day they would each be the No. 1 player in the world.

Korda’s emergence in the game wasn’t nearly as intense. Growing up, she took six weeks off in the summer to rejuvenate in Europe. Korda played several sports – tennis, gymnastics, and figure skating – until settling on golf exclusively.

“Koreans probably hit more balls by the time they’re 18 than Americans and Europeans hit by the time they’re 25,” Song said. “I just witnessed it two weeks ago.

“It’s just different philosophies, different lifestyles. At the end of the day, everyone wants to play on this tour.”

Some just get there quicker than others.

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Seasoned Song returns to form at Q-School

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After smoothing a 3-wood into the middle of the 10th fairway at LPGA International’s Legends Course, Aree Song, the LPGA’s original prodigy, was left with 145 yards to the pin. She drew her 7-iron, entered her pre-shot routine and launched the ball straight at the flag.

“I saw it disappear, but I didn’t see it go in,” Song said of the eagle-two. “There was a small group of volunteers that started yelling, so I figured it must have gone in the hole.”

The drama of the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Classic, it was not. But that’s life at LPGA Q-School.

“I actually hired (the volunteers) in to cheer this week,” Song joked.

Song, who made her Kraft debut in 2000 at the age of 13, was the first player to be granted a special age exemption by the LPGA , making her first pro start in 2004 at 17 years old. Morgan Pressell would follow suit in 2006.

Song’s rookie season saw her miss just three cuts and record four top 10s, including a second-place showing at the Kraft, where she closed in dramatic fashion, making the only finishing-hole eagle of the tournament to temporarily grab the lead. Song finished 28th on the money list in her rookie campaign, but that would be her high-water mark, as illness and injury have kept her out of the top 100 for the last three years.

But things are looking up.

“It’s been a process to just keep playing and figure out what I need to work on,” said Song, who now sits T-2 after three rounds of LPGA Q-School finals, one shot behind Libby Smith at 6-under. “Coming out after the injury, I didn’t know where my game was. But I’ve gotten all of my power back.”

The injury Song mentions was sustained at the 2009 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. Playing from the trees, Song tried to make a downswing at her ball, but her club got snagged by a tree on her backswing and didn’t budge, resulting in nerve damage to the left shoulder.? Additionally, Song was diagnosed in 2007 with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and adrenal insufficiency, conditions that left her extremely fatigued and barely able to complete some rounds.

“There was no surgery –?it’s been just a lot of shots and drugs since then,” she said, laughing again.

Song, now 24, may be the same age as many of the players at this week’s Q-School finals, but she grew up in a different golfing world than every one of them. She became the youngest U.S. Girls Junior champion in history in 1999 at age 12. The next year, she tied for 10th at her first Kraft Nabisco, playing in the final group with Karrie Webb and Dottie Pepper on Sunday. But like many young talents, the stars never aligned and she wasn’t able to live up to the huge expectations. A new wave of junior phenoms quickly took her place.

As Song battles her way back onto the LPGA tour, she is doing so with the maturity of a seasoned veteran –?a product of spending her formative years in the spotlight.

“I was a lot shorter on patience back then for sure,” Song said, reflecting on the times when she would fire at every pin on the course. “If I made a bogey when I was younger, I would need to birdie the next hole or else there would be a problem,” she said.

Others close to Song also have seen the transformation in her attitude on the course.

“When you’re younger, golf is your whole focus,” said Aree’s twin sister Naree, also an accomplished women’s player and now an assistant coach at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. “But as you start to get older and you start traveling on your own, you start to learn how to handle things. If you can come out on the other side, I think it really helps you mature.”

One player that can probably relate is 15-year-old prodigy Alexis Thompson, who recently petitioned the LPGA for 12 starts in 2011, an increase from the six that are currently allowed for minors.

“I thought six (exemptions) was quite a few, to be honest,” Song said. “I mean, playing in pro tournaments is nice, obviously, but being with your friends and going to school and hanging out, those are the times you don’t really get back. ?

