The card race begins with the first stage of PGA Tour qualifying at 13 sites across the country.

The PGA Tour’s card race began this week at 13 first-stage qualifying sites across the country.

They will fight for places in five stage two qualifiers, with these being whittled down again to join the final field of 168 to PGA Tour Q School presented by Korn Ferry, December 12-15 at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley and Sawgrass Country Club.

Some players have already started to enter the pre-qualifications. Two local players who graduated from the University of North Florida Robbie Higgins and Samuel King of Ponte Vedra Beach, an Episcopal graduate who played college golf at Cornell, reached the first stage, Higgins with a tie for ninth place in Greenville, Ala., and King with a tie for 20th place.^th in Gunter, TX.

Higgins is in the field for an early qualifying round at the Country Club of Ocala that was scheduled to begin Oct. 8 but was postponed indefinitely due to Projected path of Hurricane Milton through central Florida.

Other area players in the Ocala field are former PGA Tour players Jeff Klauk, former Times-Union high school players of the year Branden Mancheño (Mandarin) and Joshua Lee (Fleming Island) and graduate of Jacksonville University Alexander Vandermoten.

Which First Coast, Golden Isles players are participating in the Stage 1 qualifiers?

Other players with regional ties competing in stage one qualifiers, from Florida to the Midwest:

• Wilderness Ridge Country Club, Lincoln, NE, October 8-11: Former UNF player Nick Infanti.

• Club at Indian Springs, Broken Arrow, OK, October 8-11: Sandalwood and UNF graduate Travis Trace.

• Bermuda Run Country Club, North Carolina, October 15-18: Taylor Funk of Jacksonville, former player of the year at Times-Union High School in Ponte Vedra; Chris Baker of Jacksonville Beach; and John Augenstein, Parker Gillam, Austin Morrison and Jack Rhea of ​​St. Simons Island.

• The Preserve at Iron Horse, West Palm Beach, October 15-18: King and 2023 NCAA individual champion and former University of Florida player Fred Biondi.

• Lake Caroline Golf Club, Madison, MS, October 15-18: Joey Garber and Ben Boyle of St. Simons Island, Georgia.

• Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Magnolia Grove, Semmes, AL, October 22-25: Bolles graduate and former Times-Union Player of the Year AJ Crouch of Jacksonville, Cody Montgomery of St. Simons Island.

• Champions Point Golf Club, Henryville, Indiana, October 22-25: Jared Wolfe of Nocatee and Derek Bard of Jacksonville.

• Abilene Country Club, Texas, October 22-25: Dillon Council of Jacksonville, Baldwin graduate Reid Davenport of St. Simons Island.

• Rockwall Golf and Athletic Club, Rockwall, Texas: Bradley Arrington, St. Simons Island.

Where are the PGA Tour Q-School Stage 2 qualifying sites located?

• The Landings, Deer Creek, Savannah, Georgia, November 19-22.

• Hammock Beach Conservatory, Palm Coast, December 3-6.

• Kinderlou Forest Golf Club, Valdosta, Georgia, December 3-6.

• Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Highland/Marshwood Courses, Dothan, AL, December 3-6.

• Valencia (CA) Country Club, December 3-6.

PGA Tour: 61 years later, the Tour returns to Utah

Event: Black Desert Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Black Desert Resort, Ivins, Utah.

What is the handbag? $7.5 million ($1,350,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points for the winner).

Who won last year? This is the premiere of the event.

How to watch on TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 p.m.).

Registered zone players: Tyson Alexander, Chandler Blanchet, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Nico Echavarria, Harris English, Ben Griffin, Lanto Griffin, Patton Kizzire, Philip Knowles, Keith Mitchell, Andrew Novak, Raul Pereda, Sam Ryder, Greyson Sigg, Tim Wilkinson, Carl Yuan.

Notable: The PGA Tour’s return to Utah for the first time since the 1963 Utah Open is being celebrated in several ways. Jay Don Blake, 65, a PGA Tour veteran and native of St. George, Utah, is playing on a sponsor exemption and will get his 500th Tour start. He is the oldest to reach this milestone in 40 years. …Ogden natives and BYU teammates Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn, tied for fourth as a team at the Zurich Championship, are on the field. … International Presidents Cup captain and former BYU player Mike Weir is playing on a sponsor’s exemption. The Canada native has a residence in Park City. …Jacksonville native Bud Cauley, who finished tied for fifth at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, tied for fourth at the 2011 Korn Ferry Tour Utah Championship. …The late Tom Weiskopf designed the course .

LPGA Tour: Asian swing begins in China

Event: Buick LPGA Shanghai, Thursday to Sunday, Qizhang Garden Golf Club.

What is the handbag? $2.1 million ($315,000 to winner).

Who won last year? Angel Yin beat Lilia Vu on the first playoff hole for her first LPGA title.

How to watch on TV: Golf Channel (Wednesday/Thursday to Saturday/Sunday, 11 p.m.-4 a.m.).

Registered zone players: Auston Kim.

Notable: The four-week Asian Swing begins, with upcoming events in Japan, Korea and Malaysia. …Rose Zhang, Céline Boutier, Alexa Pano, Hannah Green and Ruoning Yin lead the pack.

PGA Tour Champions: final stop before Schwab Cup playoffs

Event: SAS Championship, Friday-Sunday, Prestonwood Country Club, Cary, North Carolina

What is the handbag? $2.1 million ($315,000 to winner).

Who won last year? Rod Pampling shot 68 or better all three days and topped Steven Alker by two shots.

How to watch on TV: Golf Channel (Friday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.).

Registered zone players: David Duval, Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Davis Love III, Vijay Singh.

Notable: This is the last event of the regular season. The top 72 players on the money list advance to next week’s Charles Schwab Playoffs at the Dominion Charity Championship in Richmond, Virginia. … Ernie Els tops the money list with $2,209,317, followed by Steve Alker ($2,021,973) and Stephen Ames ($2). ,021675). … Arjun Atwal is on the bubble at No. 72 with $236,323, with a $5,068 lead over Woody Austin. …Singh ($579,997) is 34^th on the money list and Duval ($356,865) is 53^rd and will advance to the playoffs.

What are the odds (in golf)?

Black Desert Championship: Hard Rock Bet has Mitchell as the favorite at +1600, followed by Seamus Power and Kurt Kitiyama (+25000).

Buick LPGA Shanghai: Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand is at +650, followed by Ruoning Yin (+1200) and Xiyu Lin (+1300).

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour Q-School Quest Begins with Stage One Qualifying Tournaments