A Look at The Two Q-Schools Being Played This Week

The perennial late fall ritual known as Q-School (or Q, for short) is upon us. 

The final stage of the PGA Tour's Q-School kicks off on Wednesday and will go through six arduous and frenetic rounds to determine the top 25 and ties that will have PGA Tour cards for the 2010 season. 

There are 170 players lined up to battle it out for the cards, and avoid using a one-time exemption available to them (in a few cases) or going to the Nationwide Tour (in a lot of cases).

Shane Bacon goes through the entire field in Jason Sobel-esque fashion as his preview for the tournament.  You might be shocked to see the names of winners - even major champions - in the field.

The guys I'm looking at most are Rickie Fowler, David Duval, Jesper Parnevik, Jeff Maggert, Tim Herron, and Jason Gore.

On the ladies' side, the LPGA Tour Q-School is set to begin on Wednesday.  They play 90 holes to determine status for the 106 player field.  After 72 holes, a cut is made to the low 70 and ties.  After the final round, the top 20 get into status category 11, 21st (determined by playoff if needed) through 30th in the 16th category, and 31st through 40th in the 20th category. 

The LPGA's qualification and priority system is a little different than that from the PGA Tour.  They offer status to more players, but the status in categories 16 and 20 effectively relegates those players to the Duramed Futures Tour for the season.

Mostly Harmless's The Constructivist has a solid preview of the field.  His headliner, like mine, would be Amanda Blumenherst.  She's the can't miss Duke grad that is seeking to get onto the Tour with full status for the first time.  Coming in slightly behind her would be Futures Tour Q-School medalist Tiffany Joh.  Some other names to look out for that you may have heard of: Maria Jose Uribe, who played so well at the US Women's Open at Interlachen; Gwladys Nocera of France, who is looking to make the move to the LPGA Tour from the LET.

Should be an exciting weekend of Q-School golf on both tours - and hopefully full of on-course drama for a bit of a change.