Dec 1, 2015
Three Canadians tee it up at Champions Tour Q-School
Jim Rutledge, Rick Gibson and Stuart Hendley take part in 79-player shootout that will award just five full-time spots on golf’s 50-and-over circuit
By Bob Weeks
Three Canadian golfers take to the links today in an attempt to weave their way through the toughest qualifying school in golf. Jim Rutledge, Rick Gibson and Stuart Hendley are playing in the final stage of the Champions Tour Q-School, a 79-player shootout that will award just five full-time spots on the 50-and-over circuit.
For Rutledge, the grind of this event is nothing new for the Victoria product. He’s been at the last four of these schools and never finished worse than sixth. That came last year and, as a result, he only earned conditional status. The three previous years he garnered a full card. Considering the long odds, that’s like winning the lottery three times in four years.
Rutledge has played the Champions Tour with varying levels of access since turning 50. In his six years on the circuit, he’s earned just over $1.3 million (U.S.).
Last year, however, wasn’t his best as he collected a little more than $60,000. That forced him back to first stage along the qualifying route where he waltzed through to set up another visit this week to the finals.
His success at Q-School is remarkable and also somewhat ironic. One of Canada’s most talented golfers, he was never able to make it through the qualifying process to get to the PGA Tour despite numerous tries. In fact, he even lost count at the number of attempts he made, pegging it somewhere between 15 and 20.
Rutledge finally did get to the PGA Tour in 2007, playing as a 48-year-old rookie after advancing through the Web.com Tour. However he only made five cuts in 18 starts and lost his privileges.
Rick Gibson, who was born in Calgary, grew up in Victoria and lives in Manila, Philippines, (he met his wife there while playing the 1987 Philippine Open) has spent most of his career playing in Asia. He has enjoyed success in the last few years playing on the European Senior Tour. He finished 2015 32nd on the Order of Merit and notched a win on that tour a year earlier.
Stuart Hendley was once the top-rated junior golfer in the United States but was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 17. After a three-year battle, he returned to golf, earned a scholarship at the University of Houston where he played alongside Steve Elkington and Billy Ray Brown. After turning professional, he ventured north to play the old Canadian Tour and while competing at the Alberta Open, met his wife, eventually settling in Canada and taking out citizenship.
The three Canadians are joined in the field at the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale by a number of notables including two-time Canadian Open champion Steve Jones, Grant Waite, who finished runner-up to Tiger Woods at the 2000 Canadian Open and another Canadian Open second-place finisher, Neal Lancaster.