“It’s a trade-off for sure.”

While she may not be atop the world rankings – or even in the top 300 –?dreams she undoubtedly had as a 13-year-old playing on major Sundays, Song is taking pride in her showing this week in Daytona and inching toward another opportunity to make a mark on women’s golf.

“I’m pretty close, I think,” she said. “I’m hitting the ball a lot better than I was two years ago. I’m working out a lot more and taking the right steps. I just need to be patient and it will come back together.”

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Trio hoping to stick at LPGA Q-School

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Pernilla Lindberg was $8,300 away from capping what most would consider a successful rookie season. Lindberg, a former Oklahoma State standout, finished No. 107 on the money list during her LPGA rookie campaign, but was seven spots away from receiving enough status to skip qualifying this year.

Lindberg has played the Q-School game before, finishing T-16 at LPGA International last year to secure priority I status for this year. Lindberg spent the year traveling with fellow rookie Azahara Munoz, awarded the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award at last week’s LPGA Tour Championship, where Lindberg also ended her season when she missed the 54-hole cut.

With 72 holes left this week, there is plenty of golf to play. And for Lindberg, full status on the Ladies European Tour, and some status on the LPGA, are good mental fall-backs. Ideally, Lindberg wouldn’t have ended up at Q-School again so soon – if at all. The course is familiar, however, and a few days of light practice gave the Swede a chance to settle in for another long week of golf.

“I had to reload on Sunday after I missed the cut on Saturday and just tell myself that I have to come in here excited about this week, see it as another opportunity and not as a disappointment that I have to be here,” Lindberg said.

Lindberg certainly looked recharged during Wednesday’s first round as she shot a 4-under 68 to move into second place right out of the gate. Without sand trouble at Nos. 16 and 17, Lindberg would be in even better shape. Decked out in a lavender argyle sweater and hot-pink wind pants to battle the weather, Lindberg was all fist-bumps and smiles Wednesday. This cleary is a player who relishes the competition, wherever she may find it.

Among most players, Q-School gets a bad rap. It’s long and grueling, and with only 20 tour cards available at the end of the week, often unrewarding. Of the 20 players who advanced out of Q-School last year with full status, Lindberg, Nicole Jeray and Katie Kempter are right back where it all began this week. It’s Jeray’s 10th trip to Q-School finals.

Kempter, a 2009 graduate of Denver, is just as new to this whole professional thing as Lindberg, however. Kempter finished runner-up here last year, which is just about as good a confidence boost as anything. Despite the memories, Kempter has wiped the slate clean this week.

“I actually talked about this with my coach on Sunday,” Kempter said. “He goes, ‘It’s a different year, it’s different weather, it’s a different field. There’s nothing the same about last year and this year.’ ”

But then again, there was just a bit of deja vu as Kempter stepped up to the 17th tee Wednesday afternoon. She remembered the hole location from last year, and this year was able to make birdie there. She added another birdie at 18 to finish at even-par 72 and land in a tie for 31st after the opening round.

With a year of LPGA experience under her belt, Kempter has learned how to deal with what can be an exhausting way to make a living. She spent the first half of the season without a travel companion, teaming up with Libby Smith midway through the summer – a move she calls her “saving grace.”

Kempter also found out first-hand why the LPGA’s thin schedule can amount to such a bummer. She earned 12 starts in full-field events, which is roughly one-third of the tournament experience a rookie might have expected to receive seven or eight years ago.

“At least I’m playing,” Kempter said.

To keep her rhythm during what could at times become a monthlong dormant stretch, Kempter found state opens to play in, and even spent six weeks in Asia with Smith, where the two played three events.

“My mindset is different; I’m not just a fresh, wide-eyed rookie,” Kempter said of her return to Q-School. “I have no number in my head. I’m just going to go play golf, and if it’s good enough, it’s good enough.”

This year, at least, Kempter knows she’s got the game to do it.

