Before his seventh Q-School this fall, former two-time SEC First Team player T.J. Mitchell gave himself an ultimatum: Final Stage or bust. It wasn’t as if Mitchell had a history of flaming out at Q-School. The Georgia alum had earned Korn Ferry Tour status once — for the 2016 season — and he’d advanced past First Stage in five of six attempts. But at 30 years old, Mitchell decided that he either wanted to break through or move on from pro golf. And he broke through. After finishing First Stage on the number at Nebraska City, Neb., Mitchell opened with a first-round 65 at Second Stage in Brooksville, Fla., before finishing T5 and comfortably advancing to Q-School Finals. Now, he heads toward Finals (which begin December 12) with conditional status assured for 2020, but under no illusions. “Everyone congratulates you after making it to Final Stage; there are all these text messages, and everybody’s excited for you,” Mitchell said. “But it’s nowhere near being over.”
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LYING FOUR: How different is the atmosphere at Q-School from a normal event?
T.J. MITCHELL: It’s very different. You know you’ve got four days, and you know that one bad round is gonna put you out of it. And it’s almost a do-or-die situation, just making it through. I’ve gone to Q-School seven times now, and there’s still nerves going on every day. I’ve been able to manage them pretty well the past few years, because I know what to expect and how I’m gonna feel. This year, I’d pretty much set an ultimatum going into Q-School: make it to Final Stage or hang ‘em up. I was ready to put my energy elsewhere, had I not made it to Finals. I’m really good friends with Patton Kizzire, and he said to me, “Why would you put that extra pressure on yourself?” I told him, “Man, I’ve accepted it.” It freed me up, in a sense. I had been playing really well leading up to Q-School; I won a little mini-tour event in Dothan. I didn’t have my best stuff at First Stage, but I just played solid golf. You gotta understand — in Nebraska, it was high 40s when we teed off, and pretty windy, and it never really got out of the 50s. That makes it even more of a grind. But I played solid golf — I just didn’t ever really get anything going. In Second Stage, though, I played really well the first day, and then the second day was one of my best ball-striking days in the past couple of years — I just didn’t make any putts. I’d gotten on Twitter, and I don’t tend to look at scores too much — especially when I’m playing well, because you kind of have a good idea of where you’re at based on tee times. But the Monday Q Info guy tweeted that five-under was the number through two rounds, and I was sitting at 10. So I figured if you double that, 10 would make it through. And it really shook me. That was the first time in my eight rounds of Q-School this year when I was really shook. Everything was going really fast that third round, but I was able to keep it together — I actually birdied three out of my last five to shoot even on the day. For some weird reason, on the last day, I was the calmest that I’d been all week; I made a long birdie putt on 1, a good par save on 3, and then shoot four-under on the front. I just knew that I needed to keep playing solid, because you never know what could happen. It was unbelievable how calm I was the last round of Second Stage; nothing good ever comes out of First Stage, because you expect to make it through, but Second Stage is where things can start changing for you.
LYING FOUR: Did you know where you were coming down the stretch at First Stage?
T.J. MITCHELL: I knew it was gonna be close. I wanted to get to two-under, and I knew that I had to shoot under par the last day. You just never know; at First Stage, you have not-as-experienced guys, and then you’ve got guys in front of you tail off. And that golf course isn’t easy. Four days is a long time in Q-School. I was watching the scores all week, because I was around the number, and I wanted to know after every round. I thought it was gonna be two-under, but through the first two rounds, six-under was leading and two-under was the number. And that’s wild for there to be that small a margin between what’s making it through and what’s leading. I mean, a guy can be six-under after two rounds, but if he goes out and shoots a few over par, then he’s outside looking in when he was just leading. On 18, I thought I needed birdie. I had a 7-iron in, and I hit it to probably 15 feet, but it was just right of the green in the rough. I hit that chip to five feet, and I knew that my hands might be shaking over that putt; I’d been feeling calm all week, but then you’ve gotta make that five-footer to even have a prayer. We went in the clubhouse to eat lunch before we headed back to Omaha, and in one of the last groups, one of the rules officials gave Joey a thumbs-up: we’d made it through. I thought, “Well, we’ve got another tournament that we’ve gotta go play in.”
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LYING FOUR: How’d you wind up at the Tampa site for Second Stage? That’s a long way from Nebraska.
T.J. MITCHELL: That’s where I made it through in ’15. That was the course that I knew the best. The mini-tour event that I won was at the Robert Trent Jones course in Dothan, where they had Second Stage this year — but that was after I’d already signed up for Q-School and listed my preferences. I’d actually put Dothan third. I was hoping to get Dothan, to be honest, because I knew it was a long, hard golf course that suited my game. But I wound up getting my first choice.
LYING FOUR: So you open Second Stage with a 65, which was one stroke off the low round for the week. Were you trying to go out there and put up a number, or did it just kind of come together that way?
