Dolch: On PGA Tour, pars and an occasional birdie will do the trick

WEST PALM BEACH – You have to shoot low numbers if you’re going to stay on the PGA Tour. More times than not, even-par rounds get you the weekend off.

The road to the PGA Tour – the Web.com Tour – is a path differently traveled, however.

Birdies and eagles aren’t as much a necessity as avoiding the dreaded big numbers.

It takes 72 holes to make it, but only one or two bad ones to miss, with almost one-third of the field advancing (low 22 and ties).

“It’s a different mindset,” said Hobe Sound resident Olin Browne Jr. “You have to play conservative golf. You’re not trying to win the event; you’re just trying to qualify.”

Browne, the son of three-time PGA Tour winner and former U.S. Senior Open champion, tried his hardest to avoid mistakes during Tuesday’s first round of a Web.com Tour first-stage q-school event at Breakers Rees Jones Course.

He was 3-under for his round and then, on his penultimate hole, he made one.

“One bad swing,” Browne said of his shot at the par-3 eighth hole that got wet, leading to a double bogey.

But Browne stayed focused. He hit a 5-iron from 204 yards at his closing hole and made the 11-foot birdie putt to sign for a 2-under 70 that left him tied for ninth place.

“That was real nice,” Browne said of the birdie. “It’s going to make lunch taste a lot better.”

Browne would take three more 70s and run to second stage. At 29, he knows time is running out if he’s going to follow his father’s footsteps onto golf’s grandest stage.

If Browne feels a sense of urgency, imagine Stuart resident Justin Peters’ mindset. At 40, the inaugural winner of Golf Channel’s Big Break has been on the verge of calling it a career more times than he cares to remember because of too many injuries and not enough earnings.

He somehow rounded up the $4,500 entry fee for this week, but then made two double bogeys in his first four holes.

Just what you don’t want to do at q-school.

“After four holes, I was eight shots behind one of my playing partners,” Peter said, referring to Evan Russell, who opened with four consecutive birdies.

As Peters has done throughout his career, he played better when things looked the bleakest. He made three consecutive birdies, before closing with two bogeys for a 3-over 75. He’s tied for 45th.

At least he’s been in this spot before. Too many times.

“I was 5-over here a few years ago, and played the rest of the tournament 9-under,” Peters said. “I had a career for at least another month.”

Stuart resident Zach Wright (73) and Hobe Sound’s Blake Morris (76) have work to do to move inside the top 22. Not so for Oliver Goss, the 2013 U.S. Amateur runner-up who leads after a 6-under 66.

The biggest name in the first-stage qualifier was Fredrik Jacobsson, but not the Fredrik Jacobson who lives at the Medalist in Hobe Sound and won once on the PGA Tour and three times on the European Tour.

While Jacobsson, another Swede, shot a 75, Jacobson was enjoying the day with his family in Costa Rica. Jacobson said by text he’s still recovering from a thumb injury and is taking a break from competitive golf.

There will be no breaks for the next three days at the Breakers, especially with the rounds lasting almost 5 ½ hours. Pars and an occasional birdie will do the trick.

Port St. Lucie resident Nyasha Mauchaza demonstrated that last week when he shot 6-under for four rounds to finish T11 and advance in a q-school event at Grasslands Golf & Country Club in Lakeland. Mauchaza was 4-under for one round and 2-under for the other three combined.

Nothing flashy. That’s how it works at q-school.