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Notes: Major mojo for Mozo at LPGA Q-School

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – LPGA commissioner Mike Whan wandered into the media room Wednesday afternoon and gazed up at the giant leaderboard projected on the wall. He casually mentioned to a volunteer that Belen Mozo would be a nice addition to the tour.?

The man can spot talent.

It’s hard to imagine a more marketable person in this Q-School field than Mozo (OK, other than Jessica Korda). The 22-year-old Spaniard is as personable as they come, attractive, bubbly and talented. After turning pro this summer, Mozo became the first female golfer to sign with CAA, the agency that represents Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus. She stands tied for fourth at LPGA Q-School after an opening 4-under 68 Dec. 8 on the more difficult Legends Course. She trails Reilley Rankin, Libby Smith and Aree Song by one stroke.

Photo Gallery

LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament (Rd. 1)

The LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament got underway in Daytona Beach at LPGA International on Wednesday with Reilley Rankin, Libby Smith and Aree Song tied for the lead with 67s.

“I’ve come a long way since the surgery, and I’ve been sitting too long,” said Mozo, who had shoulder surgery in June 2009. The USC senior sat out until February, and finished the spring season with the Trojans. Last night, she sent in a 15-page paper for her International Relations class. She has one more lengthy paper to write before her academic career comes to a close next week.

Mozo, a first-team All-American at USC who won the British Amateur and British Girls’, came to Daytona straight from the first round of Ladies European Tour qualifying.?

“It was hell,” said Mozo, speaking of the cold, rainy conditions in Spain. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is nothing for me.’ ”

Mozo flies back to Spain on Sunday night for the final stage. Her parents will make the six-hour drive from their hometown to watch her compete.?

Last week Mozo watched her best friend’s Rookie of the Year acceptance speech on Friday and felt warm tears running down her cheeks. Azahara Munoz, a childhood friend and fellow Spaniard who traded titles with Munoz throughout their amateur careers, won the title handily. It was an inner battle for Mozo to watch Munoz not only play on the next level but find incredible success while Mozo recovered from injury. She was awed.

“First year and she’s top 30 in the world,” Mozo said, referring to the LPGA money list. “Are you kidding me?”

Now it’s Mozo’s turn to try and steal the rookie thunder, should she get her card. She was born for the spotlight.

Rankin’s lower ranking: Reilley Rankin’s motto this week: Under-do it. The Georgia grad, who is prone to thinking outside the box, hasn’t been to Q-School since 2002. When she drove into LPGA International and spotted the “Welcome to Q-School” sign, she read it to herself in a mocking tone. For those fresh out of college, this place represents childhood dreams and endless opportunity. For those who, like Rankin, are coming down from the Big Leagues, there is no greeting pleasant enough upon return. No one wants to come back.

Rankin got a little advice this week from someone whom she called the “Q-School Queen,” Meredith Duncan. The former SEC rival and LSU grad can’t even remember how many times she has made the trip to Daytona, “maybe seven times and made it four times?”

Regardless, her winning percentage is high enough for Rankin to listen.

No working out.

No practice.

“Well, she said you can do a little practice,” Rankin said. “Thirty minutes before your tee time and when you’re done maybe a dozen balls, and a maybe a little Around the World (putting drill).”

Rankin said Duncan’s philosophy makes sense because in the Q-School atmosphere, everyone is grinding.?

Sometimes it’s best to “under-do it.”

Cold reality: Becky Brewerton refuses to panic. She shot 4-over 76 on the Legends Course but has been here before. The two-time European Solheim Cup player came to Q-School in 2004 and had a “hideous” experience. Overwhelmed with shattered nerves, Brewerton left Florida thinking she needed to work harder on every aspect of the game.

“It was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve had in terms of how badly I played,” Brewerton said. “But in the long run, it was probably one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

For years Helen Alfredsson has encouraged Brewerton to come to the LPGA. Last year she regrettably skipped Q-School, thinking she needed to stay in Europe to try and win the money title. Brewerton, desperate to make the Solheim Cup team, finally has decided her game is good enough to make it even playing a regular schedule against the world’s best.?

