“The season is a write-off!” – Pro gutted by Q-School cancellation

The European Tour has confirmed that, for the second consecutive year, Q-School has been cancelled.

As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the European Tour took the decision to freeze rankings for the 2021 season, which in turn saw the cancellation of the yearly Q-School.

Although rankings will not be frozen this year, a new safety net is being introduced according to a report from Golf Digest, which will see all current European Tour players retain their membership.

The knock-on effect of that is that Qualifying School has once again been cancelled for 2021.

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“Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the demands of hosting multiple events in different countries over a short space of time, the Qualifying School did not take place in 2020 and will not take place in 2021 either,” reads a short statement on the European Tour website.

The news of the cancellation has rocked the world of professional golf below the European Tour.

“I’m gutted by the news,” Tiger Adams, a member of the Clutch Pro Tour and Jamega Tour, told bunkered.co.uk. “It’s the biggest event of the year and what all the tournaments I play will have been in preparation for. So, to have that taken away again defeats a lot of the purpose of those mini-tour events.

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“To cancel, it reduces our opportunities almost entirely. For guys like me to progress without Q-School, you only have the EuroPro top-5 Order of Merit and then the odd invite for mini-tour event winners. So, unless you are winning in 160-player fields over the last two seasons, they have been write-offs before they’ve got going.”

Despite the European Tour pointing towards the demands of hosting tournaments in different countries in the current climate, Adams, who has two top-25 finishes on mini-tours this season, questions the legitimacy of the reasoning.

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“Obviously, with travel restrictions changing every day and the tour’s use of bubbles, I can see how it would be a nightmare,” added Englishman Adams. “On the other hand, if regular tour events are going ahead, then it’s hard not to think why can’t this.”