T.J. MITCHELL: It just kind of happened. You’ve really got to eat up the front nine, and I started on the back nine. I birdied 10, which was my first hole; it’s always nice to birdie your first hole at Second Stage. On my second hole, I made a 15-footer for par. Then I birdied 15 and finished two-under on the back. I was playing with Tee-k Kelly, and he really got in his groove on the front, and we just kind of fed off each other. I played the par-5s more aggressively than I have in the past, and that really paid off. I’ve always played 5 aggressively, but I’ve always wanted to lay up on 7, and this was the first year that I’ve ever hit driver on 9 — there’s a bunker that’s 270 to carry on the right on that hole, but I think I played it three-under for the week. I just played solid. And then the second day, I was just calm; I don’t think I ever hit it outside of 15 or 20 feet, and I was three-under, but I just didn’t make anything. One of them was a two-putt birdie, and one of them was three feet. My first bogey of the tournament was 18, and 18 is a really hard hole at Southern Hills, so that didn’t affect me in any way.
LYING FOUR: When you start off in such good position, like you did after that first round, how does it affect the way you attack the golf course for the next three rounds?
T.J. MITCHELL: I was definitely trying to build on what I’d done the first two days. You want to win it, but the ultimate goal is to go into the last round far enough ahead that you don’t have to think about what happens if you shoot a couple over par. The less stress, the better. But at the same time, you still have to keep playing aggressive and keep pushing your number further under par. So that was the plan: keep doing what I was doing, because I was playing good golf.
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LYING FOUR: So what was your reaction like when you realized you’d made it through Second Stage?
T.J. MITCHELL: I knew I was 14-under going into 18, and after I chipped it on the green, I asked Joey, “What’s the number?” And he said, “The lowest it’ll be is 12.” I had a 10-footer for par that I ended up missing, but it was just excitement. It’s not that I have to keep playing golf — I get to keep playing golf. I wouldn’t say that the grind becomes easier, but it becomes more fun, because you’re one step closer to having that opportunity and not necessarily playing mini-tours and Mondays. I still have one tournament left. I know it’s nowhere near being over; the goal is to lock up those starts. The last thing that I want to be doing is Monday qualifying. Now, in the back of your head, you know that if you and someone else who doesn’t have status both Monday in, and if you make the cut, then you’re going to reshuffle in. Everyone congratulates you after making it to Final Stage; there are all these text messages, and everybody’s excited for you — but it’s nowhere near being over. They make it so hard for you to get starts out there. And now, you’ve got some of the guys playing their best golf, so you’ve really got to show up at Final Stage.
LYING FOUR: What do you think of having a month between the end of Second Stage and the beginning of Final Stage? Is that good, or do you just want to get out there and get started?
T.J. MITCHELL: I think it’s good. You definitely want to decompress a little bit after Second Stage, because it’s a stressful week. You want to get away for a couple days, and then get back at it. I’m not going to play any tournaments; I didn’t play between First and Second Stage, either. But I’ll still be working at it hard. I’ll still be playing some games here in St. Simons; a lot of guys are down here, so there will be a lot of games to be had. That’ll be my preparation moving forward.
LYING FOUR: What do you know about Orange County?
T.J. MITCHELL: I actually was down there recently. My wife was down there for a convention earlier this month, so she said, “Why don’t you come down here, stay with me in the hotel, and go play out at Orange County National?” It was perfect. The only bad part was that it was three days after Second Stage. But I went down there on a Monday, played Panther Lake, and it was fine. There’s nothing tricky about the golf course; I was just looking at what I’m going to hit off the tee, and getting my lines. I looked at the green contours as much as I could, but I didn’t do much putting or chipping. The greens were in really good shape, but they were probably running a nine; they could have them running at 12 the next day if they wanted to, and obviously they’ll speed them up for Finals. Three of the nine holes are a good challenge, and one of them is a little bit tougher than the other two. It’ll be a good challenge. You’ll have to hit it decent long; the course measures 7,300 yards or so, and it’s overseeded, so that’ll make it play even longer.
LYING FOUR: So what does your practice routine look like right now?
T.J. MITCHELL: It’s the same as it’s been all year, really. The thing that I’ve done a good job of this year is figuring out what works for me, playing-wise and practice-wise. I’m not out there playing every day of the week; I’m out there practicing just about every day of the week, hitting balls, working on fundamentals, and doing the same putting routine that I’ve done all year. I’m playing 18 holes probably three times a week with guys from around here. And I’m not playing on days when I don’t feel like playing; in the past, I’d feel almost guilty if I wasn't playing every game that I was asked to play.
LYING FOUR: Is there anything about Q-School that the average golf fan just doesn’t understand?
T.J. MITCHELL: One thing is that it only comes around once each year; obviously want to play well year-round, but even the best players don’t play well year-round. So you really want your game starting to peak, but to keep getting better as you go along. It’s the one shot you have. And it’s so tough. Some of the nerves you feel are so wild. As many times as I’ve done this, I’ve been told that the more times you do this, the harder it gets. It definitely hasn’t gotten any easier. My nerves at certain points are better, but at certain points they’re worse. It’s tough. It’s hard. What people don’t understand is how much good golf is out there that the world doesn’t get to see. At any level you play on, whether it’s a tournament with 30 guys or a full field, you’re gonna have to play well to win. There’s gonna be someone out there playing just as well as the next guy. The difference is so small between the guys on the PGA Tour and the mini-tour guys who eventually make it or might never make it. The talent pool in golf, and how deep it is, is pretty incredible.
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All photos: credit University of Georgia Athletics
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