This week she’s fighting a few swing changes that need to be implemented, but said that’s no excuse.?

“You don’t have to be at the top of your game to get the ball around the golf course,” she said.

One area for which Brewerton, a native of Wales, wasn’t prepared: wardrobe. She actually had to buy a beanie and fleece because she didn’t pack enough clothes for Florida’s unexpected cold snap.

“These are British conditions,” she said, smiling.

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N’wide players deserve reward at Q-School

Congrats to Michael Putnam and Justin Hicks, Nationwide Tour Top 25 grads that sucked it up and endured the Q-School grind.

They had nothing to lose and something to gain: They improved their status going into the 2011 season by finishing among the 29 players who earned their Tour card. As a result, they can expect to get into a few more early-season events on the West Coast based on their priority number for tournament eligibility before the first re-shuffle.

Because they had already earned fully-exempt status, Putnam and Hicks didn’t count toward the 25 card-earners. As a result, Billy Horschel (he already had status through a major medical extension), Scott Gordon and Will Strickler snagged cards.?

Thinking out loud here, seems to me the PGA Tour has things backwards.?If two Nationwide Tour grads improve their status at Q-School, shouldn’t the benefactors of this largess be the next two (who don’t make it through Q-School) on the Nationwide Tour money list rather than the Q-School contenders? After all, shouldn’t the reward go to the players who slogged it out for an entire year and came oh-so-close, rather than a six-day wonder?

The Nationwide Tour is supposedly the breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow. I wish Gordon and Strickler luck as Tour rookies, but history suggests that they may be better served getting a year of seasoning. Nationwide Tour grads have a better track record of sticking than Q-School grads. This is something for Tour administrators to consider going forward.

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Superlatives for 2010 Q-School rookie class

Photo by Tracy Wilcox

Billy Mayfair and Ben Martin after earning PGA Tour card at Q-School.

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – As if a PGA Tour card wasn’t reward enough, I want to offer some awards to this year’s Q-School rookie class:

? MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED: Kyle Stanley. The 2009 Ben Hogan Award winner as the best player in college and amateur golf, Stanley is considered to be the most talented among this year’s class. He almost earned his Tour card via this year’s Nationwide Tour, finishing 35th on the money list. He’s also made the cut in five of eight PGA Tour starts as a professional. He finished 19th at the ’09 Travelers Championship and made the cut at the ’09 U.S. Open as an amateur.

??MOST POPULAR: Will Strickler. Never want to see a player bogey his final hole at Q-School, but a bogey-5 on the final hole allowed Scott Gordon and former Florida teammate Billy Horschel to earn PGA Tour cards.

? BEST ALL-AROUND: Ben Martin. He was the No. 2 student in his graduating class at Greenwood (S.C.) High School. He earned a degree from Clemson in financial management.?

? BEST HAIR: Andres Gonzales. He was compared throughout Q-School to former Major League baseball closer Rod Beck because of his shoulder-length locks and fu-manchu facial hair.

? BEST HAIR (honorable mention): Nate Smith. From the left-leaning surfer town of Santa Cruz, on California’s Central Coast. Smith’s shaggy hair and facial stubble stay true to his hometown’s ethos.

? BEST SCHOOL SPIRIT: Gonzales. He picks up this award for using his Ping Hoofer from Capital High School in Olympia, Wash., at Q-School.

? MOST IMPROVED: Martin. He was the No. 2 player on his high school team, and the fifth-best player in his five-man recruiting class at Clemson. He was an All-American, but played in Stanley’s shadow in college. Ever since being runner-up in the ’09 U.S. Amateur, he’s reached a new level. Martin won his first college title that following college season and tied for ninth at the NCAA Championship. He won in just his second start as a pro, on the eGolf Professional Tour, then made it through three stages of Q-School. Though he didn’t win Q-School, he put together arguably the most impressive performance last week. He was tied for second after the first and second rounds, was the outright leader after the third and fourth rounds, and shared the fifth-round lead with Billy Mayfair. He finished one shot back of Mayfair.

