Nicole Hage: The Thrill of Success at LPGA Tour Q-School

For forty women at the LPGA Tour's Q-School, they can breath some sigh of relief.  They all will have some kind of status on the Tour next season.  In particular, the ladies that finished in the top twenty have some real job security for next year.  They secured a spot on the Tour in their priority category 14 - the best that could be achieved by Q-School.

Nicole Hage is one of those players.  Based out of south Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale, Hage secured a Tour card by finishing ninth.  When I spoke with her on the phone today, she told me she was leaving a massage.  The stress and frantic nature of the tournament - including a 27 hole day - left her "a knotted mess."

Hage did her homework before the Monday final round.  She studied the results from prior Q-Schools to get a sense of the number she needed.  Even still, she decided to "play for [her] life" and "be an animal out there" by playing as aggressively as possible.

Nicole Hage after missing a putt in round four. Scott Halleran/Getty Images

The aggression worked well.  She stood on the final tee at -3 for the round, knowing inside that her score was fine.  But, she tried to stick to her mantra for the week: playing every hole as though she had another 17 after it.  The grind of the week required constant focus - even on the final hole.

"It was hard because I was so excited and so confident [on 18 tee], but the other part of me wanted to stay committed to playing one shot at a time."

She "smoked" her drive to the par 5 last, just missed the green in regulation, and then putted to a foot.  That final putt was "the easiest one footer [she] ever made."  Afterward, Hage said she started shaking uncontrollably and crying.

"I was so happy, and so drained.  And I was tired!  I could barely sign my scorecard," Hage said.  "But all the crap that I went through this year made things easier [on Monday].  I could control my emotions."

Hage spent time preparing for Q-School by playing mini-tour events in Florida, Arizona, and Texas - all places where the LPGA Tour will not be in 2010.

"There were no other options [to get ready]," Hage said in an interview today.  "They were real life situations.  You couldn't make a five and put down a four."

The preparation and the practice paid off for Hage.  The combo of playing tournaments and working with her putting instruction Pat O'Brien in Dallas helped bring her putting to a whole new level.

She even texted O'Brien at nine at night after the tournament to tell him that she wanted to start putting right now.  Hage is so excited to get started working hard for next year.  She said that she still struggles with wedge play, but it pumped to get cracking.

Nicole said that qualifying for the Tour "is a feeling that I have never felt before, and want to feel again soon.""  She will start her LPGA Tour season at the end of March in San Diego at the J Golf event.  In the meantime, she'll head back to the mini-tours to prepare.

She said that she now has to rewrite her goals for 2010.  "I am not just laying back.  I'm proud of what I accomplished, but there's more to do."  Realistically, she says that she would like to finish in the top 25 on the money list.

"Everyone wants to win, but I have to do the little things first before I can do that," Hage said.  Clearing this first hurdle, though, was an important step.

"I'm just happy to have this monkey off of my back."