Denver-area resident — and 4-time PGA Tour champ — Martin Laird joins former Air Force golfers Tom Whitney and Kyle Westmoreland and Littleton native Chris Korte at final stage of PGA Tour Q-school
By Gary Baines – 12/11/2024
The Colorado contingent — shorthand for the players with strong ties to the Centennial State — set to compete this week in the final stage of PGA Tour Q-school runs the gamut in terms of experience at the highest levels of golf.
There’s Denver-area resident and former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour; probably the two most accomplished former Air Force Academy golfers, both of whom are trying to regain PGA Tour cards after one season in the big leagues: Kyle Westmoreland and Tom Whitney; and Littleton native and former University of Denver golfer Chris Korte, who is seeking a PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour card for the first time.
All four are among the 170 players ready to tee it up at Q-school Thursday through Sunday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. It’s the final stage of Q-school, following pre-qualifying, first stage and second stage.
At the final tournament of Q-school, the top five finishers and ties will land 2025 PGA Tour cards. The next 40 placers and ties will earn some exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour, with the remainder of finishers being conditional on the 2025 KFT and receiving exempt status for the Latin America Swing of the 2025 PGA Tour Americas season.
Laird will have at least conditional status on the PGA Tour for 2025 regardless of what happens at Q-school as he finished the 2024 season 145th in the FedExCup Fall standings. The only player in the field with more PGA Tour wins than Laird is five-time champ Nick Watney.
Whitney just wrapped up his rookie season on the PGA Tour and finished 164th in the FedExCup Fall standings, with 10 made cuts and a best showing of 11th place.
Westmoreland was back on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 after being a PGA Tour rookie in 2022-23; he ended up 38th on the KFT points list after opening the season with two top-5 finishes. He’s fully exempt on the KFT in 2025 regardless of what happens this week.
Korte, a former CGA Amateur and Match Play champion, played 16 events on PGA Tour Americas in 2024, making 11 cuts, with four top-20 finishes and a best showing of 12th place. He finished fourth in a second-stage Q-school event last week. This fall, he made his PGA Tour debut at the Black Desert Championship.
The final two rounds of Q-school will receive national TV coverage on the Golf Channel — 1-3 p.m. on Saturday and noon-2 p.m. on Sunday.
A $510,000 purse will be up for grabs, with $50,000 going to the winner.
For Thursday’s opening-round tee times for the final stage, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com