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Mayfair excelling in Q-School return

Photo by Tracy Wilcox

Billy Mayfair during the third round of PGA Tour Q-School.

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Billy Mayfair is at his second PGA Tour Q-School, and first since he got through in 1988. Twenty-two years later, the Tour landscape and Mayfair’s world are dramatically different. And that would be understating.

Let’s start with hair.

“Most of my friends following me then had dark hair,” said Mayfair, co-leader at 16 under par entering the sixth and final Q-School Finals round Monday at Orange County National. “Now they’re all gray.”

Total Tour prize money has gone up more than $238 million, from $36.9 million in 1988 to $275.1 million this year. The leading money winner in ’88 (Curtis Strange) made $1.147 million. Now many first prizes are worth more than that.

The 44-year-old Mayfair had a bit different outlook then versus now. Then, he was coming off a brilliant amateur career, in which he won the 1986 U.S. Public Links and ’87 U.S. Amateur and a college Player of the Year award.

This time, his collection includes five Tour victories, all in 1993-98, and career earnings of $18.68 million, 34th best all-time. He has finished in the top 125 in 19 years, including his first 15 seasons in a row, but tailed off the last two years. He’s back at qualifying after slipping to 157th in 2009 and 142nd this year.

So he came to improve his status. Relieving pressure was the idea that he’d get into about 20 tournaments off his top-150 status. He didn’t have that trampoline below last time. Nor was there a Nationwide Tour to fall back on.

“They gave 50 cards and if you didn’t get one, you’d go to Asia,” he says. “So, yeah, I’ve got a lot more security.”

Inconsistent play led him back here. He led the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte after 54 holes, but a closing 76 dropped him into a tie for 14th. And had he made a 15-footer at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, where he tied for third, he would’ve made the top 125.

“It’s a little calmer for me than it is for a lot of other guys,” Mayfair said after a fifth-round 67 at Panther Lake moved into a tie for the lead. “It makes it easier, having something to fall back on.”

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Bramlett working on historic Q-School showing

Photo by Tracy Wilcox

Joseph Bramlett during the final stage of 2010 PGA Tour Q-School.

Joseph Bramlett brushed the face of his putter with his left hand before he settled into his putting stance. When he slipped into his pre-shot routine it’s as if he’s entered a trance. I haven’t seen a player with his intense concentration since – dare I say it – Tiger Woods.

“That’s been my routine my whole life,” Bramlett said. “Every shot means a lot to me. I’m not going to hit a shot if I’m not 100 percent into it. I love this game so I’m going to put everything into it.”

At the halfway point of the 2010 PGA Tour Qualifying School finals, Bramlett, 22, is 5-under after a 69 in the third round. A three-putt from 25 feet at the last hole dropped him to T-27.

Photo Gallery

PGA Qualifying School (Rd. 3)

Images from Friday's round of PGA Qualifying School at Orange County National. Ben Martin is the leader after Round 3.

The top 25 finishers Monday, plus ties, earn full status on the PGA Tour for 2011.

Comparisons to Woods have followed Bramlett for as long as he can remember because of the color of his skin. Bramlett’s parents are of mixed race like Woods. But the comparisons are more than skin deep. Bramlett was recognized for his prodigious talent even before he became the youngest at the time to qualify for the U.S. Amateur at age 14. Like Woods, he attended Stanford, and he plays the same Nike clubs as his idol (though Bramlett is not a paid endorser). Growing up Bramlett received a Tiger Woods poster for Christmas that he pinned to his wall.

