Secret Tour Caddy: Q School cards are more worthless by the year

“A nice little earner.”

This would be a charitable description of what the Q School is to the DP World Tour, netting them around £2 million in entry fees every year, especially as the overwhelming majority of those paying their entry fee for Stage 1 will never ever set foot on the course of an actual DP World Tour event that year, or any other year for that matter.

This is something that the DP World Tour are only too aware of, but remain more than happy to relieve them of their money anyway. But for those who do end up taking their chance and at the end of those six rounds (10 if you’ve come through Stage 2) and come away with a card, then you’d have thought it would be reasonable enough to expect that that card would bring with it playing opportunities.

Yeah right! Good one. Think again, my friend!

The reality is that getting your card at Q School brings with it fewer and fewer opportunities every year. Look at 2025 for example. In Dubai, the winner of Q School was 30 spots short of getting in. In 2024 he was 14 shy. In Ras Al Khaimah, the winner of Q School was one spot short of getting in. In 2024, he and 15 others in that category got in.

In Bahrain, the winner of Q School got in as did three others. In 2024, he and 16 others in that category got in and it was the same in Qatar, the winner of Q School got in as did 15 others. In 2024, he and 28 others in that category got in.

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It’s unsurprising then that representation of the DP World Tour has been made and not just by those who are most affected by the way. Players with full exemptions have been speaking up for their affected colleagues and adversaries.

Words like “closed shop” and “unfair” have been bandied about and to good effect by the looks of things, as suddenly the field size went up by six in both Ras Al Khaimah and Qatar, even though that can present issues with the available daylight at this time of year – witness the 6:10 am first tee time.

This doesn’t exactly allow a lot of time for a proper dynamic warm-up, travel from the hotel to the course, breakfast and warming up on the range, but needs must. Welcome as this may be though, the prospects of guys in Category 18 (the one for those who made it through Q School) don’t exactly get much better later in the season, because not one of them will be teeing it up in the co-sanctioned events around The Open, or in the Rolex events at the end of the summer.

All of this makes the job of keeping the card you won through Q School pretty tricky, and that’s despite the Race to Dubai points on offer being virtually the same across the schedule. This makes a return to Q School from whence they came more than a distinct possibility for everyone in Category 18.

All of which begs the question – Is a Q School card worth the paper it’s written on?

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Is there less romance about the DP World Tour Q School? Are Q School cards as useful as they used to be? Tell us on X!