Silence speaks volumes at q-school's suffocating final stage

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Even a two-time U.S. Open champion like Lee Janzen isn't immune to the pressure of q-school's final stage.

Silence, deafening silence. That is what you hear at the finals of q-school. Your phone doesn't ring, your caddie doesn't know what to say, your family sends well-intentioned but trite wishes. Whether you have two kids whose lives depend on your future or you are a single kid just out of college the sounds are the same. No one calls, no one texts -- but you know that everyone is paying attention.

There won't be many tweets from q-school at Orange County National this week either. Maybe Lee Janzen will chime in and maybe he won't. One thing is certain, he won't if he is near the "number." Even a two-time U.S. Open champion who knows that he can still play fairly often on the PGA TOUR without going to q-school isn't immune to the pressures of the week. And in Lee's case, with the resurgence in his game, maybe q-school is just what he needs.

But attending and rekindling the dream is one thing. A successful run through -- and by that I mean finishing in the top 25 out of 166 -- is something else entirely.

Is Janzen's desire any less now than it was when he was the age of most of his fellow competitors this week? Possibly. He has already proven himself. He has won eight times and earned more than $15 million. But Lee wants more, and at q-school savvy can matter more than desire.

That is what q-school is all about. Not just wanting more but believing that you are destined for more. Believing that you not only belong on the PGA TOUR but that you will get there and succeed, for the first time or the last. But, even still, belief is only a part of the equation for success at q-school.

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Some may say that I romanticize q-school too much. Those same people never dared to dream bigger than the world around them. Q-school is a unique opportunity in sports to accomplish something that everyone who has ever held a club might dream of but few can ever turn into reality. Perhaps the Olympic Trials surpass q-school in importance in an athlete's career. I don't know, my 400-meter time never made it to the trials.

I do know that during the six-day marathon that is q-school real life spends little time trying to intervene. The marrow of a beautiful fall day in central Florida is sucked away before the sun reaches half mast by the pressure and interminably long rounds, both in terms of hours and psyche, which q-school offers.

I have seen caddies lose their lunch in the woods of the final round. I have seen players make decisions, or fail to make decisions, that cost them what feels like their reason for being. I wish that I was exaggerating. I wish that I hadn't been one of those players. I wish that so many of my friends hadn't suffered the same fate.

Pressure is a funny thing. It either brings out the best in you or the worst. It is indiscriminate that way, and even when you have established a personal pattern it doesn't seem to care. Ask Lee Janzen. He has handled the most intense pressure the game has to offer and won its most demanding championship twice. But he's back for more at q-school. Pressure is pressure after all, and mostly it is self-imposed.

It is for that reason that q-school is quiet for everyone. Those who support one of the contenders knows that he has toiled in his own way to be there -- whether being there is a step forward or a step back. They know that he has to do this on his own because he has let them know that in the end this is a solitary pursuit. No father, mother, wife or friend ever got anyone through q-school. And their calls, their wishes and their vicarious dreams only serve as a distraction this week. This week you have to listen to the echoes of your own silence and somehow make them sing harmoniously. This week it is your song alone.

John Maginnes is a PGATOUR.COM contributor and member of the PGA TOUR Live team for Sirius-XM Radio. A PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour veteran, Maginnes reached the final stage of q-school five times and got his card three times.