Former Georgia State golfer Jonathan Fricke shot a final round 6-under 66 to finish tied for 26th and earned his Web.com Tour card for the 2014 season Tuesday. This will mark the second time in his career that he earned full-time status on the tour.
Following an opening round 7-under 65 that placed him tied for second, Fricke shot rounds of 71, 75, 70 and 70 before Tuesday’s final round. The top-45 and ties earned their cards as play concluded on the PGA West Stadium Course and PGA West Jack Nicklaus Course.
Fricke last played on the Web.com Tour full-time (then Nationwide Tour) in 2008. That year he earned nearly $66,000 and finished 93rd on the money list.
In 2009, he also made the final stage of Q-School and earned conditional status on the Web.com Tour.
He spent 2013 playing in several Monday qualifying events as well as on the eGolf Professional Tour, a mini-tour located in the Carolinas. Fricke won the Georgia Open for the second straight summer at The Legends of Chateau Elan.
To reach the final stage, Fricke had to advance out of the first two stages of Web.com Q-School. He started his journey by tying for 21st at Callaway Gardens in October and then tied for third at Shell Landing Golf Club in Mississippi just last month.
The full 2014 Web.com Tour schedule has not been released yet, but it is expected that the season will begin in late February with the first few events coming in Latin America before returning to the States.
Fricke can use the Web.com Tour to advance to the PGA Tour in 2015. At the end of the 2014 season, the top-75 plays on the Web.com Tour and players ranked 126-200 on the PGA Tour will play in the four-tournament Web.com Tour Finals in early September.
Golfers who finish No. 1 through No. 25 on the Web.com Tour’s regular season money list are guaranteed PGA Tour cards. Those golfers will still play the Web.com Tour Finals events, however, in order to establish their priority ranking. The golfer who enters the Finals as the Web.com Tour regular-season money leader is guaranteed full PGA Tour status regardless of how he fares in the Finals; and the golfer who earns the most money during the four tournaments of the Finals is also guaranteed fully exempt status.
Fifty golfers will earn PGA Tour membership via the Web.com Tour Finals. As noted above, 25 of those 50 cards go to the golfers who finish 1-25 on the Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list.
The other 25 cards go to golfers earning the most cumulative money over the Web.com Tour Finals series of tournaments.
Georgia State will return to the course early mid-February for the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate in Mobile, Ala. The Panthers will enter the spring ranked No. 58 in the latest Golfweek rankings.