THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — A pair of Canadians earned their 2011 PGA Tour Cards on Monday.
Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., and Matt McQuillan of Kingston, Ont., will join fellow Canadians Mike Weir, Stephen Ames, Graham DeLaet and David Hearn on the tour next year after finishing among the top 25 in the final stage of qualifying.
Baryla shot 6-under 66 on the Crooked Cat course at the Orange County National Golf Center on Monday to finish tied for 11th at 12 under. McQuillan shot 1-under-71 on the Crooked Cat course and finished tied for 16th at 11 under.
The top 25 finishers in the gruelling six-round tournament earned PGA Tour cards for 2011. The next 50 received cards on the Nationwide Tour.
Billy Mayfair finished first in the qualifier at 18-under while Joseph Bramlett earned his card to become only the second golfer of black heritage on tour. The other is Tiger Woods.
Bramlett shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 11 under.
News of the Stanford standout qualifying spread quickly.
Woods, who also went to Stanford, wrote on Twitter: "Congrats to Joe Bramlett for making it through Q School" and "Can’t wait to play with him next season."
Baryla had already earned the right to play on the PGA Tour under a major medical exemption after undergoing hip surgery earlier this year. Under those terms, he would have needed to make around US$700,000 in 15 tournaments in order to keep his card for the remainder of the year. With Monday’s result, he has earned his full status and doesn’t need to rely on the medical exemption.
Jon Mills of Belleville, Ont., missed gaining the third card of his career by three strokes, shooting 69 and finishing in a tie for 41st. He will return to the Nationwide Tour next year.
Vancouver’s Richard T. Lee, Matthew Richardson of Woodbridge, Ont., Ted Brown of Peterborough, Ont., and David McKenzie of Victoria all finished outside the top 50 and will have conditional status on Nationwide Tour.
Among other notables who did not qualify out of Q-school: Brett Waldman (68), the caddie for Camilo Villegas; Erik Compton (73), a two-time heart transplant recipient; Briny Baird (71), who lost his card on the final hole of the year at Disney to finish No. 127 on the money list.
Bramlett bogeyed his first two holes but rallied with incredible putting. He finished with seven birdies that included the 17th, where he missed the fairway, was forced to lay up and made a 25-foot putt.
And just for an exclamation point, Bramlett knocked in an eight-foot putt to save par on the 18th that avoided the agony of having to sweat out the final groups.
"He’s so clutch. You almost expect it to go in every time," his caddie, Don Allio, said.
Bramlett grew up outside San Jose in a multiracial family — his father is black, his mother is white — and endured the odd stares at junior events when his parents followed him on the course. He plastered posters of Woods on his bedroom wall after the 1997 Masters, and he later competed in the Junior World Championship in San Diego with a team sponsored by the Tiger Woods Foundation.
When he was 14, he became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Amateur in 1992. He was All-America his freshman year at Stanford, when he helped lead the Cardinal to an NCAA title. Bramlett flew straight home to California to try to qualify for the U.S. Open, losing out in a playoff.
He also overcame two injuries to his wrist that nearly derailed his career at Stanford.
"I never doubted it would happen," he said. "This has been my dream since I was a little kid."
— With files from The Associated Press