Second stage of q-school features several past PGA TOUR winners

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Shaun Micheel won the 2003 PGA Championship, but he's back in q-school this week.

A total of 34 players with a combined 57 PGA TOUR victories -- including one major champion -- are entered in the second stage of the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament.

The second stage is being played this week at six sites across the country. The 72-hole tournaments in Florida, Texas, Georgia and California begin on Wednesday and conclude Saturday.

A pre-determined number of players, generally in the low to mid-20s, from each of the six sites will advance to the final stage at Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 108-hole finale will be played Dec. 2-7.

Only the low 25 players and ties at the finals will earn TOUR cards for the 2010 season. The rest of the players who advance will have some degree of status on the Nationwide Tour.

Shaun Micheel, who won the 2003 PGA Championship, finds himself back in q-school after his five-year exemption ran out at the end of last year. He finished 180th on the money list in 2009 and is playing at Panama City, Fla., this week.

Jim Gallagher Jr., a five-time TOUR winner, is among 13 players entered in q-school with multiple victories. Also in that group are Joe Durant and Carlos Franco (four each), Robert Gamez, Nolan Henke and Kirk Triplett (three each), and Frank Lickliter, Ted Tryba, J.P. Hayes, Jonathan Kaye, Len Mattiace, J.L. Lewis and Paul Stankowski (two each).

The other former TOUR champions competing in second stage are Mark Carnevale, Peter Lonard, Dicky Pride, Michael Clark II, Robert Damron, Ian Leggatt, Jim McGovern, Tom Scherrer, Brian Bateman, Dennis Paulson, Jim Carter, Neal Lancaster, Bob Burns, Jason Gore, Mark Hensby, Phil Tataurangi, Eric Axley, David Gossett and Mike Heinen.

In addition to working on their games, Carnevale and Paulson have been working on the other side of the ropes in the last several years as announcers for the PGA TOUR Network on SIRIUS XM.

The second stage also includes up-and-coming players like Jamie Lovemark, who lost in a playoff at the Frys.com Open, Marquette's Mike Van Sickle and Virginia Tech's Drew Weaver, who won the British Amateur in 2007.

In addition, Jay Haas Jr. is trying to follow in his father's footsteps and join his brother Bill on the PGA TOUR. Josh McCumber, whose uncle Mark is a 10-time TOUR winner who now competes on the Champions Tour, is also entered.

The final stage of the Champions Tour qualifying school began its 72-hole run on Tuesday at TPC Scottsdale. Only five Champions Tour cards are handed out there with the players who finish sixth through 12th getting conditional status. The top-30 finishers and ties will be eligible to compete in open qualifying events on the Champions Tour in 2010.

Heading the field in Scottsdale are R.W. Eaks, a four-time winner on the Champions Tour, and Denis Watson, who counts the Senior PGA Championship among his quartet of victories.