The benefit of the second stage exemption is that I can go as an amateur to second stage. If I advance through second stage I must then decide if I will turn pro or not. Obviously if I enter Q-School I will turn pro if I advance. If I were to miss advancing, I would keep my amateur status and finish out the college season so there would be no impact on my college team. As for giving up amateur stuff, that won't be much of a decision.

As far as a plan for turning pro, my plan has been to turn pro after graduating next year all along. This year will be my last US Amateur and summer of amateur golf. The sooner I turn pro after graduating, the more opportunities I will have to get sponsor exemptions/starts and try to earn status on PGA/web.com tours and dodge q-school, ideally. A lot can change or be determined by how this summer and next school year go as far as getting sponsor exemptions into events, so it is hard to have a set-in-stone plan now when a lot can happen.

Regardless of the exemption, I will not turn pro without graduating. If it is not possible to graduate this fall then I will not enter because if I were to advance, I would need to be free and clear of school at the beginning of 2014 because playing early in the year is very important for the web.com tour, and having to worry about even one or two classes to finish my degree could be difficult at the beginning of a web.com season with them playing internationally the first month or so.

Throughout the week the greens didn't get a whole lot firmer, maybe just a little faster. However, I played in the morning on Sunday and the greens looked firmer on TV in the afternoon than I expected based on how it played in the morning, so they may have gotten a little baked since Sunday was good weather all day with a breeze. Hole locations definitely got tougher as the week went on, some that stand out to me on Sunday were holes 5, 11, 16, 17. In general, pins were closer to the slopes in a way that made it very easy to get yourself above the hole which was the biggest thing you wanted to avoid, so you had to keep that in mind on your approach which side of the hole you wanted to leave the ball on.

Just do a Luke Guthrie, easy peasy

Congrats on All-American honors

I'll tell what's fun stuff: A million goddamn dollars.

Then how'd you like $5M? Cuz that's what a little birdie told me.

Looks like he is tied for 9th at even after 3 rounds at northeast am. Random question but the par is 69 there, did they just change a short 5 to a 4 or something. Goes back to the whole par is par and doesn't really matter much what the number is.

Just looked at score card and that looks like what they did, no par 5 on front 9. Still 6700+ yards though

as far as I know the course is always a par 69, they don't change it for the tournament

Par 69's do exist. Pretty rare though. Like a par 73.

The Gray at Ohio State University's course is par 69

US Open sectional we played a course in MD that was a par 69, can't remember the name of it. Fred Funk got through that year.

Is there a good reason they don't want to let an amateur wait until after final stage to decide? Seems like a rule made to protect the veterans.

because if you make it to final stage then you receive at least conditional status on the web.com tour.

It matters less under the new structure, but under the old system (Top 25 and ties get a tour card, next 50 get full status on Nationwide, the rest get conditional status on Nationwide) it seems like a college player should get to make his decision after Finals.

If you make it to the big tour, you go pro. If you're going to be Monday qualifying on Nationwide, you'd rather stay in school. If you have full Nationwide status, I could see it going either way.

With Q School only separating full Web.com status from conditional this year, I guess it's easier to make your decision before Finals, but it would still be nice if they let you wait. One less player with conditional Web.com status isn't going to affect much right?

Maybe if all the top college players (that could afford it) went to Q School with the plan to go back to school unless they get full status somewhere, it would start to throw off the numbers.

What you would be suggesting would be similar to allowing a player to turn pro after they make a cut and take the money rather than having to declare that they are a pro before the tournament starts, but if they don't make the cut then they remain amateur. I am guessing that it works the same way as cuts do, where the top 70 professionals make the cut. At the Traveler's this week the guys who finished T71 made the cut because an amateur was inside the cut line, so it may be the case that if you remain amateur it can make a difference on how many advance to final stage out of your second stage site.

I'm not sure if it's changed, but in 2008 you could decide after Final Stage. I played Finals as an amateur that year and then had 10 days to decide. I was turning professional regardless but I wanted to go as an amateur as I thought it would help the story and endorsements if I became the first amateur to earn a card that way. I could not take the prize money but I figured the $25k would be irrelevant if I got at PGA card and the $4k you get for a Nationwide card is irrelevant.

Ah I must have been mistaken. I thought I remember you saying that you had to decide after making it thru second stage. I will have to double check on that

Either way it won't really matter. If I made it to final stage I wouldn't pass up turning pro. So in the big picture it may not make a difference, but technically there could be a difference if I were to be am at final stage or not

So, when you turn pro do you need a caddie?

I'm available

Somehow I managed to miss the entirety of this thread, the best in the forum. Cool to catch up on it, though, and looking forward to future sweats.

i know i said i wouldn't post or read in here any more, but i am making a special exception as i saw this about michael weaver, a poster here.

http://golfweek.com/news/2013/jul/27...by-five-shots/

SHORT SHOTS: California senior Michael Weaver won the William H. Campbell Award. It is awarded to the player with the lowest combine score from the Northeast Amateur, Players Amateur and Porter Cup.

very nice honor, michael!!

i will post here again if i see anything of special note to this forum.

Doesn't he have an entire thread dedicated to him already?

Bump to remind y'all that the US Am starts today...gogogoogogogogogo STADS!

He starts at 1:20 at Brookline

http://www.usga.org/ChampEventScore....13&type=stroke

*like*

Hoping for a Michael Weaver - Sebastian Cappelen final :-)

Sorry for the double post.