Playing Golf In The Shadow of The Tour Championship

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Playing Golf In The Shadow of The Tour Championship

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Bogart, GA (Sept 16, 2007) - Under the watchful eye of his caddy, professional golfer Matt Le Conche is standing on the driving range at Jennings Mill Country Club in Bogart, Georgia. 62 Miles away in Atlanta on this warm Sunday afternoon, 29 of the top players on the PGA Tour are chasing Tiger Woods for the Tour Championship. That is of little concern to the 26 year old golfer from Wellington, Florida. Playing at the site that hosts the Nationwide Tour's Athens Regional Foundation Classic, his focus is on making it through this weeks pre-qualifying first phase of the 2007 PGA Tour Qualifying School. No money. No FedEx Cup. Just a dream.

This is Le Conche's first attempt at the Q-School, as it is known in the shorthand of professional golf. Since graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2004, Le Conche has been working his skills on the Gateway Tour, one of the professional mini-tours in the United States. Life on the mini-tour circuit is a weekly grind, where if you win you might make a $400-500 profit for a week. But this kind of preparation is essential, according to his caddy, who should know. Rich Le Conche, his father, is toting the bag for his son. The Director of Golf at The Links at Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, the senior Le Conche says that is "feels like we have been waiting forever to play in the Q-school. But his game has never been better, so now is the time." At ten years old, Matt was shooting par golf. So the family moved to Florida from West Hartford, Connecticut so that Matt could play year round.

But Le Conche is not alone this week. There are none of the usual trappings of the PGA and Nationwide Tours. This is as basic as it gets on the PGA Tour. There are no courtesy cars. There will be no galleries. There will not be spectators yelling "You da man" after every shot. There will not be spectators applauding bogeys and double bogeys.  But there will be 71 other players following the same dream of playing on the main tour.

For Ryan Dennis, who played for and graduated from the Ohio State University in 2003, this is a 3rd try at the Q-School. He tried in 2003 and 2004, once failing to advance from pre-qualifying by one shot. "I am here to play golf. If I don't make it, I will continue to play the mini tours and play golf. One day I hope to make it," says Dennis.

Adam Gary from Bowling Green Kentucky is approaching it in much the same way. The graduate of Division II Florida Gulf Coast is currently a caddy back in Kentucky. "I do not feel any pressure. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain," says Gary. And if he does not make it? "I will go and try to play on the Hooters Tour."

There are no free passes here. To move on, you have to play well. Greg Koch is the son of PGA Tour professional and six-time tournament winner Gary Koch. While his father is over in Atlanta with NBC Sports, the younger Koch will have to play well and pay his dues to move on. The same thing goes for Drew Nelson, son of 29-time winner (10 PGA Tour and 19 Champions Tour) and World Golf Hall of Fame member Larry Nelson. He will have to hit his own shots this week.

How many players from here, and the other five pre-qualifying sites, will move on will not be announced until during the competition. For those who do move on, the pressure will only grow. They will have to survive the 72 hole first stage, the 72 hole second stage, and the grueling 108 hole finals to be played at Orange County National in Winter Garden, Florida from November 28-December 3.

Adding to this pressure is that along the way, they will be joined by seasoned veterans of the PGA and Nationwide Tours who do not have exempt status next year. They know this going in, but they do not let this phase them. They are following their dream. Rich Le Conche knows how much this will mean to his son. He had his taste of the tour playing in the 1975 B.C. Open alongside Wayne Levi and Mac McClendon. Even so, his son has a very simple outlook that will serve him well this week and beyond. "If I don't make it, I will just keep playing golf."