Jobe Wins Champions Tour Q-School

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Brandt Jobe has never won on the PGA Tour, but he's made more than $9 million on golf's biggest stage, and he's won 18 professional tournaments worldwide. 

That's an impressive resume. It did not, however, get him an automatic spot on the 2016 Champions Tour. He had to go through the ordeal known officially as the Champions Tour National Qualifying Tournament to earn a spot on the Senior Circuit, and on Friday he shot a 2-under-par 69 on the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale to claim medalist honors in the Final Stage of Q-School.

The 50-year-old veteran of several golf tours -- he led the Canadian Tour Order of Merrit (money list) in 1990 and won six times on the Japanese Tour between 1995 and '99 -- posted a 72-hole total of 266 (18 under) and won by a single stroke over a pair of former PGA Tour winners -- Tom Byrum and Jose Coceres -- and Willie Wood. Like Jobe, they will all be fully exempt for the Champions Tour next year. So will the fifth-place finisher, Mike Grob.

Byrum closed with a 63 to claim his spot in the top five. Wood and Coceres both shot 67's. 

Jobe began the final round with a two-stroke lead. But when Coceres birdied the 429-yard, par-4 14th hole and Jobe bogeyed it, Coceres was ahead by one. He was 17 under for the tournament. Wood was tied with Jobe at that point, both at minus 16, and Byrum was one behind them (minus 15).

At the 552-yard, par-5 15th, Jobe made a birdie and reclaimed a share of first (he was now minus 17). Byrum birdied it, too. So he and Wood were one behind (minus 16), tied for third.

All four of the principal players in this Q-School drama birdied the par-5 17th (552 yards), which sent Jobe and Coceres to the 18th tee still tied for the lead (minus 18. Jobe earned the first-place medal -- and the accompanying $30,000 -- by making a par at the 460-yard, par-4 18th, while Coceres made a bogey, which dropped him into the tie for second with Wood and Byrum. 

They made $17,000 each.    

Wood won twice on the Champions Tour in 2012, but the Champions is the toughest tour in the world to get onto, and it's also the toughest one to stay on. Only the top 30 finishers on this year's money list are fully exempt for next year, and only the top five from Q-School get full exemptions. Compare that with the PGA Tour, where the top 125 on the money list retain their exemptions, and another 50 guys get exemptions for the next season by virtue of their ranking at the end of the web.com Tour regular season or their performances in the four-tournament series known as the web.com Finals.

The Champions Tour Q-School cost $3,000 per player, and the process began with three regional qualifiers in November. There were only two  players with Minnesota connections who entered, and neither got through to the Final Stage.

Greg Avant, the former Rochester Mayo star who played for Arizona State and is now the owner/Director of Golf at Lone Tree Golf Club in Chandler, Ariz., took his shot in the California Regional at The Country Club at Soboba Springs in San Jacinta, where the top 17 finishers advanced to TPC Scottsdale. He tied for 31st with a 299.

(Avant, who won southeastern Minnesota's biggest tournament, the Shelden Invitational, a record four consecutive times before turning professional in 1991, nearly won the Arizona State Open 18 years later, when he was 43. He and mini-tour pro Neil Johnson, a former Gustavus Adolphus All-American from River Falls, led the tournament after two rounds in 2009. Unfortunately, Avant's putter turned cold in the final round. He shot 70 and finished second, two strokes behind Curt Byrum, the former PGA Tour winner-turned Golf Channel analyst -- and brother of the Tom Byrum who tied for second on Friday and earned his Champions Tour Card for 2016.)

Another Minnesota expatriate, Jim Sorenson, the former State Public Links champion (1984) who won the U.S. Publinx the following year by a record margin of 12 and 11, was in the Texas Regional. It was played in Montgomery at Woodforest Golf Club, and the top 16 went on from there. Sorenson tied for 43rd with a 304.

That's OK, because tournament golf isn't exactly his day job. Sorenson now lives in Colorado, and the company that he founded two decades ago -- Momentus Golf -- keeps growing. More than 500,000 golfers have used Momentus training aids. That list includes more than 100 PGA Tour pros (Angel Cabrera said that the weighted Momentus putting aid was a factor in his winning the 2009 Masters) and quite a few Champions Tour players, including Tom Lehman and Fred Funk.

What's more, Momentus has branched out in recent years, and is now making training aids for other sports, baseball and tennis among them.     

CHAMPIONS TOUR Q-SCHOOL

Final Stage 

At TPC Scottsdale - Champions Course

Par 71, 6,943 yards

Scottsdale, Ariz. 

Final results 

(The top 5 finishers are fully exempt for 2016. The next seven will have partial status. Those who finish 13th through 30th will be eligible to play in the weekly qualifying tournaments for Champions Tour events next year.)

1. Brandt Jobe               $30,000    66-65-66-69--266

T2. Tom Byrum               $17,000   69-68-67-63--267

T2. Willie Wood               $17,000   66-66-68-67--267

T2. Jose Coceres            $17,000    69-67-64-67--267

5. Mike Grobe                 $14,000    65-68-66-69--268  

6. John Riegger               $12,000    70-69-66-64--269

7. Gibby Gilbert III           $10,000    64-68-68-70--270

8. Jean-FrancoisRemesy $9,000     65-68-69-69--271

T9. Stan Utley                  $7,500     69-68-67-68--272

T9. Steve Jones               $7,500     66-68-68-70--272

T11. Chien Soon Lu         $5,500     71-69-67-66--273

T11. Miguel Angel Martin $5,500     70-70-67-66--273    


Regional Qualifying

San Jacinto, Calif.

Nov. 17-20 

At The Country Club at Soboba Springs

Par 72

(The 17 advanced)

1. Jim Rutledge                                69-69-69-68--275

T2. Greg Bruckner                           71-70-68-70--279

T2. Jeff Brehaut                               69-71-69-70--279

T4. Lianwei Zhang                           72-70-68-74--284

T4. Patrick Burke                             75-72-68-69--284

What it took: 293 (3-way tie for 16th; 3 played off for 2 spots)

T31. Greg Avant                             72-77-75-75--299

 
Montgomery, Texas

Nov. 17-20 

At Woodforest Golf Club

Par 72

Final results 

(The top 16 advanced) 

1. Andre Bossert                            69-70-66-72--277

2. Andre Cruse                              69-67-74-70--280

T3. Robin Byrd                              71-72-72-66--281

T3. Sonny Skinner                        68-70-74-69--281

What it took: 288 (2-way tie for 15th)

T42. Jim Sorenson                      76-77-73-78--304