“Tiger has inspired me,” Bramlett said

Like Woods, Bramlett began playing the game as soon as he could stand on two feet. He said his father handed him a plastic club that he dragged around “chasing the cat.” Before long, he was hitting balls on a soccer field at the local community college near his home in Saratoga, Calif. Bramlett’s road to golf success took a detour in college after he helped Stanford win the NCAA men’s team championship in 2007. Hobbled by a pair of wrist injuries, he was sidelined for the better part of two years. With a clean bill of health, he resumed playing again in February.?Bramlett graduated from Stanford on a Sunday and then drove down to Pebble Beach that night in preparation for his first U.S. Open. There, he played practice rounds with Woods.

Bramlett turned professional after an impressive amateur swansong, winning the Northeast Amateur and advancing to the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur. In his first crack at Q-School, Bramlett cruised through the early stages, tying for fourth at second stage at Bayonet and guaranteeing him at least conditional status on the Nationwide Tour next season.

Bramlett didn’t tiptoe around the topic of becoming the first black to make it through Q-School in 25 years. He’s acutely aware of the long drought and knows something deeper is at stake.

“I’d love to do it,” he said, a half-smile on his face.

Bramlett said he read the Golfweek article on Adrian Stills, who survived the 6-round slugfest to earn his Tour card for the 1986 season, and that it helped Bramlett put a name and face to his quest.

“I knew it had been a while since an African-American made it, frankly too long,” he said.

He stopped, and with modesty verging on grace, shifted the focus from his own pursuit.

“There’s a lot of us up-and-coming right now,” Bramlett said, ticking off the names of his fellow black contemporaries he thinks will make it. “If not this week, then (it’ll) certainly (happen) down the road.”

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Prepping for Q-School: 11 players to watch

Q-School’s make-or-break nature guarantees plenty of intrigue. A single stroke over 108 holes can be the difference between golfing rags and riches. One good week can vault an unknown to the PGA Tour, while former major champions can find themselves without full-time employment.

Q-School is a reality show actually based in real life, not some manufactured existence. This year’s event, which begins Wednesday at Orange County National outside Orlando, should be even more interesting than most editions. Among the entrants are former teen phenom Ty Tryon, two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton and Billy Hurley, a former Walker Cup team member who’s restarting his career after serving in the Navy.

These players already have interesting back stories that’ve been told countless times. But many players come to Q-School as relative unknowns, either fresh off the amateur circuit, or after years of toiling away from TV cameras on the mini-tours.

Here are 11 Q-School first-timers to watch this week:

?????

Joseph Bramlett: Bramlett was the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Amateur when he made the ’02 event as a 14-year-old. Five years later, he was a second-team All-American as a Stanford freshman, helping the Cardinal to the national title. The remainder of his college career was marred by wrist injuries, but he’s back in form.?

He won the prestigious Northeast Amateur this year, qualified for the U.S. Open, made the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur and made the Q-School finals in his first attempt. He’d be the first African-American since Adrian Stills in 1986 to earn a PGA Tour card at Q-School.

?????

Roberto Castro: Castro, a former Georgia Tech All-American, finished 62nd on the Nationwide Tour money list despite starting the season with no status. He Monday-qualified for the Cox Classic, then tied for 19th to earn a spot in the next week’s Wichita Open, where he finished runner-up. He had six top 25s in 12 Nationwide Tour starts, and finished seventh on the eGolf Professional Tour money list in just eight starts, thanks to a victory and runner-up.

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Dustin Garza: Garza was a first-team All-American at Wichita State this past season after winning seven times. (He claimed 12 titles over his final two seasons.) Despite that success, his pro career didn’t get off to a sterling start –?an 86 in his PGA Tour debut at the Travelers Championship –?but he’s in good shape now. Garza is in the mold of recent Kodak Challenge winner Troy Merritt –?a player who won a ton at a mid-major, then made the Q-School finals in his first attempt.

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Aaron Goldberg: Goldberg will be trying to follow in the footsteps of Graham DeLaet, who used the Canadian Tour as a springboard for Q-School success. DeLaet won the ’09 Canadian Tour Order of Merit, then earned his PGA Tour card at Q-School. (He finished 100th on this season’s PGA Tour money list.)?

