View the Q School final stage scores
After turning 50 years old in the fall of 2023, Gord Burns decided to give the qualifying school a run for the 2024 PGA Tour Champions. This journey has been a goal for Gord the past several years as his tournament game has steadily improved in the past decade to where he’s notched up numerous tournament victories and held a sub par tournament scoring average the past 5 seasons. The q school process started with a 1st stage that consisted of 4 rounds with 78 players in the starting field, with 18 advancing to final stage. There were 3 first stage sites, and Gord chose the site in Palm Springs California , Soboba Springs Golf Course. With scores of 72,74,69,74, and a t-13th finish, it was good enough for Gord to advance to finals at TPC Scottsdale the following week.
Up against some of the worlds best tournament players vying for only 5 fully exempt cards was as Burns described , “a tad bit overwhelming, but nonetheless I’m here to play the best I can and see how my game measures up under these circumstances”. Gord got out of the gates strong in the first round with a 5 under score of 66, putting him in the top 5 after day 1. He knew that needed to be the theme the whole week as these world class players were not holding anything back. With scores of 66,71,69,72 and a 6 under par total for the week, it was enough to finish in a tie for 28th place and secure Associate Member Status for the 2024 season, an accomplishment that was deemed a success before the q school started. Although a top 5 would have been the ultimate goal, the top 30 finish gives Burns direct access to all the Monday qualifiers for the 2024 season, bypassing the grueling pre-qualifying process of usually 100 players for 5 spots just to get into the Monday qualifier. It will be an exciting season to see where the chips fall as Gord will attempt approximately 15 events this season.