'The Turn': Go all-access at PGA TOUR Q-School

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Marcus Byrd strolled lightly down the fairway at Sawgrass Country Club during a practice round at PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry’s Final Stage. He spoke with an airy cadence, but the words suggested otherwise.

“You have four rounds to pretty much change your life,” Byrd said.

Byrd joins Dillon Board and Aldrich Potgieter as cast members of “The Turn: Q-School presented by Korn Ferry,” an inside-the-ropes docuseries set to stream Dec. 20 on PGATOUR.COM and YouTube. The show will immerse viewers across early-week preparation and 72 holes of competition (two rounds at each course) as Byrd, Board and Potgieter chase their first PGA TOUR cards.

The top five finishers and ties at Q-School’s Final Stage will earn 2024 PGA TOUR membership; the next 40 finishers and ties will earn guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts. Endless permutations of status-and-eligibility scenarios will unfold this week amidst windy conditions at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club.

Although it looks like one, with spectators, hundreds of volunteers, media and camera crews running around and banners flashing "Q-School presented by Korn Ferry," Final Stage is not your average PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour event. It doesn’t feature the usual roster of PGA TOUR members in the top 125 of the FedExCup standings intermixed with some Monday qualifiers and sponsor exemptions. In fact, most of the players headed to TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Country Club this week aren’t PGA TOUR members at all. At least not yet.

It is a melting pot of sorts, drawing in players of the highest level plucked from a variety of sources. The 165 players teeing it up share distinct backgrounds, encompassing everything from the top five finishers on PGA TOUR Canada to the No. 1 spot on the Japan Golf’s Tour Order of Merit (Keita Nakajima) to TOUR veterans who fell just outside the margin for full PGA TOUR status. But regardless of where they came from, every player in the field is united by one common goal: turning uncertainty into certainty and securing their status and eligibility for next season. And for some, they aren’t sure if they’ll ever get the chance to do so again. The last bullet in the chamber, so to speak.

“I gave myself a timeline,” said Board, a native of Jacksonville, Florida. “If I’m not on Korn Ferry or PGA TOUR by the time I’m 29 or 30 – and I just turned 30 this year – then I’m done.

“I’m giving myself that, and then it’s time to, you know, move on, start a family, continue life in another direction.”

A mini-tour veteran after turning pro in 2016, Board has yet to make a start on the Korn Ferry Tour, playing the 2022 season on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica (with three made cuts in his nine starts) and qualifying for Final Stage after working his way up from First Stage in Abilene, Texas. This week provides far more than just a chance to save his career for the local product and Coastal Georgia alum, however – it’s the chance to fulfill his dream and represent his hometown.

“Being from Jacksonville, it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do,” Board said of competing in THE PLAYERS Championship while driving up to TPC Sawgrass for a practice round at Final Stage. “I know it sounds weird; everyone dreams about playing the Masters, and trust me, I do, but with THE PLAYERS being in my backyard, all I’ve ever wanted to do is drive up this drive and just represent Jacksonville the best way I can.

“God has blessed me with being able to do this right here. Drive up to this clubhouse and represent Jacksonville and my family the best way I can. All you can do is smile.”

The journey from mini-tours to the PGA TOUR is onerous, a constant sink-or-swim battle fraught with uncertainty, no guaranteed contracts and no guaranteed pay for a week’s worth of work if a player misses a cut. It’s a journey that Byrd, the 26-year-old Advocates Pro Golf Association (APGA) Tour member, is no stranger to. After turning professional in 2020, Byrd has been a staple on the APGA, a developmental circuit, living out of a suitcase at times to keep his career afloat.

But this season has been different. In addition to winning a record-setting four APGA events this season alone, Byrd was selected in February as the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption winner, an honor that goes each year to a golfer of color, giving Byrd a spot at this year’s Genesis Invitational and the chance the tee it up alongside tournament host Tiger Woods. He played back-to-back weeks on TOUR, competing the following week at The Honda Classic followed by two more TOUR starts later in the summer (Wells Fargo Championship and John Deere Classic).

It felt like the perfect Cinderella story in the making for Byrd as he looks to ascend to professional golf’s highest level. Despite missing the cut at each of his TOUR appearances, he made it to Final Stage by advancing on the number at his Second Stage site at Dothan, Alabama, giving the Middle Tennessee State alum one final chance this season to make it to the PGA TOUR or earn guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Intermixed between the journeymen, TOUR veterans and players looking to break through, Final Stage offers another class of players: the young rising stars. One layer of direct eligibility into Final Stage: the top five players on the PGA TOUR University Ranking, the path that allowed RSM Classic winner Ludvig Åberg to earn his TOUR card and full eligibility. Final Stage offers another outlet for these young players to shine and stake their claim, and Aldrich Potgieter has done so in spades.

The 19-year-old South African first popped into headlines by winning the 2022 Amateur Championship, becoming the second-youngest player to do so at the 127-year-old event, securing him spots in this year’s Masters and U.S. Open, where he made the cut to finish T64. He competed at last year’s Open Championship as well and made two other TOUR starts this season, competing at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Potgieter made it to Final Stage after earning medalist honors at Second Stage in Valdosta, Georgia, finishing four strokes clear of the field. With guaranteed Korn Ferry starts for 2024, the young phenom’s light continues to shine bright as he takes on TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club seeking another notch on his belt: full status on the PGA TOUR.