John Smoltz’s first round at Q-School proves how tough pro golf is

It’s no secret that John Smoltz has some severe recreation.

The 55-year-old MLB Corridor of Famer has been an everyday on the movie star pro-am circuit in recent times, and he has played in a lot of PGA Tour Champions occasions, in addition to the 2018 U.S. Senior Open.

This week, he’s trying so as to add one other line to his illustrious resume: PGA Tour Champions cardholder. Smoltz is trying to do one thing no different former professional athlete in one other sport has ever performed earlier than: earn a Tour card.

After qualifying for the the PGA Tour Champions’ Last Stage of Q-College at TPC Scottsdale this week, Smoltz has as much as 4 rounds to show his mettle. However qualifying for a Tour card is notoriously robust. Of the 78 males within the subject, solely the highest 5 will stroll away with a full exemption on the PGA Tour Champions in 2024. And Smoltz has some severe competitors within the type of former PGA Tour gamers like PGA Champion Shaun Micheel, Notah Begay III, Omar Uresti, Daniel Chopra, Greg Chalmers, Jason Bohn … the checklist goes on.

Regardless of the good play that earned Smoltz a spot within the subject in Scottsdale (he was one over by 4 rounds to complete T14 at Buckhorn Springs Golf & Nation Membership in Valrico, Fla., in November), match golf has an uncanny means of humbling you if you least count on it. Smoltz didn’t get the beginning he wanted on Tuesday at TPC Scottsdale, going out in 40 on the entrance and finally settling on the backside of the leaderboard with a spherical of 80.

“I don’t stay in a false actuality,” Smoltz told the PGA Tour forward of his first spherical. “This sport is basically troublesome. I’m not making an attempt to suppose that that is one thing that I might do for an entire yr or not … nevertheless it’s enjoyable to try it.”

Smoltz’s troublesome begin is additional proof of simply how onerous it’s to get a foothold on the planet of professional golf, how properly it’s important to play to have an opportunity, and the way robust the competitors might be.

But when there’s one technique to describe Smoltz, it’s as a competitor. No matter what the following spherical brings for him, he’s prone to be undeterred from persevering with to check himself in opposition to the most effective. In any case, within the immortal phrases of A League of Their Personal’s Jimmy Dugan, “The onerous is what makes it nice.”

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily answerable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular initiatives, corresponding to GOLF’s inaugural Model Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video kind on GOLF.com.