26 Earn 2011 Tour Cards

The grueling, six-round annual ordeal called Q School has ended and 26 players have earned their PGA Tour cards for the 2011 season. Leading the pack is veteran Billy Mayfair, who finished the 108 holes with a total of 18-under 411. He also earned $50,000 as the medalist.

"A win is a win, I don't care if you win this or if you win your match play back at home," Mayfair told PGA.com. "A 'W' is a 'W' and I'll take the feather in my cap. But watching these young kids, watching Ben (Martin) and Bio (Kim) play today under the pressure, I mean they had a lot more pressure riding on this than I did. Basically I was playing all week to be able to play through April. After April, I was going to be able to play pretty much everywhere I wanted to anyway with my status. It was good to win, but man, there are some good young players and fearless."

Finishing a stroke back in a tie for second were William McGirt and Ben Martin, while another shot behind was Cameron Tringale, a Californian who played on the 2009 Palmer Cup and Walker Cup teams.

Jarrod Lyle was fifth at 414, while Michael Putnam, Tour veteran Brandt Jobe and Zach Miller were another shot behind in a tie for sixth. In ninth at 416 were Kyle Stanley and Paul Stankowski, who racked up two PGA Tour victories in the mid-'90s.

The remaining qualifiers include:

T11 (417) - Chris Baryla, Scott Stallings, Nate Smith, Gary Woodland and Bio Kim
T16 (418) - Joseph Bramlett, Michael Thompson, Kent Jones, Matt McQuillan, Sunghoon Kang and James Driscoll
T22 (419) - Andres Gonzalez, Alexandre Rocha, Jim Renner, Justin Hicks and Richard Johnson

Play during the tense tournament at the appropriately named Winder Garden, Fla., was complicated by 40-degree weather and 30-mph winds. As Woodland later quipped to Golf Channel, "It's a lot like a root canal, it just takes longer."

Woodland should know as he endured a real root canal Tuesday afternoon on the eve of Q School.

Those who finished between Nos. 126-150 on the 2010 money list are eligible to play between 15 to 20 events next year on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

In earning a spot next season Bramlett will be only the second golfer of African-American heritage on the PGA Tour. The other is Tiger Woods, another former Stanford player. The last black golfer to earn a card at Q-school was Adrian Stills in 1985.

"It's an honor, it truly is an honor," Bramlett said. "Like I've said before, it's been a long time. I'm just thrilled to see it start to change."

When hearing that a fellow Cardinal earned a spot next season, Woods wrote on Twitter: "Congrats to Joe Bramlett for making it through Q School," and "Can't wait to play with him next season."

For the full list of Q School players and their results, visit http://www.pgatour.com/qschool/leaderboard.

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