After a T4 finish in Valencia, Ca., Kimberley’s Jared du Toit has advanced to the Final Stage of PGA Tour’s Q-School, presented by Korn Ferry, where he will compete against 168 other golfers for one of five PGA Tour cards.
READ MORE: Kimberley’s Jared du Toit set to tee off at RBC Canadian Open
The final is to be held in Florida from December 14 to 17, with two rounds to be played at TPC Sawgrass’ Valley Course and two at the Sawgrass Country Club. The top five and ties will earn PGA Tour membership for 2024. This is the first time tour cards have been made available by way of Q-School since 2012, the rekindling of a holiday golf tradition.
“It’s crazy because this is the first time that PGA cards have been on the line since well before I turned pro,” du Toit told the Bulletin. “I think they used to do this in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and maybe early 2000s, but then they stopped doing it, so it’s super exciting and it would just be unreal if I could get up there.”
He said the qualifiers aren’t exactly fun as they are very-high stress, so he is thrilled to have gotten through and “… live another week.”
This year, du Toit signed up for three different Tour qualifiers: the European Tour, the DP World Tour and then the Korn Ferry PGA Tour. For Korn Ferry there are four stages, pre-qualifier, first stage, second stage and next week the final stage.
READ MORE: Kimberley golfer Jared du Toit through first round of US Open qualifying
du Toit was exempt for pre qualifying, then went to New Mexico for the first stage and California for the second. He is now in Florida, spending time with friends before he heads to Jacksonville to start practising the tough Pete Dye courses.
In addition to the top five getting PGA Tour cards, the next 40 finishers will earn guaranteed starts on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour, with the following 20 earning guaranteed starts on the 2024 PGA Tour Americas. The remainder will hold conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas, so regardless of next week’s results, du Toit’s T4 finish was a big achievement in his career.
After six seasons and 78 starts across PGA TOUR Canada and Latinoamérica, 🇨🇦 Jared du Toit advances through to Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, where he’ll compete for a PGA TOUR card pic.twitter.com/G2wlVSONZ8
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) December 5, 2023
Last week, du Toit said he feels he played fairly well, but credits strong mental game for securing him a solid finish through 72 holes on a difficult golf course.
“Until the final round I didn’t have that many bogeys and I didn’t have any doubles which is a pretty big determiner in how you do at Q-School,” he said. “Because most guys are going to make birdies, they’re going to birdie some of the par fives and the easy par fours, but I always think in Q-School and qualifying it’s really trying to avoid mistakes and keeping your scorecard pretty clean of mistakes. I did a really good job of that, just kept my head on for 72 holes.”
du Toit has an ever-deepening well of experience from which to draw when dealing with stressful moments on the golf course. He now has played professionally for six seasons, including 78 starts across PGA Tour Canada and Latinoamérica.
He described dealing with some adversity in the final round, which was a tough day plagued by heavy winds. He made a bogey and followed that up with a double, and said in years past that may well have left him rattled.
“I thought I was taking myself out of it, but it was a really hard day,” he said. “I was looking across other holes and seeing other guys make mistakes. I watched a guy hit one out of bounds and another guy hit one in the water and it was just like a really hard day so it reminded me that it’s hard for everybody, everybody’s making mistakes out here.
“Let it happen, take the next shot and don’t let your previous shot affect your next one. I think I did a really good job of that and hopefully I can do that at finals as well.”
He said the fourth place finish was one of his best events of the year, especially considering it’s a week he’s never managed to get through in the past. Solid play at an Asian Tour qualifier in California secured him a win there, another highlight of his 2024, including some solid events played in Canada.
Heading into next week there is a lot on the line, but he knows he needs to just focus on playing his game, which he said feels very solid right now.
“I just want to go play 72 smart, committed golf holes and wherever that puts me is where I’ll be happy,” du Toit said. “It’s weird, golf is sometimes you play great and finish 50th and you just got beat by 49 guys and sometimes it’s like ‘oh I didn’t have my best stuff’ and you finish fourth.
“So as long as I keep myself in it for 72 and I don’t get too up or down on myself, I’ll be happy with where I go.”
Right after the tournament du Toit will fly home to Kimberley to spend the holidays with his family.
“I’m pumped, hopefully I can lace up the skates or go skiing or something just to get the real winter experience.”