This story was updated with comments from one of the players.
Four players qualified on Monday for the PGA Tour’s Black Desert Championship.
Two of them shouldn’t have been in the field – or at least without playing a pre-qualifier first.
Monday Q Info’s Ryan French reported on Monday morning that four players – Chris Korte, John Sand, Riley Lewis and RJ Manke – were able to sign up for the Monday qualifier at Sand Hollow in Hurricane, Utah, because of what the Utah PGA section, which runs the qualifiers, called a “clerical error.” The players normally would’ve needed to play the pre-q, yet, as French notes, after temporarily being removed from the Monday qualifier, all four guys were allowed back in.
According to the PGA Tour’s open-qualifying guidelines for 2024, the following players are exempt from pre-qualifiers: PGA Tour members, Korn Ferry Tour members, PGA Tour Champions regular members, DP World Tour members from Categories 1-21, players who competed in the preceding week’s PGA Tour event, players who have made at least one PGA Tour in the current season, players ranked in the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking and three members of the local PGA section.
None of the four players, who at best have PGA Tour Americas status, meet that criteria.
French’s story, which can be read in its entirety here, included official PGA Tour confirmation of the reported details.
Exacerbating the controversy, both Korte and Sand got through the qualifier and will tee it up Thursday at Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah.
Speaking to Golf Channel on Tuesday evening, Manke said he signed up for the Monday qualifier in August, “stumbling upon” the webpage – there are separate application pages for the pre-q and open qualifier – and seeing an exemption category for PGA Tour Americas players.
“I am and was well aware of what the typical Monday Q exemptions categories are, and I just thought that this one was different because it was a new tournament or for whatever reason,” said Manke, who had KFT status until this year and had only played one pre-q previously, for the Sony Open, which he didn’t advance through. “I saw that I had this opportunity to skip the pre-q and of course wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to have the chance to play in a Tour event.”
Manke added that his application was approved the next day, and it wasn’t until last Thursday morning, the same day of the final pre-qualifier, that he was notified by the Utah PGA of the mistake. He then dialed a competitions representative at the PGA Tour to inquire about what went wrong. The section told French that one player called the Tour and asked that he be “reimbursed for his travel expenses,” though Manke denies that being a topic of his conversation.
“There was no struggle between myself and any of the Utah PGA or PGA Tour,” said Manke, who received word that he was back in the Monday field about an hour after the initial call. "... If they had told us earlier and explained that it was an honest mistake, I would’ve been fine [playing the pre-q].”
Korte and Sand each shot 8-under 64 along with Chandler Blanchet while David Bradshaw, with a 65, was the fourth qualifier. Lewis was a shot out of qualifying at 6 under, as were Kevin Stadler, Stuart Macdonald and Jim Knous.
Manke carded 68, but he’ll stay in the area to caddie for Sand, who he grew up playing golf with in Washington. Sand was also a college teammate of Korte while Lewis graduated from Loyola Marymount earlier this year. Manke said Sand found out about the bypass via a friend in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Asked why he thinks there weren’t more players who caught on to the error, Manke guessed, “Probably because people know the normal exemption categories of who gets into the Monday and they go to the pre-q website.”
He later added: “But I didn’t feel any animosity from other players, or I wasn’t aware if they even knew about it.”
One player who finished at 5 under, when contacted by Golf Channel, was completely unaware that the four players were allowed to compete despite not being eligible.
Another, Jim Knous didn’t find out until reading French’s article after the fact.
“Yikes,” Knous tweeted. “Shot -6 today, got beat by 2 of these players. And had a flat tire this morning. What a weird day. How about a spot in the field @PGATOUR?!”
