The six-day slog called Q-School has always been filled with the most unique stories in golf. Players on the make. Players on the mend.
Players who have been burglarized.
After competing in the Web.com Tour Championship earlier this month, Scott Gutschewski was driving with his wife, Amy, from the Dallas area to Omaha, Neb., where they had recently moved their family and where Scott would prepare for the final stage of Q-School.
During the drive, they decided to bunk overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in Edmond, Okla., and continue north the next day. But the next morning they found their car nearly cleaned out. Gutschewksi’s two television sets, his clothes and, most crucially, his golf clubs were gone.
“Basically cleaned it out,” Gutschewski said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “I pretty much lost all my clothes.”
Without a formal club deal, Gutschewski did his best to refill his bag, calling various manufacturers to build him another hodgepodge set. The replacement driver and putter didn’t feel right, so he went with older models sitting in his house in Omaha. He also tried out various irons.
“I’ve represented most of the manufacturing companies this year,” he said with a laugh. “People got me the stuff real quick. I only had about 10 days to get it turned around.”
Gutschewski got acclimated well enough to win medalist honors at the second stage of qualifying school at Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, shooting 20-under-par-268 to finish one shot ahead of Scott Dunlap.
“The goal is to advance, but I think the best way to advance is to win,” said Gutschewski, who opened the first round of the final stage with a 2-under-par 70. “I wasn’t going to do anything stupid coming down the stretch to win the tournament, but I think the best way to go out and finish in the top 20 is to try and win the tournament.”
And this week, with a potpourri of clubs and the pressure of final stage, he will try to do it again.
