In professonal golf the term Qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S. based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the tour for the following season, otherwise known as a "tour card", meaning that they can play in most of the tour's events without having to qualify. They join the leaders on the previous year's money list/order of merit and certain other exempt players as members of the tour. Golf (gowf in Scots) is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. ... // Introduction Professional golf is one of the more lucrative sports in the world for both men and women, but it is has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports. ... The PGA Tour is an organization that is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA, just south of Jacksonville. ... The LPGA is the Ladies Professional Golf Association. ... The PGA European Tour is a top-level professional mens golf tour. ...

Getting through the qualifying school of an elite tour is very competitive and most professional golfers never achieve it. There can be up to three stages to negotiate, each of them like a regular golf tournament with only a small number of players going on to the next stage. The Final Qualifying School may be played over up to six rounds, compared with the standard four rounds in a professional golf tournament. However players who are successful at Qualifying School can reach the elite level of competition very quickly. In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals in rigorously maintained. ...

Other methods of getting onto an elite golf tour include:

• Finishing near the top of the money list/order of merit on the tour's official developmental tour, such as the Nationwide Tour for the PGA Tour, the Challenge Tour for the European Tour or the Futures Tour for the LPGA Tour.
• Winning a tournament on the tour after gaining entry to it through it's qualification event or as a sponshor's invitee.
• Winning enough money on multiple events on the tour as a qualifier/sponsor's invitee to meet whatever criteria the tour may lay down for promotion to full membership.
• Special categories for elite golfers: Most tours offer automatic memberships to golfers with outstanding achievements such as winning a recent major championship or making a recent Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team.

Some lower status tours are open to any registered professional who pays a membership fee so they don't have a Qualifying School. The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that levels Qualifying School (the main tours qualifying tournament, popularly referred to as Q-School) or who have done so but then failed to... The Challenge Tour is the second tier mens professional golf tour in Europe. ... The FUTURES Tour is the second tier womens professional golf tour in the United States. ... The Major Championships, often referred to simply as the Majors are the four most prestigious annual golf tournaments in mens professional golf. ... The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in an event officially called the Ryder Cup Matches by teams from Europe and the United States. ... Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of golf matches between teams of professional players representing the United States and the rest of the world less Europe, which competes against the U.S. in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup. ...

Specific qualifying schools

European Tour

In 2006 the European Tour has a three stage Qualifying School:

• First Qualifying Stage: six tournaments in various European countries, each played over four rounds.
• Second Qualifying Stage: four tournaments, each of four rounds, at four different courses in Spain.
• Final Qualifying Stage: a single tournament played over six rounds at two courses in Spain.