WHO GETS OFFERED IT
After each qualifier, a Championship entrant who finishes below the Championship top-4 cut and whose gross score would place within the Premier flight's own top 4 that same day is offered a guaranteed spot in the Premier draft. The four Championship advancers are already in and aren't offered it; scores outside the Premier top 4 aren't either. The score test keeps the offer to genuinely Premier-caliber rounds.
OPTION 1
Accept
GUARANTEED PREMIER DRAFT SPOT
You are locked into the Premier flight draft pool and you will be drafted — you are not at risk of being left out of the field. Accepting is binding: your qualifying ends, and you may not enter further qualifiers or majors chasing Championship. Take it if you want certainty, or if your schedule won't support more attempts.
OPTION 2
Decline
KEEP FULL CHAMPIONSHIP ELIGIBILITY
You keep the right to play every remaining qualifier and major, all chasing a Championship spot. Each qualifier is its own event measured on the day, so every future date is a clean, independent chance at top-4. Decline if you missed by a stroke or two and the Championship ceiling matters more than the lock.
HOW IT PLAYED AT THE LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER · AUG 30
The Premier flight was built with exactly two slots of slack, and the Safety Net existed to fill them. Both were spent before the last qualifier — Martin Parry took one off Q2, Turner Cepuritis the other off Q3. From Q4 onward the net could no longer add a Premier spot; it had to draw from the at-large spots already on offer.
In the event, no net was offered or accepted. Every Championship entrant who missed the cut simply had his gross carried down to the next flight, where it competed on the same terms as everyone else — which is the same outcome the net was written to produce, reached without anyone having to choose.
Q4 Premier ran as one merged leaderboard — the lowest gross scores among Premier entrants and carried-down Championship entrants combined. Nobody was bumped: Christopher Lugg forfeited his Premier seat to play up to Championship, which opened a sixth place, and that sixth place went to a card countback between two 90s.
Because Q4 was the last qualifier, every decision was made that day, at the course. Twenty players walked off knowing they were in, and the field closed at 96 that afternoon.
The back of the field has since reshuffled. Seven men have come out since Selection Sunday — Mike Wilkinson, Chad Scripps, Jon Telgener, Tom Rockers, Bill Coleman, Jim Gardner and Michael Barone. Kevin O'Connor moved up from Legacy to Premier on Team Hud; David Croce moved up from Premier to Championship on Team Dean, a flight he entered at Qualifier #4 before cascading down. Tom McLagan takes Croce's Premier seat, and Bradley Ruman, Jeff Jackson, Fred Churchley, John Briggs and Ryan LaForce come in at Legacy · Team Dean, with Graham Anderson filling the last Legacy place on Team Hud. All three flights are now full on both sides — the field is closed at 96. See the teams board →
COMMON QUESTIONS
Does my qualifier score carry over if I decline?
No. Qualifiers are individual events, each measured on its own. Your score counts only for the qualifier you played it in — it does not carry forward or combine with other qualifiers.
Can I be offered the Safety Net again after a later qualifier?
Yes. If you decline now, play another qualifier, and again finish below the Championship cut with a Premier-top-4 score, you'll be offered the net again off that qualifier.
If I accept, can I change my mind later?
No. Accepting is binding. You are locked into the Premier flight for the draft and you may not re-enter qualifying. Be sure before you reply ACCEPT.
What's the deadline?
For Qualifiers #1 through #3, you decide before the draft wave you would enter — Wave 2 on August 26, or Wave 3 on September 13. At the Last Chance Qualifier on August 30, the decision is made that same day, at the course, before you leave. No response by the stated deadline is recorded as a decline, which keeps your Championship eligibility open but forfeits the guaranteed Premier spot.
Why is the Last Chance Qualifier different?
Because at Q4 the net no longer adds a Premier spot — it takes one. See the note above. Deciding on the day means every player walks off the course knowing whether they are in the Cup, rather than waiting until Selection Sunday.
How do I respond?
Reply ACCEPT or DECLINE to the message you received from the committee, before the deadline noted there. At Q4, tell the committee at the scoring table.
