Chase for TOUR cards generates excitement

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Rickie Fowler, who lost in a playoff at the Frys.com Open, is one of many potential stars to keep an eye on this fall.

Look, I get it. I don't understand it, but I get it.

This time of year you are probably more worried about what multimillionaire wide receiver you should start in your fantasy football league than you are about golf.

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Sure, you try to get a few rounds in before you have to mothball the clubs for the winter. And if something extraordinary happens in the world of golf you are sure you will hear about it. But after seeing the best players in the world tee it up from the PGA Championship through the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup to the Presidents Cup your attention has turned to other things.

I get it, but I have news for you.

Something extraordinary is happening every week right now, and you are probably missing it. You should be watching the Fall Series because it is compelling.

Going into the final round of the Frys.com Open there were a handful of guys in contention who were hovering around the top 125 on the money list that will receive exempt status on TOUR next year. There were two kids, Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark, who have yet to earn their TOUR cards but had a very real chance to win for the first time. They were joined near the top of the leaderboard by Webb Simpson who could have thrown a huge wrench in the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year race with a victory.

So what happened? Fowler and Lovemark got into a playoff with Troy Matteson that the veteran won with a birdie on the second extra hole. Still, Fowler became a Special Temporary Member of the PGA TOUR by eclipsing the earnings of the player who finished 150th on last year's money list. He's exempt into the second stage of q-school now, and if he maintains his position in the top 150 Fowler will advance directly to the finals. He tee off Thursday at the Viking Classic and if he can work his way inside the magic top 125 when the season ends in three weeks, Fowler will avoid q-school altogether.

Lovemark, on the other hand, will be playing in the first stage of q-school this week. So Fowler left school early while Lovemark had to rush back for class after the Frys.com Open. They will meet again on the PGA TOUR, though -- that much seems certain.

But who will join them there next year and the year after and going forward into the next decade? Those guys who you have never heard of were at work this week as well.

All of that happened while you were watching New England play Tampa from London. And that was not even close to the most exciting thing happening in golf right now, either. At 13 golf courses around the country the first stage of annual q-school is being played. About 1,000 players who thought enough of their chances wrote a check for an entry fee that was enough to have bought a good used car. And nearly 800 of those players will go home with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts but a little debt and a broken heart.

At each first stage tournament there are roughly 70 players who compete for four days. Depending on availability and the size of field roughly 20-23 advance unceremoniously to the second stage while the others go home with nothing but a story they never want to tell. And only a portion of the players at the second stage reach the finals, which is contested over 108 holes.

Every player who tees it up in the first stage believes that he has a chance, and he does. You don't have to play fantastic golf to advance -- usually shooting 1 under each day will get you to the finals. Slightly better than that at the finals and you are a PGA TOUR player the next year. The formula is simple; the execution is something else entirely.

Every player, no matter how experienced, knows what it takes to advance. But the game gets a little tougher at the first stage. Thoughts get a little cloudier and nerves get a little more raw -- especially as the week goes on.

Gary Nicklaus knew all that. He has been through the gauntlet before and yet chose to do it again last week at the age of 40. For some it is just hard to give up the ghost. Who am I kidding? For anyone who has ever been to the mountain top it is impossible not to look up and wonder what might have been. For Gary, returning to q-school after a five-year absence wasn't the make-or-break situation it is for some. After missing by two shots on a week that saw him well within the top 22 all week, Gary headed home to his family empty-handed.

Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, also missed at the first stage by a couple of shots in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Up the coast in St. Augustine, Jay Haas Jr. advanced easily along with 21 others to the second stage. This week the first stage continues around the country with several hundred more heartbreaks and far fewer triumphs. Those who advance can hardly celebrate. Next month they will do it all again at the second stage in hopes of advancing to the finals and earning one of the 25 PGA TOUR cards that are up for grabs.

Those are not the only TOUR cards doled out this year, though. The Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island ended on Sunday with a graduating class of 25 that has as much promise as any in memory. Australian Michael Sim led the way all year and will join the PGA TOUR with the highest expectations of any graduate since Stewart Cink in 1996. Cink also finished 16th at the U.S. Open that year, earning a spot in the 1997 Masters, while Sim played with Tiger Woods on the weekend at Bethpage in June and ended up 18th.

There are 50 stories waiting to be told next year. Some of those stories are just being written while others will be about veterans like Jeff Gove or Kevin Johnson getting another shot at stardom. The most interesting part is that there are only a couple of months left in the calendar but we still don't have a clue to the identity of a large number of players on the PGA TOUR next year.

There are guys teeing it up right now in qualifying school who will win majors and play on Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams in the coming years but you likely have never heard their names. Which brings me back to the question of why aren't you paying attention now? The most exciting golf of the year is going on right now, and you are missing it. Granted, it doesn't have the star power of some of the other events earlier in the year, but it has teeth and staying power. You should check it out.

Former PGA TOUR player John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.