Monday qualifying maestro Patrick Flavin propelled by persistence

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Patrick Flavin had just signed his scorecard at Second Stage of Q-School on a steamy, quiet Friday afternoon in Brooksville, Florida. The tension could be cut with the proverbial knife. Pros outside the cut line exited the clubhouse at Southern Hills Plantation Club, heads down, uncertain of what might be to come.

Patrick Flavin held his head high, a bounce in his step despite suffering perhaps golf’s most crushing defeat. Missing at Second Stage means zero Korn Ferry Tour status for the following season, resigned to a fickle fate of Monday qualifiers.

Flavin shook hands with a TOUR staffer, saying he’d see him soon.

Three days later, Flavin earned a spot at the Bermuda Championship via the Monday qualifier. He finished T17 and didn’t look back.

“To go from what could be a debilitating moment, to now you just qualified for a PGA TOUR event, I don’t know how you do that,” said Louis Sauer, Flavin’s golf instructor since high school. “Most guys would’ve gone home, thought the next year’s going to be a waste.

“And he just had probably the best year of his life.”

Sure enough, playing on zero status, Flavin qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals via non-member FedExCup points. He Monday qualified into five TOUR events, recorded four top-25s in nine starts, and is chasing a PGA TOUR card across the three-event Finals series.

This week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship marks the second leg, as Flavin returns to home turf of sorts. The Chicago-area native played collegiately at Miami (Ohio), just a couple hours from The Ohio State University GC (Scarlet), the site of Flavin’s final collegiate tournament in 2018. Flavin is staying this week with his college teammate JD Fletcher, who is now the head men’s golf coach at Miami (Ohio).

Throughout the past year, Flavin channeled his trademark resilience, refusing to allow Second Stage of Q-School define him; he carded a four-round total of 3 under that week, six strokes shy of earning 2022 Korn Ferry Tour membership.

“Positivity is kind of required to be around Pat,” said Sauer, crediting the book “Fearless Golf’ by Dr. Gio Valiante that has particularly resonated with Flavin.

“Something about that book really shifted it from, ‘This is happening to me,’ to, ‘I have a choice to look at it this way.’”

The top 75 on this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List qualified for the Finals, as did Nos. 126-200 on the FedExCup.

Flavin qualified on the strength of 169 non-member FedExCup points, comfortably surpassing No. 200 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List (49 points).

Flavin kick-started his run with a T17 in Bermuda. He Monday qualified for the Puerto Rico Open in March and finished T22. He received a sponsor exemption for the Corales Puntacana Championship and finished T54.

The 26-year-old Monday qualified three more times on TOUR this season – Mexico Open at Vidanta, RBC Canadian Open and Travelers Championship. He missed the cut all three times, but then he earned a sponsor exemption into last month’s John Deere Classic – no qualifier needed.

Flavin played the final round at TPC Deere Run with 12-time TOUR winner Zach Johnson, a hero around those parts. The atmosphere was buzzing. Flavin thrived.

“A guy I’ve always idolized,” Flavin said. “Kind of a small guy, and he’s had an incredible career. Kind of a surreal moment when I got that pairing, and he was a good guy. I played great that day, and it definitely changed my perspective of myself as a player.”

Flavin shot 66 to finish T10 and secure his Korn Ferry Tour Finals berth. For a player without status, he had defied the odds – a continual progression from when he first met Sauer early in high school as a baseball player barely able to break 90.

Flavin thrives on competition and was constantly pushed forward by a fellow participant in Sauer’s junior program, Nick Hardy. The two became good friends and both received junior memberships at Merit Club outside Chicago, a testament to their abilities.

“They’d be out at the golf course all day long,” Sauer said. “They piggybacked off each other. Nick didn’t want him to catch up, but he wanted to catch up.”

Flavin never stopped striving. He set a school record with eight victories at Miami (Ohio), then finished No. 6 on the 2019 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Order of Merit in his first full year as a pro. He held conditional status on the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour, recording two top-10s in 13 starts, before his Q-School setback.

He refused to reverse the progression.

“I was sitting in the airport flying to Boise (for last week’s Finals-opening Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron), and I was just looking at the Boise sign like, ‘This is so cool,’” Flavin said. “This is what I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and a game-changing moment for me in my career. And I’ve just got to take advantage.”

Flavin made the cut in Boise, carding all four rounds in the 60s and finishing T56. He arrived in Columbus at T43 on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Eligibility Points List; the top 25 on the three-event standings (excluding The 25 who earned TOUR cards via the Regular Season) will earn TOUR status for 2022-23, while the next 50 will be guaranteed access to Final Stage of Q-School. (He has already secured conditional Korn Ferry Tour status for 2023 at minimum.)

Flavin will worry about the math later and focus on the golf. As for that prediction back in Brooksville, though, the numbers proved him right.

“Pretty helpless,” Flavin described the feeling of missing at Second Stage. “I’ve always wanted it. For me, I had to calm myself down. In those moments, you’re kind of dictating the whole year, and I was really proud of the way I handled that adversity and Monday qualified into the next week.

“It’s the moment where you’re like, ‘I just want to take a break for a while,’ and I think it showed me that if you keep working hard, things can turn around in a hurry. You never know what the proper route is for making the PGA TOUR. You’ve just got to focus on mastery and doing as well as you can.”