Wizard from Oz Nitties joined by
Day in US Tour Q School lead

FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
LA QUINTA, California. Australian James Nitties (69/Stadium) retained his lead after the third round of the US PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at 15 under par and was joined by Glen Day,, who shot an 8-under 64 on the Stadium Course, one stroke shy of the course record set Thursday by Jonathan Fricke.
Nitties, who started on the 10th tee, recorded birdies at holes 4, 8, 10 and 18, along with a lone bogey at the sixth. Day, who also began at the 10th hole, posted eight birdies and no bogeys. In fact, Day has played 41 consecutive holes without a bogey.
Geoffrey Sisk (69/Stadium), who began his round on the 10th hole, stormed into the lead with four consecutive birdies on holes 5-8 but a double bogey at his final hole dropped him to third place.
Sisk earned his best finish of the year when he tied for 10th at the $1 million Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia, eventually finishing 86th on the Nationwide Tour money list. ...
Scoring averages for the third round were 69.000 on the Nicklaus Course and 71.123 on the Stadium Course. The most difficult holes were No. 18 on the Nicklaus and No. 6 on the Stadium while the easiest holes were No. 7 on the Nicklaus and No. 8 on the Stadium. Twelve rounds of 65 or better were recorded in round three. ...
There are 48 players at the Qualifying School who played on the 2008 US PGA Tour.
Bogey-free rounds were posted by 13 players in the third round, six on the Stadium Course and seven on the Nicklaus Course.
Michael Putnam (63/Nicklaus) advanced exactly 100 spots into a tie for 28th at 9 under with the low round of the day. Putnam, who finished No. 52 on the Nationwide Tour money list with $130,981, recorded nine birdies, one eagle and two bogeys, both on par 5s. He had 10 "3s" on his scorecard.
Last year's winner of the Qualifying School, Frank Lickliter II, finished 149th on the US PGA Tour money list this season and is back here trying to improve his status. He has some work to do. After rounds of 72-70-71 213, Lickliter is 3 under and tied for 119th. ...
First round co-leader Craig Kanada probably dislikes the symmetry of his 65-78-65 -- 208 (-7) heading to the Stadium Course Saturday. His bogey-free 65 in the third round vaulted him into a tie for 36th from his tie for 113th position at the start of the round.
Paul Stankowski (66/Nicklaus), the only player to win Nationwide Tour and US PGA Tour events back-to-back, started the day tied for 145th, but five consecutive birdies on holes 9-13 helped him move into a tie for 102nd.
Garrett Willis (71/Stadium) began the day at 5 under in a tie for 50th. He was still 5 under through six holes before a quintuple-bogey 9 at the seventh hole sent him tumbling down the leaderboard. A fired-up Willis then holed out from the fairway for eagle at the par-4 ninth and added birdies at 10, 11 and 13 and 17 to claw his way back into a tie for 65th. ...
Jeff Gallagher, a 43-year-old Indiana native, is not the only one in his family going through the Qualifying School process. Gallagher (77/Stadium), who is tied for 119th, is here for the eighth time in his career while his younger sister, Jackie Gallagher-Smith, is at the LPGA Tour Qualifying School in Daytona Beach this week, coincidentally also for the eighth time.
Gallagher-Smith is tied for 41st at even par after three rounds. The top twenty receive LPGA cards for 2009. Older brother, Jim Gallagher, Jr., is a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR. ...
The purse for the 2008 US PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is $1,057, 500 with the winner receiving $50,000. Players earning a US PGA Tour card by finishing tied 25th or better after 108 holes will earn a minimum of $25,000. Players who gain exempt status on the Nationwide Tour by finishing in the next 50 (or number nearest to 50) will earn $5,000.
The final stage saw 163 players (including one amateur -- Scott Fawcett from Dallas, Texas tee it up after 1,288 players entered the US PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. Six Pre-Qualifying sites, 12 First-Stage sites and six Second-Stage sites were used to determine the 163 players for the Final Stage.
Only six players made it through Pre-Qualifying, First Stage and Second Stage to reach the finals. They are Fawcett, Brad Golden, Patton Kizzire, Martin Piller, Joseph Sykora and Steven Taylor. In 2007, six players also advanced through the Pre-Qualifying and both stages. In 2006, when Pre-Qualifying was introduced, only one player advanced to the Final Stage from the Pre-Qualifying. .
When these venues were used in 2006, George McNeill won with a score of 23 under par. Forty players qualified for the PGA TOUR that year (35 and ties were accepted) with a score of 8 under or better. Forty-nine players (the next nearest number to 50) shot 1 over par or better to earn exempt status on the Nationwide Tour. All remaining players earned conditional status on the Nationwide Tour.
Superintendent Greg Hrycyk and his staff have removed approximately 20 acres of scrub from the Stadium Course during the year. The scrub removal program was instigated to make the Stadium Course more playable and assist with the pace of play.
The field this year includes one former Major Champion (Mark Brooks, 1996 PGA Championship), one former Ryder Cup representative (Chris Riley, 2004), three former Presidents Cup representatives (Carlos Franco, 1998, 2000; Notah Begay III, 2000; Brooks, 1996) and 20 former PGA TOUR winners, led by Brooks and John Huston with seven victories.
Three players who finished in the top 25 on the 2008 Nationwide Tour money list and graduated to the 2009 PGA TOUR are also here this week trying to improve their current status. They are Spencer Levin (22nd), Bryce Molder (23rd) and Ricky Barnes (25th).
It is a truly International field this week. While the majority of the field is comprised of Americans, Australia (12), Canada (4), Sweden (2) and South Korea (2) have multiple representatives. The United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Colombia and Norway each have a single representative.
Matthew Richardson makes top 20 with third-round 65
Matthew Richardson, the only British or Irish player competing at the US PGA Tour Q School, shot back into contention for playing rights in 2009 with a third-round 65 and a 54-hole total of 10-under-par 206. Richardson leaped up from joint 87th overnight to joint 19th.

LEADERBOARD
Par 216 (3 x 72)
201 J Nitties 69 63 69,G Day 70 67 64.
203 G Sisk 69 65 69.
204 T Aldridge 68 66 70, B Molder 68 67 69, J Williamson 67 68 69, T Kelly 66 68 70, J Oh 71 63 70, R Garrigus 69 64 71, D Fathauer 70 69 65.
205 M Brooks 66 69 70, G Woodland 70 64 71, J Durant 68 72 65, L Olson 68 72 65, H Frazar 9 64 72, W Simpson 69 68 68, Y Yang 69 68 68, J Walker 69 68 68.
Selected score:
206 M Richardson (Eng) 67 74 65 (jt 19th).