Goldberg dominated the Canadian Tour this season. He won three times, and finished outside the top 10 only once in nine starts. He set the tour’s single-season earnings mark, with $156,118, and was the only player to earn six figures this season. Goldberg also Monday-qualified and made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open.

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Jason Kokrak: Kokrak, the medalist at the 2007 U.S. Amateur, was the leading money winner on the eGolf Professional Tour. The long-hitting Xavier product won twice and had six other top 10s in 11 starts. He also tied for 13th in the Nationwide Tour’s South Georgia Classic.

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Danny Lee: Remember him? Lee was supposed to join Rory, Rickie and Ryo as one of golf’s next big things. He won the 2008 U.S. Amateur, then became the youngest winner in European Tour history (a record since eclipsed by Matteo Manassero) when he claimed last year’s Johnnie Walker Classic as an amateur.?

Lee struggled in Europe this season, earning just 88,257 euros in 22 starts, with just one top 25. He finished 159th in the Race to Dubai, and dropped to 455th in the Official World Golf Ranking. On the plus side, he finished seventh in his last start before Q-School, the Kolon Korea Open in October. It was his first top 10 in more than a year.

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Richard Lee: How’s this for a back story: Lee, who grew up in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, dropped out of high school and moved in with a family friend in The Philippines to focus full-time on his golf career. He eventually returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Bellevue Community College before transferring to Washington, where he was an All-American in both seasons as a Husky. Lee turned pro earlier this year, and advanced out of pre-qualifying and two stages of Q-School to earn his spot at Orange County National. He’s playing for more than himself: Lee’s fan club includes his wife, Christine, and daughter, Israella.

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Ben Martin: Not many players get to participate in three major championships before they even turn pro, but Martin did. You may have seen him if you tuned in to the early coverage of the 2009 U.S. Open. Martin was 2 under par for his first 11 holes at Bethpage Black to take the lead before eventually missing the cut. That didn’t turn out to be the highlight of Martin’s year, though. He was runner-up at the U.S. Amateur later that year. He stayed amateur to play this year’s Masters and U.S. Open, missing the cut in both. He finished ninth at this year’s NCAA Championship. It took Martin, a Clemson product, just two starts to earn his first pro win on the eGolf Professional Tour. He made the Q-School finals in his first attempt.

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Pablo Martin: With all the hoopla about European stars not taking up PGA Tour membership, here’s one European Tour winner willing to go through Q-School’s rigors for a U.S. card. Martin won this season’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and the ’07 Portugal Open as an amateur. Martin was the 2006 Golfweek College Player of the Year while at Oklahoma State, but the Spaniard has spent his entire pro career on the other side of the pond. Martin is coming off a 16th-place finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions. He also made the cut at this year’s U.S. Open.

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Michael Thompson: Thompson was one of the country’s top amateurs when he turned pro in 2008: He was runner-up at the ’07 U.S. Am, first alternate for that year’s Walker Cup team, then low amateur at the ’08 U.S. Open (T-29). Thompson struggled shortly after turning pro in ’08, after an agent advised him to change his swing to hit the ball higher.?

Thompson returned to his old swing late last year and found success. He won the money list on both the 2009-10 Hooters Tour Winter Series and ’10 Hooters Tour, and was this year’s Hooters Tour player of the year.

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Dan Woltman: Woltman was one of the top amateurs in the U.S. in 2009, winning the Northeast Amateur and making the quarterfinals at the Western Amateur and the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur, but was a controversial omission from that year’s Walker Cup team. He spent this past season on the eGolf Professional Tour, finishing 29th on the money list.

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Hurley, Tryon advance to Q-School finals

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. – Sixteen months ago, Billy Hurley III was aboard a cruiser ship in Singapore. He was on the front lines defending Iraq’s oil platform in the Persian Gulf. He was guiding a ship through the Suez Canal.?

So trying to advance to the finals of PGA Tour Q-School? Apparently, it’s simpler than some military cadence.

Hurley shot a final-round 67 Saturday and shared medalist honors at Southern Hills Plantation Club, keeping alive his dream to become the first Naval Academy graduate to play full time on the PGA Tour.?

Results

Read about the other five second stage qualifiers by clicking here.

“I haven’t really sat back and thought about it,” said Hurley, who finished at 18-under 270, tied with Scott Brown. “Obviously my game has come back quicker than I thought it would, and hopefully it just keeps getting better.”?

Hurley, 28, graduated from the Naval Academy in 2004 after a breakthrough senior season in which he won six of the 12 events he entered. Upon graduation he served as a combat electronic division officer on the guided-missile cruiser U.S.S. Gettysburg in Florida, then played on the U.S. Walker Cup team in ’05, taught Economics 101 at the Academy and, oh yeah, turned pro in ’06.?

The Navy denied his request to serve only two years of active duty, and Hurley fulfilled his obligation on a destroyer ship in Pearl Harbor (June 2007-June 2009). He played only five rounds of golf during that stretch.?

When he returned home to Maryland last summer, Hurley played well enough to qualify for the second stage of Q-School.?

“I went there with very low expectations, and my golf swing wasn’t quite ready for the pressure,” he said.

So he split time this season on the eGolf and Hooters tours, capturing one Hooters title in March, earning $56,735 and finishing 15th on the money list. This time, with 16 months to hone his swing, he knew he was ready for a promotion.?

“It’ll be interesting to see how the finals shake out,” Hurley said. “I think I’m ready to play out on Tour again, but I think the Nationwide Tour is a good stepping stone, as well. I’m going to try my best and see what happens in a couple of weeks.”?

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Tryon again: The last time Ty Tryon played a Q-School stage at Orange County National, he was 17. You may remember the events that followed.?

Teen phenom. Spectacular slump. Brief retirement. And now, spirited comeback.?

“I’ve struggled so much, but it’s still golf, and I still know how to play.”? Tryon, 26, said after finishing 13th at Southern Hills Plantation Club (top 19 advance). “Hopefully something goes my way there.”?

Tryon qualified for this year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he tied for 80th, earning himself a trip to Q-School’s second stage. It was his only PGA Tour start of the season, a stark reminder of how far he has fallen. Tryon tied for 39th at the 2001 Honda Classic as a 16-year-old amateur, and later that year became the youngest player to earn a PGA Tour card. He missed 22 of his first 27 cuts on Tour, and his massive potential never was realized.?

“I’m definitely more mature now,” he said.?

Tryon was well on his way to advancing to this year’s Q-School final before sloppy bogeys on 15 and 16. But on the par-4 18th he nearly holed his approach from the right rough, lipped out for birdie and tapped in. He finished at 6-under 282, right on the cut line.?

“It’s just a constant exercise in suppressing your anxiety,” Tryon said. “I hate making it this hard. It could have been easier, but it seems like that’s the way golf is.”?

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Cut-line casualties: The cut fell at 6-under 282. Among the notables who failed to advance (final-round score in parenthesis): Marco Dawson (69), Justin Bolli (74), Cliff Kresge (73), Bob Heintz (69), Frank Lickliter (76) and Jay Williamson (74).?

Short shots: Matt Every, who was suspended by the PGA Tour for three months for “conduct unbecoming of a professional” after his arrest in July on a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession, finished T-41 and failed to advance to the finals of Q-School. ... Scott Stallings birdied seven of the last eight holes, a back-nine 29, to shoot 65 and finish T-3. ... Bubba Dickerson aced the par-3 13th hole Saturday, but that didn’t help him secure a Tour card; he finished T-47. ... Former PGA Tour players Grant Waite, Robert Damron and Robert Gamez each withdrew after the third round.?

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